A sudden pain in the chest area clearly indicates that a person is going for heart attack, which is the sequealae of high blood pressure or the ulcer in the stomach. Poor diet, lack of exercise, heavy-duty weight training, even innocuous-sounding activities such as public speaking can make your blood pressure leap. But when your blood pressure goes up and stays up, there's cause for concern: Of all the risk factors for heart attack, high blood pressure remains the most accurate predictor of who will get cardiovascular disease after age 65.

Anyone with high blood pressure needs to be under a doctor's care-not only for regular monitoring but often for medication as well. The good news is that many of the 60 million Americans with high blood pressure can do something about it without drugs. If you're among them, your doctor has no doubt mentioned the importance of regular exercise, avoiding smoking, managing stress and changing your diet to put limits on alcohol, salt and fat. There is good and bad news about high blood pressure. The bad news is that the incidence of this dangerous condition has edged up a bit over the past decade, to nearly a third of the country's population or 58 million Americans. The good news is that the percentage of people whose condition is controlled has also increased a bit.

And with Americans eating more and more processed foods, getting less exercise, and getting more obese, the national goal of having half of all cases under control by 2010 will be very difficult to achieve. High blood pressure is a significant risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular disease. The causes of high blood pressure vary. Causes may include narrowing of the arteries, a greater than normal volume of blood, or the heart beating faster or more forcefully than it should. Any of these conditions will cause increased pressure against the artery walls. High blood pressure might also be caused by another medical problem. Most of the time, the cause is not known. Although high blood pressure usually cannot be cured, in most cases it can be prevented and controlled.

Here the common medications used to control the High blood pressure are:

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors prevent the formation of a hormone called angiotensin II, which normally causes blood vessels to narrow. The ACE inhibitors cause the vessels to relax and blood pressure goes down.

Angiotensin antagonists shield blood vessels from angiotensin II. As a result, the vessels become wider and blood pressure goes down.

Alpha-beta-blockers work the same way as alpha-blockers but also slow the heartbeat, as beta-blockers do. As a result, less blood is pumped through the vessels and the blood pressure goes down.

Nervous system inhibitors relax blood vessels by controlling nerve impulses. This causes the blood vessels to become wider and the blood pressure to go down.

Vasodilators directly open blood vessels by relaxing the muscle in the vessel walls, causing the blood pressure to go down.
Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) keep calcium from entering the muscle cells of the heart and blood vessels. This causes the blood vessels to relax and pressure goes down.

Alpha-blockers reduce nerve impulses to blood vessels, which allows blood to pass more easily, causing the blood pressure to go down.

Diuretics are sometimes called "water pills" because they work in the kidney and flush excess water and sodium from the body.

Beta-blockers reduce nerve impulses to the heart and blood vessels. This makes the heart beat slower and with less force. Blood pressure drops and the heart works less hard.
You can find out if you have high blood pressure by having your blood pressure checked regularly. Most doctors will diagnose a person with high blood pressure on the basis of two or more readings, taken on several occasions. A consistent blood pressure reading of 140/90 mmHg or higher is considered high blood pressure, another term for hypertension.

Complications of high blood pressure
High blood pressure shows doctors what else is happening in your body. Years of experience and research tell doctors that high blood pressure is a sign of other problems including:
Heart Attack
Stroke
Angina and
Heart Failure (it doesn't work as well as it should).

 

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