High blood pressure (hypertension) can quietly damage your body for years before symptoms develop. Left uncontrolled, you may wind up with a disability, a poor quality of life or even a fatal heart attack. Roughly half the people with untreated hypertension die of heart disease related to poor blood flow (ischemic heart disease) and another third die of stroke. Treatment and lifestyle changes can help control your high blood pressure to reduce your risk of life-threatening complications. Here's a look at the complications high blood pressure can cause when it's not effectively controlled.
Heart failure is when your heart becomes so weak and damaged by high blood pressure, it works hard or a previous heartbeat that stops being able to pump blood through your body effectively. Signs of heart failure include:
shortness of breath
difficulty breathing
swelling of legs, ankles, legs or abdomen
High blood pressure can also lead to the formation of a protrusion in a damaged artery. This is known as aneurysm. The protrusion becomes larger and larger and is often not detected until it causes pain by pushing on another part of the body or cracking. Broken aneurysm can be lethal if it is in one of your major arteries. This can happen anywhere in the body.
Comments