Women And High Blood Pressure

Women and high blood pressure are at a higher percent of developing heart attack and coronary heart disease by about 25%.

When you have high blood pressure your heart works harder than it should, putting stress on our heart muscle and arteries.

We must learn better ways to control our stress, which can take a toll on our overall health and set us up for heart disease.

High blood pressure increases the pressure inside the left ventricle, the pumping chamber of the heart, but this elevated blood pressure causes our hearts to work harder just pumping the oxygenated blood to our tissues and organs.

At first the heart tries to compensate for the increased pressure by thickening the heart muscle.

But the thickening of our heart muscle predisposes women and high blood pressure to arrhythmias or irregular heartbeats.

Arrhythmias

My family has a history of irregular heart beat and I have personally experience it.

Let me tell you it is frightening when your heart is pumping out of control.

Whenever you have heart arrhythmias you doctor usually send you to get set up with a Holter monitor that you wear for twenty-four hours. It does a ECG recording of the heart's rhythm.

The Holter monitor evaluate palpitation or skipped heartbeats. It is like a small tape-recorded the size of a beeper with tiny electrodes applied to the chest.

By analyzing the twenty-four hour recording your doctor can identify any abnormal rhythms.

You should be aware that if you take decongestants that can also increase your heart rhythm.

Also you should check for thyroid problems, that also increases your heart rhythm.

Factors Associated With Women And High Blood Pressure

• Family history - heredity
• Race - African Americans are at a higher risk
• Age - blood pressure tens to increase with age. Women seventy-five and older are more likely to develop high blood pressure than men the same age
• Salt sensitivity
• Excess weight and obesity
• Heavy alcohol consumption - more than one drink a day
• Inactivity
• Medications
• Diabetes
• Kidney disease

Often times the first symptom of women and high blood pressure is short of breath after the least exertion.

If you get short of breath when you exert yourself do not ignore it.

Tell your doctor and make sure there is a record of your blood pressure readings.

So if high blood pressure remains untreated, your heart enlarges and the heart muscle weakens.

Most women and high blood pressure are protected from heart disease until they go through menopause.

Experts believe that the female hormone estrogen plays a protective role.

Women's hearts are proportionately smaller than men's. And when we develop the first signs and symptoms of heart disease, we are usually ten years older than men and going through menopause.

Activity

First check with your doctor to find out if you are okay to start an exercise program.

If you have experience a heart attack, you should start your exercise program in a monitored cardiac rehabilitation center to be safe.

Otherwise start an individualized exercise program with aerobic exercise being the foundation on preventing heart disease.

Regular aerobic exercise benefits your heart, help raise your HDL, good cholesterol and lower your LDL, bad cholesterol and triglycerides.

They say just walking three times a week, for half an hour each day, reduces women and high blood pressure risk of heart attack by 35%.

By the way you can incorporate exercise into your daily living without going to a gym.

Activities like scrubbing your kitchen floors, vacuuming, mopping, sweeping, washing windows, gardening, carrying your own shopping bags and walking within your neighborhood.

You can do these moderate activity on a daily basis and you will start to reap the rewards of staying healthy.

Exercising improves your mood and releases endorphins, a brain chemicals that are natural mood elevators.