Prehypertension
— Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), English poet. The Spirit of Solitude (1815)
IMAGINE rampaging waters carrying you swiftly to the edge of a waterfall. You want to stop the inevitable but it seems too late. Falling into the river is much like prehypertension. You don’t know how you got there but you’re well on your way to a watery grave. And in our case, to hypertension and maybe, a stroke, heart attack, or heart failure.
Definition. To understand prehypertension, we have to go all the way back to what blood pressure is. It is a measure of the pressure in the artery walls. In a blood pressure reading, there are two numbers (ex. 120/80 mmHg). The top number is the systolic pressure – the pressure taken at the time the heart beats. The bottom number is the diastolic pressure which measures the pressure in between heart beats. Prehypertension is systolic pressure between 120 to 139 mmHg or millimeters of mercury and a diastolic pressure between 80 to 89 mmHg. Prehypertension – unrecognized or ignored eventually leads to hypertension which is blood pressure at 140/90 mmHg and higher.
Risk factors. Since prehypertension, just like hypertension, may be silent (little to no signs and symptoms), the only way to find out is to have your blood pressure checked regularly. But, you are more likely to have prehypertension (or outright hypertension) if you are: Obese or overweight, male (but women get it too), with a family history, taking a lot of salt, using tobacco, and abusing alcohol.
Time to change. Just because you don’t feel anything doesn’t mean everything is okay. If you’ve become prehypertensive, it’s a loud shout to start re-assessing your lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle means: Eating less fat and choosing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat foods. It means losing weight – as little as five pounds. Limit sodium to 2400mg a day or less and exercise 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Also, limit alcohol to about one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.
Treatment. You must see your doctor. Before treatment, a lipid profile is requested. These are tests on cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL (high density lipoprotein), and LDL (low density lipoprotein). These alert the doctor of the chances of atherosclerosis or narrowing and hardening of the arteries – a sure way to chronically increase blood pressure. However, blood pressure may also be abnormal in kidney, adrenal, or thyroid disease.
The doctor initiates reversing prehypertension by suggesting a diet, prescribing medications or both. Maybe prehypertension is what most people need to shape up or as we should put it – pulling yourself out of the water and onto dry land.