Surely you and me have heard about hypertension being related to stress, tension, heart diseases etc. But do we really understand the true meaning of hypertension? Obviously we can google it and come back with an prompt answer; ‘that hypertension is a medical condition with high blood pressure ‘. After reading this, can you explain to me the concept of hypertension?
Motivation to write this post
Surprisingly many people confuse hypertension with excessive stress. Let me tell you one interesting incident – one day me and my techie friends were having a discussion about how to adapt to a healthy lifestyle. During our discussion someone in the group said “Nowadays everyone complains about hypertension. No wonder the polluted city life, high work pressure, unhealthy food habits and disconnect between relationships is the real culprit behind excessive stress and tension”. Each member of the group agreed with his statement and started narrating stories about stress and tension in their lives. To this point no one realized that hypertension and tension hold altogether different meanings and my dear friends were getting the names confused.
Throughout our discussion of hypertension, they were talking about stress and tension without understanding the real usage of this term. Obviously being a biologist i could not resist and corrected them by saying that hypertension is a medical condition in which person suffers from high blood pressure which can be life threatening. But my explanation was not sufficient enough to make them understand the dearth of the situation.
Honestly, i don’t have an obsessives compulsive disorder to correct the people but the problem in this situation huge amount of ignorance towards the medical condition of high blood pressure.
Now this incident triggered me to ask around and gather some data about the understanding of hypertension among common folk? How many of them were ignoring high blood pressure conditions and risk of heart diseases by getting the names confused. In short this was my motivation to write this post to spread awareness about ‘tension‘ in ‘hypertension‘.
Meaning of Tension in ‘HYPERTENSION’?
The word hypertension is being commonly used among the medical fraternity for high blood pressure wherein ‘Hyper’ means above or high or beyond or excited and ‘tension’ means stretching or straining of the blood vessels (arteries and veins). Abnormally high blood pressure causes strain in the blood vessels which if goes unchecked can lead to heart attack and stroke.
To know more about blood vessels and tension force in fluid mechanics, click on the link Laplace’s law.
Cycle of pure and impure blood
Schematic representation of human heart and its four compartments.
- Initially the LA of heart receives pure blood from the lungs. This blood is rich in oxygen and also called as pure blood or oxygenated blood. After receiving the pure blood, LA pushes this blood to LV via gates called as valves. In this case its the mitral valve which takes the responsibility of transit.
- Moving forward the pure blood is pushed outside with high pressure (120mmHg) from the left ventricle into aorta (a type of a blood vessel) through bicuspid valve.
- Aorta is the largest artery which delivers the pure blood to organs through arterioles (small branches of arteries) and capillaries.
- Capillaries thin and leaky small blood vessels and cannot stand high blood pressure conditions.
- After the successful delivery pure blood to the organs through capillaries the blood gets impure and rich in carbon dioxide. Therefore to convert it into pure blood the impure blood travels back to the heart in RA through veins.
- Now again RA pushes the blood in RV of the heart through a gate named as tricuspid valve.
- Finally the impure blood is transferred back to the lungs for exchange of carbon dioxide with oxygen.
Therefore as we breath, carbon dioxide is exchanged with oxygen which again converts the impure blood into pure blood. Hence, this cycle of pure and impure blood is an essential requirement for living. This is why intake of fresh and clean air is extremely important to live a heathy life.
What is blood pressure (BP)?
You must have read or heard the standard figure of 120/80 mmHg being the normal blood pressure. The 120 mmHg and 80mmHg are two number figures assigned to systolic and diastolic blood pressures respectively.
The higher number~120 mmHg indicates the pressure of the blood in left ventricle against the walls of arteries upon contraction.
The lower number~80 mmHg depicts the pressure of blood against the wall of arteries in the heart filled with blood. In this condition the heart is resting between the beats.
What is mmHg?
It is the unit of measurement for blood pressure. In early days medical practitioners used a mercury column to take the recording. Therefore, from that time onwards it has become the gold standard of BP measurement.
How does hypertension cause stroke or cardiovascular diseases?
There is a gradual decrease in the pressure of blood when heart pumps out pure blood to the organs. The pressure is drops from 120 mmHg from heart to arteries to arterioles (approx. 60mmHg) to capillaries (approx. 15-20 mmHg). The thin and leaky capillaries do not have the capacity to tackle high blood pressure and can burst open in cases of high blood pressure.
Hence, there is a possibility of presence of ruptured capillaries in a person suffering from hypertension. This might result in formation of blood clots in the main stream. These clots act as road blocks and does not allow the blood to flow in necessary speed. Nevertheless as time passes they become bigger in size and complex in nature. Eventually they cut the blood supply to the organ or tissue which may lead to stoke and other heart diseases in later years.
Factors associated with hypertension
- Aging
- Increased stiffness of large arteries
- High blood cholesterol and build up of plaques
- Heart dysfunction
- Lack of physical activeness
- Less intake of fruits, vegetables and home cooked food
- High dependence on processed food
Unlike other disease, people with hypertension may not feel any symptoms at all. Therefore, the precautionary approach is to follow a healthy life style and regularly check our blood pressures.