High Blood Pressure Specialist

What is high blood pressure?

High blood pressure, or hypertension, means your blood places a dangerous amount of force on your blood vessels while your heart pumps out blood. If your arteries are narrow, stiff, weakened, or clogged, your blood has a harder time traveling through them. This extra pressure on your arteries can lead to a number of health complications if left untreated, including heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke.

Hypertension is a very common condition, and in many cases, you don’t have any symptoms with diagnosable high blood pressure as you don’t feel the increased workload of your arteries. It’s only when your blood pressure becomes dangerously high and begins to cause complications that you may start to feel symptoms, and that can take years. It’s for this reason high blood pressure is often referred to as “the silent killer.”

Keeping track of your blood pressure and making sure it’s under control is a necessary step to staying healthy and avoiding preventable diseases.

How does high blood pressure relate to kidney health?

Hypertension often affects the blood vessels that carry blood to your kidneys, resulting in kidney disease. Your kidneys filter both waste and extra fluids from blood, which requires many blood vessels. If hypertension affects the blood vessels leading to your kidneys, they won’t receive enough oxygen and nutrients.

Not only can high blood pressure cause kidney disease, but kidney disease, in turn, can make high blood pressure worse. When your kidneys don’t receive enough blood, they respond as if you’re dehydrated, so your body retains more salt and water. This adds more fluid to your blood vessels, causing a further increase in blood pressure.

How is high blood pressure treated?

Treatment for high blood pressure involves medication and lifestyle changes. Medications the team at Metro Renal Associates may recommend for high blood pressure include:

• Beta blockers, which slow your heartbeat and reduce the amount of blood your heart pumps through your arteries, reducing blood pressure
• Diuretics, which remove sodium and excess fluid from your body as these are both contributors to high blood pressure
• ACE inhibitors, which relax your blood vessels

Hypertension medication is most effective when you combine it with regular exercise and a heart-healthy diet based on fruits, vegetables, nuts, and lean proteins. These habits can also help you lose weight, which will lower your risk of debased developing complications from high blood pressure. The team at Metro Renal Associates helps you navigate the lifestyle changes necessary to keep your blood pressure under control.

To get treatment for high blood pressure before it becomes a bigger problem, call Metro Renal Associates or schedule an appointment online today.