Millions of Americans Have Hypertension and Don't Know It. Could That Be You?

You know that high blood pressure is a serious condition that could cause a heart attack or early death. But you feel fine. You don’t have chest pain. You don’t have trouble breathing. Does that mean your blood pressure is normal? Maybe not.

Online articles may mislead you into thinking that you can discern for yourself the signs and symptoms of high blood pressure, otherwise known as hypertension. However, the reason it’s known as “the silent killer” is that it doesn’t have symptoms until it’s greatly advanced. You could live for years with high blood pressure and not know it — until you experience a heart attack.

At Michigan Avenue Primary Care in Chicago, Illinois, our expert medical staff recommends getting regular blood pressure screenings. These readings are the only way to discover hypertension at an early stage, when it’s easiest to treat and manage.

What else do you need to know about high blood pressure? A brief guide to hypertension follows.

Blood pressure rises gradually

You don’t wake up with high blood pressure one morning; the pressure on your blood vessels gradually rises over many years and goes through progressive stages. The first stage is slightly elevated blood pressure — higher than normal but not yet high enough to qualify as hypertension.

When caught at this early stage, you modify your habits to lower your blood pressure and prevent hypertension from developing. Once high blood pressure takes hold, the disease is chronic, incurable, and – without treatment – can keep rising.

What those numbers mean

When you come for a checkup and we take your blood pressure, we look at two numbers, systolic and diastolic. Systolic refers to the pressure that occurs when your heart pumps blood into the arteries. Diastolic measures the pressure between heartbeats.

Normal blood pressure is less than 120 (systolic) and less than 80 (diastolic).
Elevated blood pressure is 120-129 (systolic) and less than 80 (diastolic)
Stage 1 hypertension is 130 to 139 (systolic) or 80-89 (diastolic)
Stage 2 hypertension is 140 or higher (systolic) or 90 or higher (diastolic)

As these stages progress, hypertension causes ongoing damage to your arteries and heart. However, you still don’t have symptoms that could alert you to a problem. Once you have symptoms, you’ve entered another stage, which is called a hypertensive crisis.

Symptoms during a hypertensive crisis

Fortunately, hypertensive crises are rare. When one does occur, your systolic pressure rises above 180 and your diastolic pressure goes above 120. You may experience:

Shortness of breath
Severe headache
Skin flushing
Blurry vision
Back pain
Nosebleeds
Difficulty speaking
Anxiety

If you experience symptoms of a hypertensive crisis, call 911 immediately.

Complications of hypertension

Chronic high blood pressure damages the inner walls of your arteries. This leads to areas where cholesterol can lodge and accumulate. The plaques enlarge and harden, causing atherosclerosis. The larger the plaques become, the more they restrict blood flow, which can cause organ damage or shut down.

Serious complications resulting from hypertension include:

Coronary artery disease: This limits the blood supply to your heart, which causes heart attacks
Carotid artery disease: When carotid arteries, which carry oxygen-rich blood to your brain, are blocked, you have a stroke
Renal artery stenosis: If atherosclerosis develops in a renal artery, which delivers blood to your kidneys, it leads to chronic kidney disease and kidney failure
Peripheral artery disease: This occurs when atherosclerosis develops in leg arteries.

You also can develop several heart conditions. The changes that occur in your arteries due to hypertension put excessive pressure on your heart, making it work harder and leading to heart failure, irregular heart rhythms, and an enlarged heart.

When was your last blood pressure check?

The only way to know you have high blood pressure is to measure it. At Michigan Avenue Primary Care, we offer routine blood pressure screenings and recommend individualized treatments to lower your blood pressure if it’s higher than normal.

Make sure your blood pressure is in a safe range by booking a primary care visit. Contact us by phone or online to schedule an appointment today.