In numerical terms, a person suffers from hypertension (i.e. he is hypertensive), when:
- The maximum arterial pressure (or systolic pressure) "constantly" exceeds the value of 140 mm / Hg;
- The minimum blood pressure (or diastolic pressure) "constantly" exceeds the value of 90 mm / Hg.
Based on the causes, doctors distinguish two types of hypertension:
- Essential or primary hypertension, the result of a multiplicity of factors and not of a specific cause,
- Secondary hypertension, resulting from the presence of a specific condition or disease (eg diabetes, chronic kidney disease, glomerulonephritis, hypothyroidism, Cushing's syndrome, alcohol abuse, etc.).
Attention, the pressure rises at night. For this, according to experts, nighttime blood pressure is the most important.
, that is, it does not cause any disturbance to the patient who suffers from it.This lack of symptoms is the reason why an individual often notices that they are hypertensive during a routine medical examination or medical check-up done for other reasons.
A certainly interesting aspect of hypertension, especially in terms of early diagnosis and treatment, is that the complications deriving from its lack of treatment are not immediate, but arise after a few years from its onset, with a severity strictly correlated to the "entity of the" excess. blood pressure (the more severe the hypertension, the more serious the resulting complications).
For example, according to the most reliable estimates, the damage caused by untreated high blood pressure to the cardiovascular system and to the cerebral compartment occurs, respectively, after about 10 years and about 20 years after the onset of the hypertensive state.
