The disease may go unnoticed and is most common after age 40 but can appear at any age. Learn.
Hypertension: what is it?
In the elevation of blood pressure levels on a continuous and sustained. To better understand the importance of defining the pressure. The heart puts pressure on the arteries so that they lead the blood to different organs of the body. This action is what is known as blood pressure. The maximum pressure obtained in each heart contraction and the lowest, with each relaxation.
Hypertension: why is a risk factor?
* Hypertension is a greater resistance to the heart, which responds by increasing muscle mass (left ventricular hypertrophy) to deal with that overexertion. This increase in muscle mass turns out to be harmful because it is not accompanied by an equivalent increase in blood flow and can lead to heart failure and angina. In addition, the heart muscle becomes irritable and occur more arrhythmias.
* In patients who have already had a heart problem, hypertension can increase the damage.
* It promotes atherosclerosis (accumulation of cholesterol in the arteries) and thrombosis phenomena (can cause heart attack or stroke). In the worst cases, hypertension may soften the walls of the aorta and cause its dilatation (aneurysm) or break (which would inevitably cause death).
