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High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) Cause and Treatment
The Risk of Hypertension
It is well known that high blood pressure causes stroke, heart attack, and other cardiovascular, cerebral, renal, and peripheral atherosclerotic vascular diseases. It also speed up brain shrinkage according to a CNN recent report, contribute to kidney failure, and decrease life expectancy.
The Causes of Hypertension
Unfortunately for the 95% of hypertension patient, causes of high blood pressure can't be identified---it just happens. Only about 5% patients have a physical cause such as kidney disease. Doctors usually list diet, stress, heredity etc. as major factor despite the fact that the medical society is not exactly certain of all the mechanisms involved and can't match a particular treatment to a particular patient.
Bio-electric studies revealed abnormal pathological electric potential before and during the occurrence of hypertension symptom. The cause of the abnormal electric potential is speculated to be abnormal cell membrane ion exchange but further cytological research is need to confirm the theory. It is also speculated that the effect of calcium antagonists is related to the adjustment of membrane electric potential by Ca ++. |
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Drug Treatment
Drug treatment is the most often used approach for hypertension treatment. Diuretic treatment is relatively safe, effective, and low cost for most elderly patients. Beta-blockers are not as effective as diuretics in preventing stroke, can cause postural hypotension and gastrointestinal upset. Ankle swelling can be caused by calcium antagonists. It is risky for patients with renal or carotid artery stenosis to use ACE inhibitors. Severe first-dose hypotension can be caused by alpha-blockers, calcium antagonists, and ACE inhibitors. What more, many patients start to lose sensitivity to drug treatment after certain period of time and may even incurred some additional ailment due to drug side effect.
Alternative Treatment
While modern Western society rely almost solely on synthesized drug medication, traditional herb medicines are still being widely used in other countries. For example neem has been widely used for high blood pressure control in Indian. Chinese people developed various multi-herb formulated hypertension herb medicine that can effectively control hypertension with little or no side effect. For more herb information, please visit TCM Treatment. |
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