The causes of short term rises in blood pressure high last only seconds or minutes are well understood, but these are not what we normally mean by high blood pressure. High blood pressure is important only when it is maintained for months or years – it is a high average pressure which is significant, not occasional high peaks. The causes of a long term rises in average pressure are not fully known, but we do know that it runs in families. This inherited tendency seems to account for about half the differences between people; the rest seems to depend on how they live and what they eat (not just in adult life, but they ate in infancy and childhood and how well nourished they were before they born).
One cause we do know about is overweight and weight reduction is a sensible first step in treatment. Weight loss depends mainly on using up more energy by taking more exercise and reducing energy input. In practice the most healthy way to do this is by reducing the amount of fats, oils, meats, sugar and alcohol in the diet, and instead eating more fruit, vegetables, cereal foods and fish. Eating less fat and oil is by far the most important of these changes. Another benefit from these changes in diet is that they help lower blood cholesterol levels and so reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease.Another known cause us excessive alcohol (which means more than 4 units of alcohol a day for a man or 3 units a day for woman – a unit alcohol is one glass of wine or one single measure of spirits or half a pint of average strength beer or lager). Again the biggest effect is in young people, limiting alcohol intake often brings high blood pressure back to normal without any other treatment.
Causes of High Blood Pressure
