Hypertension

Hypertension (high blood pressure) causes no symptoms until you experience a heart attack or stroke. Board-certified cardiovascular specialist Shahnaz Begum, MD, FACC, at Heart Care in Frisco, Texas, can check your blood pressure and provide any treatment you need. Don’t wait for a life-threatening event like organ failure. Call Heart Care to schedule a hypertension evaluation or request an appointment using the online booking feature today.

What is hypertension?

Having hypertension means your blood pressure is too high. Blood pressure is the force blood exerts against the artery walls as your heart beats. With hypertension, the force is high enough to cause serious and possibly fatal harm to your heart and other organs.

Hypertension is an especially dangerous disease because it typically causes no symptoms. You wouldn’t know if your blood pressure was normal, raised, or excessively high without having regular blood pressure checks.

As a result, many people experience strokes, heart attacks, and organ failure caused by hypertension because they’re unaware. Fortunately, checking your blood pressure is an easy process.

Your provider wraps a blood pressure cuff around your arm, inflates it, and takes readings of your systolic and diastolic blood pressure. For more accurate results, it’s best to have several blood pressure measurements.

What do my blood pressure measurements mean?

Your blood pressure measurement consists of two numbers — the systolic pressure over the diastolic pressure. Healthy blood pressure measures around 120 over 80. Raised blood pressure is above 120-129 systolic and above 80 diastolic.

If your blood pressure measures 130-139 systolic or 80-89 diastolic, you have stage one hypertension. Over 140 systolic and/or over 90 diastolic means you have stage two hypertension, and your health is at serious risk.

Orthostatic or postural hypotension (a form of low blood pressure) is less common than high blood pressure. It causes dizziness or lightheadedness and sometimes fainting when you stand up.

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) also causes problems when you rise after sitting or lying down. With POTS, your heart rate increases rapidly, causing palpitations, chest pain, and shortness of breath.

How is hypertension treated?

Treating hypertension typically involves addressing the causes, which are often issues like excess body weight, inactivity, a high-fat diet, or smoking. Dr. Begum can show you how to lower your blood pressure by changing your diet, losing weight, and making other lifestyle changes.

Dr. Begum might prescribe medications if your blood pressure is very high or doesn’t respond to lifestyle changes. Many medicines help lower blood pressure, including beta-blockers that reduce your heart rate and diuretics that flush excess salt and fluids from your body.

Call Heart Care or schedule a blood pressure review online today to ensure you get effective treatment for hypertension.