Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, can cause some serious health problems, such as heart disease or stroke if left untreated.
The Pasadena Senior Center wants to educate everyone on this subject with an online lecture at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 18.
Kathy Eastwood, community outreach nurse from Huntington Hospital, will be conducting the free lecture via Zoom.
The American Heart Association says there are a number of risk factors that contribute to developing high blood pressure (HBP). Some of these factors are related to who you are, meaning they can be hereditary, related to your age, or maybe related to race.
The other risk factors are modifiable — meaning you can change them, to help prevent and manage high blood pressure. These include the lack of physical activity, an unhealthy diet, being overweight or obese, drinking too much alcohol, or smoking and tobacco use.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says too much alcohol may mean more than a drink a day for women, and more than two drinks a day for men.
Stress, especially when too much and too frequent, can also contribute to increased hypertension, or can lead to poor diet, physical inactivity, and drinking and smoking which in turn can further complicate your high blood pressure problem.
Some underlying conditions can also increase the risk of hypertension. Sleep apnea, for example, may increase the risk of developing HBP and is common among people with resistant hypertension, the AHA said.
Most of these cases of HBP previously mentioned are classified as primary hypertension, where there’s no definite identifiable cause. Most people with HBP have a form of primary hypertension.
A small number of high blood pressure cases are secondary hypertension, or HBP that’s caused by another medical condition. Examples include pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH), certain heart defects, and kidney disorders. In most cases, after the condition causing the high blood pressure is resolved, the individual’s blood pressure will return to normal.
To learn more about hypertension, register for Thursday’s lecture by visiting www.pasadenaseniorcenter.org/
For more information, email Carmen Macias at carmenm@pasadenaseniorcenter.
