10 High Blood Pressure Causes: Which One Applies to You?

Aug 4, 2010 by Emilia

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High blood pressure causes can be several and some may not apply to you, but if you have hypertension, you may need to revisit your lifestyle and see if you are doing something that is either causing the problem or making things worse.

This is very important because high blood pressure is a risk for strokes and heart disease, and if you have diabetes, controlling blood pressure becomes a crucial matter.

If you have been reading my articles on hypertension medication you probably understand by now that a blood pressure drug treatment is not the solution. In fact, sometimes the drugs can add fuel to the fire and make the condition worse. Hypertension drugs, or any drugs for that matter, cannot replace a lifestyle that prevents or reverses chronic conditions such as high blood pressure. So, are you willing to identify what is the cause of your high blood pressure and change some lifestyle behaviors for the sake of your health?

Two Types of hypertension

There are two types of hypertension:
* Primary, also known as essential hypertension
* Secondary hypertension
About 95 percent of patients with hypertension belong to the first group, primary. Primary hypertension is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle and can be prevented or reversed by changing the habits that have caused it.

The remaining 5 to 10 percent of patients with hypertension belong to the second group, secondary hypertension. This type is caused by disorders of the kidneys or the adrenal glands and your doctor needs to rule out any of these conditions as they can mean serious business.

Primary Causes of high blood pressure

A diet high in salt
A diet high in potassium
Overweight
Lack of exercise
Chronic stress
A diet high in saturated fat and trans fat
A diet that lacks magnesium, calcium, antioxidants and the B-complex vitamins
Smoking
Too much drinking
A genetic factor

After reading the above list, can you identify some of the causes, if any, that apply to you?

As you can see, I have listed the genetic factor at the very end. If you have high blood pressure and this is the only one item you have identified, do me a favor: check the list again because you may have missed one or two more causes.

I agree that if we have people in our family who have hypertension, we may be predisposed to end up having it, but not necessarily. Actually, the genetic factor accounts only for 20% of our chances to be hypertensive. The rest, 80%, we owe it to ourselves and our lifestyle.

Final thoughts

So, today I am leaving you with a task: Revisit carefully the high blood pressure causes one more time and see if you find anything in the list you may need to change.

To your health!

Emilia Klapp, RD, BS
www.TheDiabetesClub.com