Nature Cure |
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HIGH BLOOD-PRESSURE can be termed one of the modern ailments, and it is usual to find that the condition is associated, at least in the lay mind, with mental and physical strain. It is easily appreciated how this thought arises, for during the past twenty years most people have undergone considerable nervous strain, and the term, which covers the group of symptoms called high blood-pressure, is now commonplace, whereas previously it was very rare. Undoubtedly, nervous strain has, in many cases, something to do with the raising of blood-pressure, but it is not the whole answer. This ailment is usually associated with middle and old age, but it also occurs in youth. When it does arise in the teens, it is probable that there has been some systemic poisoning such as bowel toxaemia, pyorrhea or excessive smoking. At middle age, the general finding is that business men and housewives are frequently affected. It is easy to understand how the harassed business man can build up a certain amount of tension, especially neck tension, which upsets his digestive powers and increases the nervous contraction of his arteries. In the case of the housewife, many cases of this ailment arose during the last war, when the housewife was inclined to deny herself the proper foods to enable her family to be adequately fed. Allied to this were the worries of running a home efficiently under wartime conditions.It is not generally known that this trouble, or at least the tendency to it, can be inherited, but statistics have proved that it seems to run in certain families. This often means that there is some specific weakness in the make-up of these people, and usually the ductless glands are affected. It may also mean, however, that children of parents suffering from high blood pressure are reared in a way very similar to that in which the parents were brought up, and so are subject to the same ill-effects of dietetic errors and wrongful habits of living. Another point of interest is that these children, although they may not have acquired the physical weakness of the parents, may be forced into a state of nervous tension. This can arise from a desire on the part of the parents for the children to become accomplished at something which they themselves disliked or which they were conscious of an inability to achieve. This forcing of the child who may already have weakness or a predilection towards high blood-pressure can cause the onset of the trouble. This point must be studied carefully by all parents. High blood-pressure can arise as a primary condition, that is, it does not need to be associated with disease in any other organ. in these cases some disturbance of the endocrine glands, usually the adrenal or pituitary, is suspected, but this is a very difficult condition to diagnose. These are very peculiar findings, but they prove that other organs of the body may be in perfect health as far as the reactions to all tests can shows, and yet high blood-pressure may be present. To complicate matters further, it is possible for a person to be seemingly perfectly healthy and yet register a high blood-pressure. This may not be a sign of actual disease, and a considerable study of the person if required before a finding of normal high blood-pressure is confirmed. These people may go through life living at high rate and yet never exhibit any of the signs of strain that appear in the person who is suffering from a pathological blood-pressure. Every case of this nature becomes a special study to the physician. Usually, however, after careful recordings have been made of the condition of the heart, pulse and breathing rate, and of the methods of living of the patient, the diagnosis is made of residual or natural high blood-pressure. In such cases, it is usually found impossible to reduce the pressure to any great degree. The arteries seem to be specially strengthened in these cases to deal with the strain, and the heart also has a great power of compensation for the excessive effort required from it. Usually, however, rising of the blood-pressure above the normal is a sign that other organs of the body have been overworked and are becoming distressed, the customary belief being that ill-health only shows in the second line of defence of the body. The initial organs may be disturbed for years without showing definite signs, and it is only when the second line of defence of the body becomes disorganised that symptoms of ill-health make their appearance. These symtopms, in high blood pressure, are often very fleeting: an occasional headache, giddiness, a desire to be always working and forcing the body onwards. Intermixed with these come moments of extreme tiredness in which, without seeming exertion, the patient feel physically incapable of effort. Digestive upsets are also common. It is usually believed that the person who suffers from high blood pressure has a tendency to a florid complexion, but although this may be an associated symptom at the beginning of the trouble, as the dangerous stage of blood-pressure is reached it is customary to find that the patient becomes pale and rather drawn-looking. When this change occurs it is likely that the pressure has reached a serious stage. Many sufferers from high blood-pressure are not aware that the pressure is exceedingly high, and the first real sign is when the arteries collapse under the strain. The person then suffers from extreme weakness, and when the blood-pressure is taken it is found to be very low. Low blood-pressure is a common end-result of high blood-pressure, and the condition is always a serious one. It is preferable, in every circumstance, to begin the treatment of high blood-pressure before the entire system collapses, because when this occurs the treatment is necessarily very much prolonged. |
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