Hypertension (Essay Sample)

Hypertension
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Hypertension
The most prominent trend in public healthcare, particularly in western countries, is the prominence of chronic disease. Chronic conditions manifest as a result of the combined effect of underlying genetic risk factors and environmental influences. The latter have in the recent past been identified as having the greatest influence on the development of chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease. For instance, there is now consensus that obesity, blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease have close pathophysiological interactions.
Age and obesity are risk factors that lead to development of chronic conditions such as hypertension. Firstly, the physiologic factors associated with aging cause an increase in the blood pressure due to the contraction of heart muscles. Simonneau et al., (2019) suggest that the contraction of heart muscles increases the mean arterial pressure, pulse pressure and a decreased response to hemodynamic changes leading to high blood pressure. Aging also causes contraction of the arterial lumen which stiffens the arterial walls. These structural alterations of the arteries cause a reflection of pressure during wave propagation. When the reflected pressure arrives back, it leads to an increase in blood pressure. On the other hand, obesity increases sodium retention in the blood leading to an imbalance between pressure natriuresis and arterial pressure leading to high blood pressure (Lan et al., 2018). Also, obesity leads to vasodilation thus increasing cardiac output causing an increase in blood pressure. Conclusively, obesity and aging lead to chronic conditions such as hypertension.
The four factors of cardiac output that pose a risk of high blood pressure are heart rate, contractility, preload and, afterload. Cardiac output is a multiplication of the stroke volume and the heart rate in Liters/ Minute (L/Min) (Lan et al., 2018). A higher heartbeat rate implies an accompanying higher cardiac output and thus greater blood pressure. Contractility of heart muscles leads to increased cardiac output and hence an increase in blood pressure (Simonneau et al., 2019). Preload, defined as the extent of myocardial distension before shortening, is the third factor that affects cardiac of contraction output. Lan et al., (2018) suggests that an increase in ventricle distension enhances the contraction force which results in an increased cardiac output and hence high blood pressure. The final factor affecting cardiac output and hence blood pressure is afterload. Afterload is the force exerted against ventricles to enable the ejection of blood. Afterload is largely affected by a vascular tone and arterial blood pressure.
Hyperlipidemia and Peripheral Artery disease are among cardiovascular diseases that have significant influence on the development of hypertension. Hyperlipidemia is a condition where the blood has too many lipids. Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is a circulatory condition where narrowed arteries cause reduction of blood flow to the limbs and as such legs do not receive adequate blood to keep up with demand. High cholesterol in the blood leads to a hardening and narrowing of arteries as a result of the accumulation of calcium and cholesterol plaque (Simonneau et al., 2019). This leads to