High blood pressure means your blood pushes too hard against your arteries all the time. This can hurt your body over a long period. Your arteries can get damaged, making it harder for blood to flow. This puts extra stress on your heart, kidneys, brain, and other organs.
Over time, high blood pressure can cause arteries to become stiff, making it harder for blood to move around your body. This can lead to problems like heart failure, kidney failure, or strokes if it’s not controlled.
Heart Problems
High blood pressure can hurt your heart and arteries. It speeds up artery damage, making the heart work harder.
- Heart Disease: High blood pressure can damage arteries that bring blood to your heart. This might cause chest pain or heart rhythm problems. If this continues, it could lead to a heart attack.
- Heart Failure: The heart must work harder to pump blood, which makes it weak over time. This can lead to heart failure, where the heart can’t pump enough blood.
- Thickened Heart Muscle: High blood pressure can make the left side of your heart thicker. This makes it harder for your heart to work and increases the risk of heart problems.
Brain Problems
High blood pressure can hurt your brain too.
- Mini-Strokes (TIA): These are like warning signs of a stroke, caused by a lack of blood flow to the brain. The symptoms go away quickly, but it’s a sign that treatment is needed.
- Stroke: High blood pressure makes arteries narrow, which can block blood flow to the brain or even cause bleeding in the brain. Both are very dangerous.
- Memory Problems: High blood pressure can damage tiny blood vessels in the brain, leading to memory loss or even dementia.
Kidney Damage
High blood pressure can hurt your kidneys by damaging tiny blood vessels inside them. This makes it harder for the kidneys to clean your blood. Over time, it can lead to kidney failure, especially for people with diabetes. Some might need dialysis or even a kidney transplant.
Eye Problems
High blood pressure can also damage your eyes.
- Retina Damage: It can cause blood vessels in the back of your eyes to break, leading to vision loss or even blindness.
- Blurred Vision: Fluid build-up or nerve damage caused by high blood pressure can make your vision blurry.
Sexual Problems
High blood pressure can reduce blood flow, causing problems like erectile dysfunction in men.
How to Prevent These Problems
The best way to avoid these problems is to control your blood pressure. Eat healthy foods, exercise more, and check your blood pressure regularly. Don’t smoke, drink less alcohol, and keep a healthy weight. If you have diabetes, managing both your blood sugar and blood pressure is very important.