What is Hypertension?
Hypertension is the medical term for high blood pressure. Blood pressure is how hard your blood pushes against the walls of your blood vessels. Blood pressure is written as two numbers (e.g. a normal blood pressure is 120/80). The top number is the pressure when the heartbeats and the bottom is the pressure when the heart rests between beats. Blood pressure problems can start when the top number over is over 130 or the second number is over 80.
If you have high blood pressure all of the time, it can damage your heart because it’s working harder for longer. Your heart muscles can change over time, getting bigger to cope being under high pressure. Because the enlarged muscle takes up so much room in our hearts, it makes the amount of oxygenated blood flowing through our bodies less.
Many things cause constant high blood pressure. Some of these factors can be controlled, and some cannot.
Things that can be controlled:
- Smoking tobacco
- Alcohol intake
- Being inactive, no regular exercise
- An unhealthy diet including salty foods and unhealthy fats
- High cholesterol – the buildup in your arteries make it harder for blood to be pushed through them.
Things that cannot be controlled:
- Family history of high blood pressure
- Getting older
- Gender – males are more likely to have high blood pressure)
- Being Indigenous – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are more likely to have high blood pressure than non-Indigenous Australians.
