To many people, the word hypertension suggests excessive tension, nervousness, or stress. In medical terms, hypertension refers to high blood pressure, regardless of the cause. Dubbed the Silent Killer because of the insidious way it works away in the background of someone's health. High blood pressure if left untreated and ignored can lead to lethal complications in a wide variety of illnesses. It has been estimated that in the USA there are potentially 50 million sufferers of Hypertension / High Blood Pressure. In the USA initial investigations would seem to highlight that within the black community 32% off the community how to high blood pressure as opposed to 23% within the White and Hispanic communities Also, the consequences of high blood pressure are worse for blacks.High blood pressure occurs more often in older people-in about three fourths of women and almost two thirds of men aged 75 or older, compared with only about one fourth of people aged 20 to 74. For those suffering with clinical obesity the incidences of high blood pressure rise by 200%. In the United States, only an estimated two of three people with high blood pressure have been diagnosed. Of these people, about 75% receive drug treatment, and of these, about 45% receive adequate treatment. When blood pressure is checked, two values are recorded. The higher value reflects the highest pressure in the arteries, which is reached when the heart contracts (during systole). The lower value reflects the lowest pressure in the arteries, which is reached just before the heart begins to contract again (during diastole). Blood pressure figures are written as two numbers, the first over the second (120 over 80) and is calculated in millimetres of mercury which is the traditional form of measurement In the early days it was felt that high blood pressure started when the diastolic pressure walls at a minimum average over 140 mm Hg all the diastolic figure was greater than 90 mm Hg. However, the higher the blood pressure, the greater the risks-even within the normal blood pressure range-so these limits are somewhat arbitrary. The limits were established because people with blood pressure above these levels are at increasing risk of complications. In most people with high blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic pressures are high. The exception is older people who commonly have high systolic pressure (140 mm Hg or more) with normal or low diastolic pressure (less than 90 mm Hg). The term for this condition is "isolated systolic hypertension". At the upper end of the spectrum where the blood pressure is over 180/110 and remains so with a lack of associated symptoms then this condition is deemed to be known as "a hypertensive urgency." There has been an additional condition recognized as malignant hypertension and this occurs when blood pressure readings are in excess of 210/120 mm Hg. This additional condition has only been known to occur in Approximately 1 out of every 200 incidences of high blood pressure. For some apparent reason that is not necessarily had an adequate medical explanation the incidences of malignant hypertension are increased within the black community and those within the lowest socioeconomic groups. This type of hypertension is unlike hypertensive urgency in that it produces a variety of severe symptoms. These can be fatal within a period of six months if left untreated.
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