What are the symptoms of high blood pressure and what can be done for it until you see a doctor?
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at
8:07 PM
My daughter feet have started to swell, the first thing that came to mind is high blood pressure. She also is over weight. I have made her an appointment but the earliest she can be seen is 3 weeks at the doctors. Would anyone know the symptoms to look for and what can be done for it until she gets to see the doctor. She is 19 years old and is a smoker.
Filed under: Potassium Questions
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Hypertension
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_blood_pressure
Signs and symptoms:
Mild to moderate essential hypertension is usually asymptomatic.[15][16][17][18][19] Accelerated hypertension is associated with headache, somnolence, confusion, visual disturbances, and nausea and vomiting (hypertensive encephalopathy). Retinas are affected with narrowing of arterial diameter to less than 50% of venous diameter, copper or silver wire appearance, exudates, hemorrhages, or papilledema.[20] Some signs and symptoms are especially important in infants and neonates such as failure to thrive, seizure, irritability or lethargy, and respiratory distress.[21] While in children hypertension may cause headache, fatigue, blurred vision, epistaxis, and bell palsy.[21]
Some signs and symptoms are especially important in suggesting a secondary medical cause of chronic hypertension, such as centripetal obesity, "buffalo hump," and/or wide purple abdominal striae and maybe a recent onset of diabetes suggest glucocorticoid excess either due to Cushing’s syndrome or other causes. Hypertension due to other secondary endocrine diseases such as hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, or growth hormone excess show symptoms specific to these disease such as in hyperthyrodism there may be weight loss, tremor, tachycardia or atrial arrhythmia, palmar erythema and sweating.[22] Signs and symptoms associated with growth hormone excess such as coarsening of facial features, prognathism, macroglossia,[23] hypertrichosis, hyperpigmentation, and hyperhidrosis may occur in these patients.[24]:499. Other endocrine causes such as hyperaldosteronism may cause less specific symptoms such as numbness, polyuria, polydipsia, hypernatraemia, and metabolic alkalosis.[25] A systolic bruit heard over the abdomen or in the flanks suggests renal artery stenosis. Also radio femoral delay or diminished pulses in lower versus upper extremities suggests coarctation of the aorta. Hypertension in patients with pheochromocytomas is usually sustained but may be episodic. The typical attack lasts from minutes to hours and is associated with headache, anxiety, palpitation, profuse perspiration, pallor, tremor, and nausea and vomiting. Blood pressure is markedly elevated, and angina or acute pulmonary edema may occur. In primary aldosteronism, patients may have muscular weakness, polyuria, and nocturia due to hypokalemia. Chronic hypertension often leads to left ventricular hypertrophy, which can present with exertional and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. Cerebral involvement causes stroke due to thrombosis or hemorrhage from microaneurysms of small penetrating intracranial arteries. Hypertensive encephalopathy is probably caused by acute capillary congestion and exudation with cerebral edema, which is reversible.[20]
Signs and symptoms associated with pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, can be proteinuria, edema, and hallmark of eclampsia which is convulsions, Other cerebral signs may precede the convulsion such as nausea, vomiting, headaches, and blindness.[26]
stop smoking right now cold turkey
grow up and do it
there truly isn’t any red flag signs for High BP, thats why they call it the silent killer..she needs to see a dr…they aren’t magicians however, she is doing alot of the bad by her own hands that she can reverse without the doc’s