CAUSES OF HYPERTENSION

90% of Hypertension Cases Are With Unknown Causes

Hypertension exact causes are still unknown.  And surprisingly this holds about 90% of total reported hypertension in The United States. Only 10% has a clear diagnosis of the underlying cause.

Essential hypertension

Hypertension with unknown causes is called by essential hypertension or primary hypertension. This type remains somewhat mysterious and has been related to some risk factors. For example, essential hypertension tends to happen in the family. Men are more likely to suffer than women. Age and race is another risk factor. In the United States, African American women have the highest incidence of high blood pressure.

Essential hypertension has great correlation with diet and lifestyle. People with overweight are more likely to have high blood pressure. The strong relation between salt consumption and high blood pressure is also something convincing. Let’s look at the Japan northern island citizen who consumes more salt than anyone else in the world. They show the highest incidence of essential hypertension. On the contrary, people with less salt eating, does not show any evidence of essential hypertension at all.

People with essential hypertension have shown some correlation with the following factors, condition and habits as follows:

• Lack of physical activities or exercises
• Obese or overweight
• Stress
• Heavy smoking
• Alcoholism, too much alcohol drinking
• Too much salt consumption
• Genetic, history of close relatives with hypertension
• Older age are more susceptible for hypertension

Secondary hypertension

Hypertension where the cause can be clearly identified is known as secondary hypertension. The common cause of secondary hypertension is kidney disease. This is mainly due to tumors or disorders that stimulate the adrenal gland (a gland on the top of the kidney) to produce adrenalin that increase blood pressure.

Birth control pills containing estrogen and pregnancy may cause secondary hypertension. Other condition or diseases that may lead to hypertension are alcohol addiction, smoking, thyroid dysfunction and aorta coarctation (this a hereditary narrowing of the aorta)

Most of the secondary hypertension can be cured by treating the underlying diseases, while the essential hypertension can not be cured. It should be treated using anti-hypertensive drugs and any other possible care to minimize the negative impact of hypertension.


IDENTIFIED CAUSES:

Source: http://www.ebmedicine.net/topics.php?paction=showTopicSeg&topic_id=70&seg_id=1339