Here’s what hypertension does to your body

When you see or hear the words hypertension or high blood pressure, your first association might be with your heart. After all, high blood pressure is classified as a cardiovascular disease. But your heart and blood vessels are not the only parts of your body that could be damaged by this disease. Other organs of the body can also be harmed by consistently high blood pressure.

Over the years, high blood pressure can quietly damage your body before symptoms develop. Left uncontrolled, it can leave you with a disability, poor quality of life or even a fatal heart attack. Almost half the people with untreated hypertension die of heart disease related to poor blood flow and another third die of stroke.

However, your heart is just one organ affected by this condition.  Here’s a look at complications other organs of your body can be affected by when high blood pressure is not effectively controlled:

·      Hypertension’s effect on your arteries

Arteries that are flexible, strong, and elastic allow your blood to flow freely, supplying vital organs and tissues with nutrients and oxygen. Years of uncontrolled hypertension damage the inner lining of your arteries.  This allows fats from food to collect in the damaged arteries causing them to become less elastic, limiting blood flow through your body. When the pressure from the blood flow through a weakened artery is high, this can cause a part of its wall to enlarge and form a bulge (aneurysm). Aneurysms have the potential to rupture causing life-threatening massive internal bleeding.  Aneurysms can form in any artery in your body but the most common artery they form in is the aorta, the body’s largest artery.

·      Hypertension’s effect on your heart

There are several ways uncontrolled hypertension damages your heart. High blood pressure forces your heart to work harder than necessary in order to pump blood throughout your body. This constant pressure causes the left ventricle to thicken or stiffen, limiting the ventricle’s ability to pump blood to your body. This raises your risk of having a heart attack, heart failure and sudden cardiac death. The strain of hypertension on your heart can also cause your heart muscle to weaken and work less efficiently.  Over time, your overwhelmed heart simply begins to wear out and fail. 

·      Hypertension’s effect on your brain

Just like your heart, your brain depends on a nourishing blood supply to work properly and survive. But high blood pressure compromises that. When hypertension is present, a blood clot can form in the brain which could lead to a ministroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). A TIA is a brief, temporary disruption of blood supply to your brain and can be a warning sign of a full-blown stroke.

A stroke occurs when part of your brain is deprived of oxygen and nutrients, causing brain cells to die. Uncontrolled hypertension can lead to stroke by damaging and weakening your brain’s blood vessels, causing them to narrow, rupture, or leak.

Dementia, a brain disease affecting problems with thinking, speaking, and reasoning, is another potential problem resulting from high blood pressure. Even though there can be several reasons for dementia, one cause can result from narrowing and blockage of the arteries that supply blood to the brain due to high blood pressure.

·      Hypertension’s effect on your kidneys

Your kidneys are a very important organ that filters excess fluid and waste from your blood – a process that depends on healthy blood vessels. High blood pressure can damage both the blood vessels in and leading to your kidneys and can be one of the most common causes of kidney failure. The reason is that hypertension damages both the large arteries leading to your kidneys and the tiny blood vessels within the kidneys. Damage to either makes it so your kidneys are unable to effectively filter waste from your blood. As a result, dangerous levels of fluid and waste can accumulate which could eventually lead to you requiring kidney dialysis or a kidney transplant.

·      Hypertension’s effect on your eyes

The blood vessels leading to your eyes are tiny and delicate.  When blood pressure is high, these vessels can also be damaged by the constant elevation of pressure. One effect is damage to the vessels supplying blood to your retina causing retinopathy. This condition can lead to bleeding in the eye, blurred vision, and complete loss of vision. Having both diabetes and high blood pressure puts you at an even greater risk.

Another eye condition called choroidopathy or fluid buildup under the retina, can result in distorted vision or in some cases scarring that impairs vision.

·      Hypertension’s effect on your sex life

Erectile dysfunction is increasingly common as men age but it’s even more likely to occur if they have high blood pressure too. High blood pressure damages the lining of blood vessels leading to arteries that harden and narrow, limiting blood flow. This means less blood is able to flow to the penis making it more difficult for men to achieve and maintain an erection.

Men are not the only ones affected sexually from hypertension. Women can also have sexual dysfunction as a side effect of high blood pressure as well. When women have hypertension, this can reduce blood flow to the vagina. This can lower sexual desire in women, vaginal dryness, or difficulty achieving an orgasm.

·      Hypertension’s effect on your bones

Even your bones can be affected by high blood pressure. The reason why is high blood pressure makes you urinate out too much calcium.  If your body pulls out excessive amounts of calcium from your bone to make up for that, it can lead to osteoporosis.  Older women with high blood pressure are more likely to have trouble with weak bones that break easily.

·      Hypertension’s effect on your sleep

About a third to half of people with high blood pressure also has sleep apnea in which a person has interrupted breathing while they sleep.  High blood pressure can trigger it or make it worse. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation from sleep apnea can also raise your blood pressure.