10 Must-Know Facts About Hypertension

Hypertension is the technical term for high blood pressure. This is a condition in which a patient has a large amount of force building up in their blood vessels (veins and arteries) owing to numerous factors.

To understand blood pressure, it can help to first understand pressure in general. Pressure describes how densely packed particles are inside any closed space. If you have a balloon that’s empty and then start blowing air into it, the pressure will increase inside that balloon as it fills with more and more air. Eventually though, something will have to give and this will likely cause the balloon to explode or your mouth to become painful!

Low pressure is the opposite. This is when there isn’t enough air inside the balloon and therefore it feels limp and flacid. When there’s not enough air blood inside your veins it is the same, and they lack the force necessary to send the blood around the system.

There’s a lot more to understand about hypertension though and the better you get to grips with these nuances, the better chance you’ll have of dealing with hypertension in your own life. Read on for some very useful – facts about hypertension.

1. High Blood Pressure May be Linked to Sleep Apnea

One of the most common causes for high blood pressure is poor sleep. When you don’t get enough sleep, this sends signals to the body that not all is well and it goes into a state almost like shock. More specifically, it is similar to stress. The body is now in fight or flight mode and what you may not realize is that this is one of the main reasons getting poor sleep feels as bad as it does!

But what if you think your sleep is fine? Well then it’s time to look into less obvious causes – such as sleep apnea. This can disturb your sleep while going undetected for long periods of time!