Many people who have hypertension feel that they have no uncomfortable symptoms and are worried about the side effects of taking antihypertensive medication, so they choose not to treat it.
The danger of hypertension is not the symptoms it causes, but the unconscious damage to various organs and blood vessels throughout the body, and when the damage becomes more serious, various complications can occur that can seriously affect the quality of life and even endanger lives.
Now we will focus on what organs are damaged by hypertension and what complications can occur.
I. Heart
1. Left ventricular hypertrophy
This is the most common heart damage. It is well understood that when blood pressure is high, the pressure on the heart to supply blood to the whole body is high and the burden is increased. Under constant stimulation, the heart muscle becomes thicker and thicker.
2.Coronary heart disease
High blood pressure can promote atherosclerosis of the arteries, and the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart are inevitably affected, and in this case, the risk of coronary heart disease increases. The risk of coronary heart disease in people with hypertension is 2 or 6 times higher than in people with normal blood pressure.
In addition, if hypertension is not well controlled, heart disease such as arrhythmia and heart failure can easily occur.
Second, brain
Hypertension is the most important risk factor for stroke (cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage). In China, 70% of stroke patients have hypertension.
1. Cerebral thrombosis and cerebral embolism
These are the two more common types of cerebral infarction. Hypertension leads to intracranial arteriosclerosis and thrombosis, which affects the blood supply to the brain tissue and causes cerebral infarction. It is also possible that high blood pressure leads to the formation of blood clots in other places, which block the cerebral arteries with the blood flow and cause cerebral infarction.
2.Lacunar cerebral infarction
Long-term hypertension can make the small arteries in the brain become narrow or even occluded, and the brain tissues that do not get blood supply become necrotic and softened, forming lesions, which is called lacunar cerebral infarction. If there are multiple lesions, it is called multiple lacunar cerebral infarction. These patients may be asymptomatic or may have mild cognitive and memory abnormalities, and these lesions are often found in cranial imaging examinations.
3. Cerebral hemorrhage
Hypertension can cause small intracranial arteries to harden and become brittle, forming aneurysms or directly rupture small arteries, leading to cerebral hemorrhage.
4.Transient cerebral ischemic attack
The patient’s limbs appear numb, weak, and unable to move normally, and some will experience vertigo and blackness in front of the eyes, which usually lasts for tens of minutes, and the vast majority can fully recover within a day without sequelae. However, the condition can recur, and one-third of patients will develop cerebral infarction within 5 years, and the risk of heart attack is also high. Patients who have had a transient ischemic attack need to be seen promptly by a neurologist.
Kidney
Kidney damage is also related to the vascular lesions caused by hypertension, and in the absence of control, kidney damage and renal decompensation will generally occur after 10 to 15 years of hypertension, and renal failure may occur in some patients.
Many friends worry about long-term taking antihypertensive drugs will not hurt the kidneys, in fact, hypertension than antihypertensive drugs hurt the kidneys.
Four, blood vessels
The most serious vascular lesion is aortic coarctation. Under normal circumstances, the walls of the arteries are intact, and when lesions occur, the blood flow may strip the walls of the aorta to form two layers, when the aorta is prone to rupture and life-threatening. When a hypertensive patient suddenly develops tear-like pain in the chest or abdomen, he or she must be sent to the hospital immediately for timely treatment, which may save the patient’s life.
Some small blood vessel lesions can also bring considerable trouble to patients’ lives, such as pain, claudication and slow wound healing when the arteries in the legs become narrowed or occluded, affecting the blood supply to the corresponding area.
V. Eyes
Hypertension can damage the arteries in the fundus of the eye, and various retinal lesions can occur, affecting vision and, in severe cases, blindness.
In general, fundus lesions occur mostly in patients with long-term hypertension, but some acute fundus lesions may occur if blood pressure rises sharply.
The way to avoid these complications is to detect and control hypertension as early as possible. Don’t worry about the side effects of antihypertensive drugs and not treat or use various health instruments or various “natural” therapies of unknown efficacy, which will not only fail to achieve the effect of lowering blood pressure, but also delay the condition.
Remember the saying: the harm of hypertension itself is much more serious than the side effects of antihypertensive drugs.