Prehypertension Symptoms
Monitoring Prehypertension Symptoms
The baseline for normal blood pressure is 120/80, this can fluctuate a few points here or there, but we need to start from some place.
What is Prehypertension?
Prehypertension is rated from 121/139 and 81/89. After this you enter a stage 1 hypertension alert.
Now here's the kicker, prehypertension doesn't have any symptoms, but it can lead into hypertension or more commonly known as high blood pressure. The only way to monitor this condition is to do just that, monitor it.
Home Blood Pressure Monitors
You can buy an affordable home HBP device and track your own blood pressure.
Take readings at different times of the day to get a baseline for each 24 hour cycle. Of course your blood pressure will vary depending on stress, relaxation and body cycles.
If you see constant levels of prehypertension readings it's best to consult with your doctor. In a prehypertension stage it's easier to make small changes to affect your blood pressure. If you let this progress into a stage 1 or 2 hypertension problem it's very possible drugs will be needed to reduce the pressure. This is a situation that can be avoided easily with some precautionary measures.
Monitoring your blood pressure can prevent further complications. Complications that occur due to hypertension can be more damaging than hypertension itself. The pressure put on your arterial walls can cause heart problems, kidney failure, strokes and much more.
Prehypertension - Causes and Treatments
Many things can causes prehypertension. It's not always one thing, but it usually is a combination of things that lead to this condition.
Primary Causes of Prehypertension
The things that cause prehypertension can be right in front of you but you don't recognize them because they have become part of your daily routine.
Here are a few things to look for:
- Stress
- Lack of exercise
- Toxins
- Fats
- Processed foods
There's one other thing we want to highlight, and that's "sleep."
Lack of sleep creates a menu of problems including hypertension.
Sleep is a time when your body repairs itself. There is a hormone called "melatonin" that does some pretty cool things for you. If your sleep is poor, meaning disrupted by noise or frequent bathroom trips, then melatonin can't do it's job.
You can easily slip into a prehypertension condition when you lack good sleep. People working swing or night shifts tend to have more hypertension problems because their biological clock is off balance.
It's easy to ignore the sleep factor as a cause for high blood pressure because we gradually get use to less sleep. This is not the way nature designed us, and you know what happens when you mess with mother nature.
Taking Melatonin Supplements
You can buy melatonin supplements at your local vitamin store.
The only side effect to melatonin is vivid dreams. For some reason the only negative effect, if you can call it that, is dreams of intense situations. Dreams are not a bad thing, especially when we know that dreaming is natures way of releasing pent-up emotions we have stored up inside.
Other Causes
If you know the cause of prehypertension then you have a great chance of avoiding further complications before it turns into a full blown stage 1 problem.
Medications known to cause prehypertension:
- Birth control pills
- Cold remedies
- Decongestants
- OTC pain relivers
- Prescription drugs
- Amphetamines
If you have any indication of symptoms associated with prehypertension, go get checked out.
Prevention and treatment is available and more often than not you will be able to prevent any further complications if you take the right precautions.