How Hypertension Affects your Body
High blood pressure can quietly damage your body for years before any symptoms develop. If left uncontrolled you may wind up with the disability a poor quality of life or even a fatal heart attack. Generally, half the people with untreated hypertension die of heart disease related to poor blood flow. Treatment and lifestyle changes can help control your high blood pressure to reduce the risk of life-threatening complication.
Damage to arteries
Healthy arteries are flexible, strong and elastic. Their inner lining is in general smooth so that blood flows freely, supplying vital organs and tissues with nutrients and oxygen. Hypertension gradually increases the pressure of blood flowing through your arteries. As a result, you might experience:
- Damaged and narrowed arteries
- An aneurysm
Damage to heart
Your heart pumps blood to the whole body. Uncontrolled blood pressure can damage your heart in a number of ways like:
- Coronary artery disease
- Enlarged left heart
- Heart failure
Damage to your brain
Just like your heart your brain depends on a nourishing blood supply to work properly and survive. But high blood pressure can cause several problems like
- The transient ischemic attack also is known as TIA
- Brain Stroke
- Dementia
- Mild cognitive impairment
Damage to your kidneys
The main aim of the kidney is to filter excess fluid and waste from the blood and this process depends on healthy blood vessels. High blood pressure can cause several kidney diseases like nephropathy. And having diabetes in addition to high blood pressure can worsen the damage. It can lead to
- Kidney failure
- Kidney scarring
- Kidney artery aneurysm
Damage to the eyes
Tiny delicate blood vessel supplies blood to your eyes. Like others, they also can be damaged by high blood pressure
- Eye blood vessel damage (retinopathy)
- Fluid buildup under the retina
- Nerve damage
Sexual dysfunction
Although the inability to have and maintain an erection becomes increasingly common in men as they reach the age of 50, it’s even more likely to occur if they have high blood pressure too. Over the time high blood pressure can cause your arteries to harden and narrow limiting blood flow. For some men, this decreased blood flow makes it difficult to achieve and maintain an erection. Women may have sexual dysfunction as a side effect of high blood pressure as well. High blood pressure reduces blood flow to the vagina. This can lead to low sexual desire or arousal.