High Blood Pressure Health Video

Video Transcript

JUSTIN C. K. DAVIS: Hi! My name is Dr. Justin Davis and today we'll be talking about high blood pressure. High blood pressure also known as hypertension describes when the blood pressure in the blood vessels primarily the arteries becomes too high, higher than it should normally be. Now you probably had your blood pressure taken and you will notice that there is two numbers. The top number called the systolic blood pressure and the bottom number known as the diastolic blood pressure. So what's the difference? Well, the systolic blood pressure is a higher pressure when your heart and your blood vessels contract circulating your blood actively around your body and the diastolic blood pressure is the lower number when your heart and blood vessels relax momentarily before the next beat of the heart. So why is it so important to have a normal blood pressure? Well, the reason is that blood pressure well often there are no symptoms and may go on for years and years even without symptoms, known to be one of the most serious causes of cardiovascular disease. When I say cardiovascular disease, most specifically this means problems with heart attack, problems with stroke, but can also include problems such as with small blood vessels. It can cause problems like erectile dysfunction, kidney failure, problems with pain or swelling in the legs, so many problems can be related to the cardiovascular system. Now symptoms again of high blood pressure, most people will have very few maybe no symptoms from a high blood pressure. That does not mean that silence is golden. In this case even though it's silent, it can be very deadly. So that's one reason why its so important to control your blood pressure and have regular checkups with your doctor to make sure that your blood pressure is being adequately monitored and controlled. So what is the treatment for blood pressure? Well, part of that depends on what's causing the blood pressure. In some instances, blood pressure is caused simply because you have a family history of high blood pressure in your family and it may be much more difficult to control and start at earlier age. In other cases however, blood pressure can be very closely related to the amount of exercise and activity you do, as well as your weight and physical health. So in some cases for people that are even mildly overweight, loosing as few as 5 pounds can make a huge difference in your cardiovascular health and your blood pressure levels, and this is also independently affected by the level of exercise that you do on a weekly or daily basis. Other treatments for blood pressure can include herbs, natural supplements, other treatment such as yoga or acupuncture, but when all of these fail or if you and your doctor decide that these are not the best solution for you, there are number of medications which can lower your blood pressure very effectively and protect your heart, as well as your blood vessels. So what can you do to prevent high blood pressure? Well, staying healthy and active, eating good foods and low salt foods with few additives is always a great place to start. But sometimes high blood pressure is unavoidable and when this happens, it's so important to have regular doctor visits so that you are aware of this and can take action early on. Often, a blood pressure that's high for a small period of time will really have no bad effects unless it's very, very high which is unusual. Its really the cumulative effects over many years of having the blood pressure, even mildly elevated, that can have very bad effects on your heart and cardiovascular system, so while you may feel great for the meantime, don't delay treatment if you know that your blood pressure is high.