Arterial hypertonia (high blood pressure)

About 90% of the patients with an increased blood pressure have a so-called primary or essential high blood pressure which means that the reason for the increased blood pressure is not known. About 10% of the patients can be diagnosed eg. kidney diseases or hormone dysfunctions as a reason for the complaints.
Advantaging for the developing high blood pressure is overweight, especially abdominal fat, physical inactivity, smoking and heredity.

By a weight reduction and regular exercise a so-called lifestyle modification can be achieved which in most cases lead to a considerable lower blood pressure. But if a therapy without prescribing medications is sufficient for the therapy of the high blood pressure must be controlled regularly at the doctor’s practice.

The high blood pressure has relatively unspecific symptoms. As very common symptoms there are headaches, but also chest pains, anxieties, a feeling of faintness or a strongly felt heartbeat.

As the high blood pressure in connection with other risk factors can lead to the development of a so-called coronary heart disease, or respectively, to an apoplectic stroke it is very important to also evaluate the rest of the risk factors. For this purpose, besides a physical examination also a detailed anamnesis, a long-term measurement of the arterial blood pressure, an ultrasound examination of the heart and the kidneys, an exercise electrocardiogram and, if necessary, an examination of the carotid artery to classify the artheriosclerotic alterations are necessary.

When it comes to mild forms of blood pressure that particularly has not yet damaged any organs like it is the case with arteriosclerosis or myocardial infarction first of all an ongoing lifestyle modification with a normalization of the body weight and regular sufficient exercise three times a week for the duration of 6 months is realized. If these changes should not lead to a decreased blood pressure, a medication therapy can lead to success. There are different agents like beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors, beta 1 receptors and all these agents can be applied equivalently to a great extend. Attention should be paid to the side effects of the medication respectively the occurrence of possible other risk factors eg. the beta blockers are contraindicated if the patient suffers from a chronic obstructive lung diseases respectively suffers from bronchial asthma.