III -
High blood pressure damage
Short-term
3.1 - Acute
crisis of blood pressure
3.2 - Sudden rise of
blood pressure
3.3 - How to treat the
sudden rise of blood pressure?
Long-term
3.4
- Arterial complications and cerebral arterial damage
3.5 - High blood pressure
also induces cardiac complications
3.6 - Another target
of a high blood pressure: the renal complication
3.4 - Arterial
complications and cerebral arterial damage
High blood pressure is responsible
for many lesions on the wall of the arteries. All the arteries are
essential for our body, but cerebral arteries are particularly important.
Two explanations can be provided to explain the occurrence of a stroke: either
the blood does not arrive any more at the brain (the most frequent case) or
there is a haemorrhage of the brain because a vessel broke because of a high
blood pressure for instance.
Unfortunately, high blood
pressure is often responsible for the damage to the brain arteries
and constitutes the principal risk factor for a stroke.
Thus, 20% of the cardiovascular
deaths in the United States are attributable to strokes, and 20% concern
patients of less than 60 years old. In the United States, almost 500,000
strokes occur each year, and induce 158,000 deaths (a death every 3.4
minutes).
High blood pressure is a
disease strongly responsible for strokes, but the other cardiovascular
risk factors are also implied: cholesterol, tobacco, diabetes, overweight
and age.
Nevertheless, high blood
pressure plays an important role in strokes. Thus, a patient with high
blood pressure is between 2 and 3 times more likely to have a stroke
compared to a person who is not suffering from it.
Medical studies have actually
shown that the higher the level of blood pressure the more significant
the risk of a stroke.
Fortunately, treatments against
high blood pressure have proved their efficiency in the prevention
of a stroke. Thus, medical studies show that a 5 millimetres of mercury
reduction on the minimal blood pressure (diastolic) induced a 42% reduction
of the stroke.
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last reviewed on : 18 dec 2011 |
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