Essay On High Blood Pressure
“You wake up every morning to fight the same demons that left you so tired the night before, and that, my love, is bravery.” (Unknown). When living with chronic illnesses, many people find that although they are able to manage the pain and side effects, the battle rages on for years, which can cause them to lose hope. Chronic disease is arguably one of the worst health issues people face, because the illness haunts the patient for the rest of their life, and every day becomes significantly more difficult than the average person. Because of this, it is extremely salient to be aware of chronic diseases that run in a person’s medical history; personally, hypertension, or high blood pressure, runs in my family. Exploring and elucidating the symptoms and effects on the individual’s health and displaying ways to prevent it, HBP can overall be shown as an exceptionally dangerous disease in my family.
To start, hypertension deals with having a long-term force of blood on the artery walls, which could cause cardiovascular related diseases having to do with the heart. There are many causes for high blood pressure; a myriad of these “clusters with other cardiovascular risk factors such as ageing, being overweight, insulin resistance, diabetes, and hyperlipidaemia” (Messerli). Because the factors that contribute to HBP are so common, this makes it all the more dangerous and difficult to manage. In simpler terms, some habits that the individual might possess that leads to hypertension include having unhealthy eating habits and having little to no physical activity. Adding on, It is also known to last for a long time, classifying it to be a chronic disease; unlike other non-chronic disorders, high blood pressure will not only have the patient face unwanted symptoms and decrease their overall health, but it is very hard to be healed in the matter of a short time. In a scientific aspect, hypertension is known to affect “the central nervous system, endocrine factors, and the cardiovascular system,” (Staessen). Because of the irregular flow of blood into the brain, HBP can cause dementia and cognitive decline in the brain, as well as other parts of the nervous system. Additionally, the lack of nutrients and excessive aldosterone production can lead to endocrine-related issues such as fluid retention. Most notably, high blood pressure causes the heart to work harder in order to pump blood to the rest of the body; a specific part of the heart called the left ventricle starts to thicken as this happens, causing a greater risk of heart related diseases. On top of this, hypertension creates a blocked blood flow to the hearts, provoking a considerably greater likelihood that the individual will have a heart attack. However, there is a minority of external symptoms that the patient will experience, which consist of headaches, dizziness, and chest pain. To conclude, high blood pressure is a chronic disease which involves the body getting an excessive amount or not enough nutrients, making blood pressure rise and causing a multitude of consequences.
Moreover, my personal family and cultural background affect my health behaviors to a great extent. To elaborate, the meals served daily towards me are filled with sodium, because of the excessive amount of spices used in the cooking. This can be particularly dangerous because one of the most common causes of hypertension is an excessive amount of sodium in the individual’s diet, which is why watching what you eat is crucial to your health. One of my personal goals to help decrease the risk of getting HBP is to view how much sodium is in every meal eaten; while creating detailed nutritional logs and recording and comparing numbers every day is helpful, simply being more aware of what I eat in a day takes less time, effort, but still creates progress. When eating foods that are part of my culture, I can also simply ask the cook to not put the variety of spices that include sodium in the food before eating. On the other hand, I also have a greater chance of getting hypertension because of genetics, which I am not able to control. Because a couple of my relatives have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, combining that with having unhealthy eating habits will further increase the risk of getting HBP. However, I can prevent that by also exercising regularly and having a more active routine in my daily life; while it is impossible to change genetics, it is possible to change my lifestyle. Ultimately, these habits have a greater impact on your overall health than genetics; consequently, exercising regularly and participating in more activities that include physical activity can help me reduce the risk of getting hypertension in my life.
In conclusion, high blood pressure is a heavily dangerous disease, not just because of the amount of risks of other diseases that come along with it or the symptoms, but because it is chronic, meaning that it could potentially last for a lifetime. Preventing these types of disorders should be an essential priority in a person’s life, and everyone else including myself should not just consider eating healthier or think about exercising, but to make plans, know how they’re going to reach their goals, and to start as soon as possible. While chronic disease seems like something that only people who are older should worry about, people in their youth such as me can prevent these types of diseases by changing their lifestyle and this point in time. After getting a chronic disease, it is a misery to face and a colossal burden to carry, as shown in the quote from the beginning. Because of this, everyone should strive to eat healthier and to exercise more now, before it’s too late.
