Are you taking medication and your blood pressure is still too high? Do you think you have treatment-resistant hypertension? It may be, but more often it is not resistant, only the patient or… the doctor. Find out why your blood pressure is still too high despite treatment for high blood pressure.
Resistant arterial hypertensionis blood pressure that remains above normal levels despite the simultaneous use of three antihypertensive drugs (including a diuretic) in optimal doses.
However, the most common cause of insufficient pressure control is the so-calledresistant patient , i.e. bad cooperation between the patient and the doctor. Irregular taking of medications, changing their doses, as well as not following the doctor's recommendations regarding lifestyle and diet, mean that the therapy does not give the expected results. Too high pressure revealed during the test may also be the result of a white coat or incorrect measurement. The reason may also be hardening of the ulnar artery or the wrong selection of antihypertensive drugs and their doses.
True treatment-resistant hypertension
In contrast, true treatment-resistant hypertension occurs quite rarely. They are recognized after eliminating the causes on the part of the patient or the doctor.
Almost half of patients with untreated arterial hypertension die of ischemic heart disease, and 33 percent. as a result of a stroke.
One of its reasons is the weakening of the effect of antihypertensive drugs by other drugs, e.g. non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, psychotropic drugs, and hormonal contraceptives. The cause may also be chronic pain, stress, inflammation (e.g. of the urinary tract), obesity, insulin resistance, sleep apnea, alcohol abuse, smoking (weakens the effect of beta-blockers), secondary hypertension, i.e. caused by another disease (then cause). In the case of true resistant hypertension, treatment with 4, 5 drugs from different groups is used. Unfortunately, you have to take them more than once a day, but the pressure quickly reaches the desired values.
An interesting solution for the treatment of resistant hypertension, requiring the simultaneous use of severalpreparations, is taking multi-component tablets with 2 or 3 drugs. During such treatment, you swallow not a handful of tablets, but two or only one.
TOWIDEO Home remedies to reduce pressure
Hypertension in decline
If the parents have high blood pressure, the chances are very high that the children will get it. Genetic predisposition, the inheritance of genes encoding individual components of blood pressure regulating systems, have a large share in the development of this disease. However, the development of hypertension is also influenced by environmental factors, mainly diet (excess s alt, fat, sugar), lack of regular physical activity, drinking alcohol, smoking, stress. Eliminating these factors as much as possible prevents hypertension, or at least delays its development.
White coat effect
Why is the pressure measured at home correct, and why is this checked by the clinic too high? Got the wrong blood pressure monitor? Not necessarily. Perhaps you are too stressed by a visit to the clinic… The increase in pressure during the measurement by medical staff was called the white coat effect. To resolve doubts, your doctor may order a 24-hour blood pressure test (ABPM). The patient leads a normal lifestyle and the device records the pressure at regular intervals.
Snoring not so trivial
This can be a signal of sleep apnea (brief moments when breathing stops while you sleep). Research has shown that it is associated with hypertension. Immediately after another episode of sleep apnea, blood pressure rises sharply. Systolic blood pressure can even exceed 300 mmHg, also in people with normal blood pressure while awake! Sleep apnea activates mechanisms that contribute to the increase in pressure and the persistence of high blood pressure. It doubles the risk of this disease. It can cause treatment ineffectiveness and a lack of physiological pressure drop during sleep. Therefore, sleep apnea should be treated. If someone tells you that you are snoring and sometimes you are not breathing in your sleep, see an ENT specialist. Mechanical obstacles to the air supply, such as a distorted nasal septum, polyps in the nose, and drooping soft palate, are common causes of this condition.
ImportantAt least half an onion a day
Contains a lot of antioxidants that repair damage caused to cells by free radicals. For hypertensive people, quercetin is of particular importance (this is what the onion owes its smell to), because it improves the tightness and elasticity of the vessels. Onion lowers blood pressure and - in the case of diabetics - blood sugar levels.
Sweet on index
It turns out that not only s alt can raise blood pressure, but also sugar, specifically fructose. It is added not only to sweets, but also to sweet drinks, the consumption of which is alarmingly growing. Its relationship to the rise in blood pressure is not yet fully understood. It is believed to increase sodium absorption and increase uric acid levels, which may contribute to the development of hypertension. Therefore, as part of the prevention and treatment of this disease, limit the consumption of sweet drinks, especially carbonated drinks. Instead, drink mineral water without gas and low in sodium. It does not raise blood pressure and has zero calories.
The contraceptive pill and blood pressure
If you are using oral contraceptives, measure your blood pressure every six months. In many women, they increase its values even by 10/5 mmHg. After stopping the pills, the pressure should return to normal within 2-3 months. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Therefore, it is supposed that they may contribute to the earlier disclosure of a genetic predisposition to hypertension. This situation especially applies to women over 35, smoking, being overweight or obese.
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