Hypertensive heart disease, commonly known as high blood pressure, is a serious condition that requires attention due to its potential to cause severe complications. It occurs when the force exerted on the blood vessel walls in the arteries stays high all the time. This differential pressure is constant and very high, and its continuous beating will cause several cardiovascular diseases in the heart and blood vessels.
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What Is Hypertensive Heart Disease?
Hypertensive heart disease is a chronic condition that progresses gradually over time. In the long run, high blood pressure tends to exert pressure on the heart, making it work at a higher capacity than it is supposed to. This recombinant stress can result in some structural alterations in the heart, including left ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure. Heart failure is a condition wherein the heart of a person is unable to pump blood within the recommended amount, which is very detrimental to general well-being.Read Also: CTVS Full Form and Meaning: Everything You Need to Know About Cardiothoracic Surgery
Causes and Risk Factors
Various factors contribute to the development of hypertensive heart disease, including lifestyle choices, genetics, age, race, and pre-existing medical conditions.Lifestyle Factors:
- Unhealthy Diet: Saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium are some of the examples of nutrients that are known to increase blood pressure. Having too many processed foods and sugary drinks has also been known to have the following impacts:
- Lack of Physical Activity: Normal exercise entails reduced chances of developing complications such as high blood pressure and heart diseases, especially among those who lead a dormant lifestyle.
- Excessive Alcohol Consumption: Excessive alcohol consumption is known to raise blood pressure, contributing to hypertension.
- Smoking: Tobacco hampers the blood vessels or, in other words, strains them and, therefore, raises the pressure in blood vessels and the probability of getting heart disease.
Genetics:
One of the risk factors that can be associated with hypertension is heredity; people with a family history of high blood pressure are likely to adopt the same health condition.- Age: Blood pressure rises with age, increasing the risk of developing high blood pressure as well as hypertensive heart disease in the elderly.
- Race: It is, however, worthy of note that some races or ethnicities are most likely to be affected by high blood pressure; these include African Americans and Hispanics. Such groups may be more prone to developing various degrees of hypertension and its complications.
- Medical Conditions: Hypertension and its complications are characteristic features of diabetes, chronic kidney diseases, and high cholesterol, among others.
What Are The Associated Symptoms And Signs Of Hypertensive Heart Disease?
Hypertensive heart disease often develops without noticeable symptoms, which is why it is sometimes referred to as a “silent” condition. However, when symptoms do appear, they can include:- Headaches: High BP is generally characterized by severe headaches.
- Dizziness: pain on the breast that may result from uncomfortable pressure or dizziness that can be attributed to low blood pressure.
- Fatigue: Fatigue can occur due to reduced blood circulation, a result of the heart’s diminished ability to pump effectively.
- Shortness of Breath: Shortness of breath is normally a sign of heart failure or lung congestion.
- Chest Pain: Chest pain may be characterized as angina or other complications related to heart diseases.
- Irregular Heartbeat: An increase in the rate or rhythm of a heartbeat or the feeling of a heartbeat skipping can be an indication of heart stress, strain, or heart disease.
- Vision Problems: Some of the effects of high blood pressure include eye problems whereby the blood vessels in the eyes get damaged.
Diagnosis And Treatment
Diagnosis typically involves repeated blood pressure measurements to confirm hypertensive heart disease. If the readings of blood pressure are persistently high, then such a diagnosis is confirmed. Further investigations using other imaging tests like ECGs and echocardiograms may be used to evaluate the function of the heart and for the presence of hypertensive-related heart damage.Treatment for hypertensive heart disease usually involves a combination of lifestyle changes and medications.
Lifestyle Changes
- Healthy Diet: Essentially follow a diet of taking lots of Vitamin A, C, and other green leafy vegetables while avoiding foods that are rich in fats, cholesterol, and foods high in sodium.
- Regular Exercise: Perform most days at least 30 minutes of any moderate-intensity activity good for the heart.
- Weight Management: Weight management, or losing the excess weight that is normally characterized by obesity, can reduce blood pressure.
- Limit Sodium: Avoiding the use of salts and salted foods, especially the ones containing sodium, has been proven to ensure control of fluid retention and thus improve blood pressure.
- Quit Smoking: Giving up any sort of tobacco use is beneficial to cardiovascular health and brings down the level of blood pressure.
- Limit Alcohol: Reducing alcohol intake assists in controlling the levels of hypertension.
Medications
- Diuretics: They also help you to decrease fluid retention and control high blood pressure by promoting urine production.
- Beta-blockers: Causes a decrease in blood pressure since it decreases the amount of work the heart has to undertake as well as decreasing heart rate.
- ACE Inhibitors: This prevents the formation of angiotensin II, a hormone that constricts blood vessels and hence helps to relax the vessels.
- Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs): competitively inhibit the actions of angiotensin II on the blood vessels, hence reducing the blood pressure level.
- Calcium Channel Blockers: Stop calcium from going into the heart and blood vessel cells, thus lowering blood pressure as well as heart rate.
Complications
Untreated hypertensive heart disease can result in serious complications, such as :- Heart Failure: A situation in which the heart fails to forward adequate blood flow to maintain the body’s needs and results in shortness of breath and swelling of the legs and ankles.
- Stroke: Hypertension can also cause the blood vessels in the brain to rupture, leading to the formation of stroke.
- Kidney Disease: Broken blood vessels in the kidney can cause kidney failure or other complications of the renal organ.
- Aneurysm: High blood pressure damages the blood vessels by making the walls of these vessels thin and balloon-like, which form aneurysms that may burst and cause much bleeding.
- Cognitive Decline: High blood pressure over time is likely to cause impairment of mental ability in people, and this causes difficulty in memory and thinking.
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