Stroke

Chronic hypertension is the number one predisposing condition to stokes. Although stokes also result from other conditions, your brain is highly vulnerable to high blood pressure. Stroke is the third most frequent cause of death in the United States, and even more people live through a stroke but become partly disabled.

A stoke occurs when part of your brain suddenly stops receiving enough blood and dies. If a part of the brain that is necessary to keep the body working is affected, a person can die from the stoke. In other instances, the person survives, but will have limitations such as weakness on one side of the body, difficulty speaking, or problems with mental ability.

High blood pressure causes stroke in two ways. One, the arterioles in the brain harden, preventing blood from getting to the brain tissue, similarly as with a heart attack. Two, high blood pressure puts so much strain on the wall of the arterioles inside the brain that they break, bleeding into the brain and depriving it of oxygen-rich blood.

Fortunately, you can prevent strokes by controlling your high blood pressure. Treating hypertension reduces the chance of stoke by 40 percent. And in people over 60, treating hypertension lowers the incidence of stroke by 70 percent. These are excellent reasons for doing whatever you to keep that blood pressure normal.