High Blood Pressure: Natural Self-help for Hypertension, including 60 recipes. Michelle Berriedale-Johnson

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alt=""/> nerve control of BP or abnormal signals from the brain

       control of the amount of fluid and salt in the circulation

       control of the strength and rate of the heartbeat.

      Researchers have already identified a gene that may be able to predict your future risk of hypertension. People who have inherited the angiotensinogen gene (T235) from both parents have double the risk of developing high blood pressure and coronary heart disease compared to those who do not have the gene variant, or who inherit it only from one parent.

      DEVELOPMENTAL FACTORS

      Fascinating research has suggests the way you develop during the first few weeks of life as an embryo may affect your future risk of high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases in adult life. This is probably linked with lack of micronutrients (vitamin and minerals) in the mother’s diet, which affects the way your arteries are laid down. Researchers have found, for example, that:

       Low birth-weight babies maybe more likely to develop high blood pressure as adults. Average adult systolic BP increases by 11 mmHg as birth weight goes down from 7.5lb to 5.5lb.

       The size of the placenta may be important – average systolic blood pressure rises by 15 mmHg as placental weight increases from 1lb to 1.5lb.

       The highest blood pressures occur in men and women who were born as small babies with large placentas.

       Risk of high blood pressure in later life also increases:

      – as a baby’s birth length decreases

      – as the ratio of a baby’s head circumference to the length of the baby increases from less than 0.65 to 0.7 or more.

      – if the mother’s blood haemoglobin level was low during pregnancy

      – if maternal nutrition was known to be poor.

      Lack of important nutrients – including vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids – during the first few weeks of embryonic life is thought to trigger the development of abnormal arterial and blood circulatory patterns. These probably result from an imbalance between the placenta and baby. This is supported by research linking fingerprint patterns with the risk of developing high blood pressure in later life. Fingerprints are laid down in the womb in the first few weeks following conception. Their patterns are linked to the degree of bumpiness and swelling of the developing fingertips, which is related in turn to irregular blood circulation.

      Fingerprint patterns take the form of arches, loops or whorls, and the more whorls you have, the more likely you are to become hypertensive in later life. People with at least one whorl may have a blood pressure that is 6 per cent higher (8mmHg) than people with no whorls. BP then generally increases as the number of whorls increases, up to the maximum number possible, which is ten (two per digit). The average number tends to be two or three. Long, narrow hands are also associated with higher blood pressure, and both effects are more marked on the right hand.

      Inherited and developmental factors are not the sole causes of high blood pressure, however. Something else has to happen in any individual before blood pressure goes up, and this is where environmental factors come in. These interact with inherited factors in individuals whose genes predispose them to hypertension to produce high blood pressure in later life. If several environmental factors linked with high blood pressure interact together, your risk of high blood pressure will be even greater.

      ATHEROSCLEROSIS

      One of the main causes of high blood pressure – especially a raised systolic BP – is hardening, furring up and narrowing of the arteries (atherosclerosis – see Chapter 3). This occurs naturally with increasing age and comes on more quickly if you smoke, eat an excessively fatty diet or are overweight. High blood pressure in turn puts excessive strain on the arterial wall lining and triggers damage that hastens atherosclerosis. Because atherosclerosis in turn causes hardening of arterial walls, a vicious cycle is set up in which blood vessels become even less elastic and less able to distend to even out pressure surges, so BP rises further. High blood pressure is therefore both a cause, and a consequence, of atherosclerosis, with each factor making the other worse.

      DIABETES

      Diabetes mellitus is a condition in which blood sugar (glucose) levels are raised due to insufficient production of insulin hormone by the pancreas. Some people also have an impaired tolerance to glucose tolerance due to an inability of their cells to respond properly to relatively normal levels of insulin (insulin resistance). Having poorly controlled diabetes significantly increases the risk of developing atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke – especially in women. The reason is not fully understood, but high blood sugar levels may trigger abnormal blood clotting, damage blood vessel linings to trigger hardening and furring up, affect nerves controlling heart and blood vessel function or weaken muscles in the heart or artery walls.

      The risk of severe CHD is two to three times higher in men with diabetes and three to seven times higher in women with diabetes. Therefore, if you have both high blood pressure and are also diabetic, it is vitally important that you keep your blood sugar levels under tight control.

      SMOKING

      Smoking cigarettes greatly increases the risks associated with hypertension – people with high blood pressure, who also smoke, are two or three times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than hypertensive non-smokers, and life-insurance companies load their premiums accordingly.

      Smoking cigarettes triggers hardening and furring up of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which is one of the most important causes of high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and stroke. It is also linked with at least 90 per cent of all cancers. The reason that cigarette smoke is so toxic is that it contains chemicals that:

       damage the lining of arterial walls, triggering the build-up of clots and plaques

       increase the stickiness of blood, making serious blood clots (thrombosis) more likely

       displace oxygen from red blood cells in exchange for poisonous carbon monoxide – so that less oxygen is available for use by cells, including those in the heart muscle and artery walls

       trigger spasm of arteries all over the body, which increases blood pressure and decreases blood flow to vital areas such as the brain and heart

      

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