World Hypertension Day: Not just the heart, it can damage your eyes, kidneys, brain and bones too

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a silent enemy that waits for years before striking.

Blood pressure is the force of blood against the walls of the blood vessels. In case of high blood pressure, the force needed to pump blood is higher than what is considered as normal. Having high blood pressure simply means, the heart has to pump harder to supply blood around the body. Blood pressure is evaluated through two readings, the systolic pressure and the diastolic pressure. The systolic pressure value indicates the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats. The diastolic pressure value denotes the pressure in the arteries between heart beats. Any person who is pre-hypertensive is at a risk of getting high blood pressure, unless remedial measures are taken.



According to the National Family Health Survey, which screened 22.5 million people across India in 2017, one out of every eight Indian suffers from hypertension. It contributes to 57% of stroke deaths and 24% of coronary artery deaths in India. With sedentary lifestyles and gender roles, the impact of hypertension can be seen in both men and women.

More often, it is considered as the disease of the heart, but high BP affects the working of every organ in your body. Unfortunately, the symptoms take years to develop until one fine day it finally emerges in the form of a medical emergency. Undetected and untreated, it leads to problems in the functions of major organs and serious complications.

Brain



Brain cannot survive more than five minutes without blood supply. High blood pressure is one of the most common cause of brain stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA) or a mini-stroke, aneurysm in brain and promotes the development of cognitive disorders like dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Uncontrolled hypertension can cause the blood vessels in the brain to narrow, weaken, leak, rupture or all of the above. It can also cause development of clots in brain, which means the risk of a potential stroke. In fact, sleep apnoea, in which breathing starts and stops repeatedly while sleeping, has been linked to hypertension as well.

Eyes



Eyes are among the most sensitive organs of the body and they too are impacted by high blood pressure. The blood vessels which supply blood to eyes are tinier and delicate. Overtime, it can leads to the damage of optic nerves. Retinopathy (or eye blood vessel damage) has been linked with hypertension in which, the retina becomes damaged and causes blurred vision, or worse - the loss of vision.

Heart



Heart is the next organ most at risk due to hypertension. Unfortunately, India is known as the blood pressure capital of the world and the burden is only increasing. The primary function of the heart is to pump blood to every organ in the body. Hypertension poses great risk as it makes the heart work harder, which over a period of time causes the cardiac walls to thicken. This makes the process of pumping blood tougher, creating strain which can cause the heart to fail.

A heart attack occurs when one or more of the coronary arteries become blocked. Hypertension damages the inner lining of the arteries; fats from food then begin accumulating on the artery walls, leading to their constriction or a complete blockage. This affects the blood flow in the heart muscle, increasing the risk of coronary artery disease and angina (chest pain).

Kidney



kidneys are equally at risk of damage due to high BP. Hypertension is directly and indirectly responsible for many kidney diseases, which can lead up to kidney failure. Kidneys filter blood to remove toxic particles and the filtration process depends on healthy veins and arteries. High blood pressure damages blood vessels in the kidneys, impacting their ability to clean body waste effectively. These vessels sustain so much damage that they cannot support the filtration process effectively. Eventually, when the kidneys stop working, the person becomes dependent on dialysis or requires kidney transplantation. This leads to fluids and toxic waste build-up in the body and eventually causes kidney failure.

Glomerulosclerosis is a fancy word for the damage to glomeruli - small collective of blood vessels within kidneys that do the filtration. High BP causes the glomeruli to develop scarring, again lessening the efficiency of kidneys.

Arteries



Arteries travel all across the body carrying oxygenated blood from the heart to various organs. Hypertension can damage the walls of the arteries over time, causing an aneurysm (a bulge in the wall), which may rupture, leading to internal bleeding. Smaller organs can also be affected by damaged arteries; if blood vessels of the eye are affected, it can damage the eyes.

Reproductive Organs



High blood pressure also impacts the reproductive organs both in men and women. While erectile dysfunction is one of the most common ailment of reproductive organs associated with the problem of blood pressure, it also reduces sexual drive in both the sexes. Women may experience the problems in the range of severe mood imbalance, finally impacting their libido. Unfortunately, it is also associated with the growing issues related to friction in marital relationships. For pregnant women, hypertension poses a huge risk to their health as well as to the development of foetus.

Bones



Hypertension doesn't only affect blood vessels; it affects bones as well. Damaged kidneys fail to stop the loss of calcium from the body, leading to its elimination in the urine. This loss of calcium leads to osteoporosis (decrease in bone density), which in turns leads to weakened bones. This risk increases in older woman, but can also occur at younger age in both men and women.

In nutshell, blood pressure is not just an issue of heart. It impacts almost all the organs and, if not treated in time, can become fatal. While there are medicines available today, the best way to deal with hypertension is prevention and a healthy lifestyle. Reducing the intake of oily, processed food, too much salt, aerated drinks, high sugar consumption is among the best ways to deal with high blood pressure. Maintaining an active lifestyle with exercises such as walking, swimming, yoga, aerobics, etc. will make you fit enough to keep hypertension and other ailments at bay.

Inputs from Dr Mukesh Goel, Senior Consultant, Cardio Thoracic & Vascular Surgery, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals - New Delhi and Dr RR Kasliwal, Chairman (Clinical and Preventive Cardiology), Heart Institute, Medanta - The Medicity.