Hypertension is a condition in which the force of the blood against the artery walls is too high. We measure your blood pressure by the amount of blood pumped by your heart and resistance to blood flow in your arteries. If your heart is pumping more blood and your arteries are narrower, it increases your blood pressure.
What Is Hypertension?
Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a common condition caused when the force of the blood against artery walls remains high enough to cause health problems like heart disease eventually. It’s possible to have hypertension for years without any symptoms, but it will continue to damage your blood vessels and heart. Uncontrolled hypertension increases the risks of heart attacks and stroke. It’s a condition that can gradually develop over many years and which will affect many people eventually.
Often there is no identifiable cause for hypertension, but sometimes it can be due to an underlying medical condition called secondary hypertension. Secondary hypertension tends to appear more suddenly and can be more severe.
Conditions that may lead to secondary hypertension include obstructive sleep apnea, thyroid and kidney problems, and adrenal gland tumors. Some people have congenital defects in blood vessels. If you experience any conditions mentioned above, please call internist doctors or your local primary care physicians.
Secondary hypertension may also occur due to certain over-the-counter and prescription medications.
Pulmonary Hypertension
Pulmonary hypertension affects the arteries in the lungs and the right side of your heart. It is a condition that can make it harder for blood to flow through your lungs, increasing the pressure in the arteries in your lungs. As the pressure increases, your heart’s lower right chamber, the right ventricle, must work harder to pump the blood effectively through your lungs. The increased strain can cause the heart muscle to weaken significantly.
Diagnosing High Blood Pressure
Fortunately, it is easy for any local internist or best doctors in New York of Manhattan Primary Care Center to detect high blood pressure levels. Once you know you have hypertension, we can work with you and provide you with the most suitable hypertension treatment. Usually, we measure your blood pressure during routine medical examinations.
Most people will receive a blood pressure reading regularly starting from age 18. People already diagnosed with high blood pressure or other risk factors for heart disease may need more frequent readings.
A blood pressure reading will provide your Midtown primary care doctor with two numbers:
- The higher number measures the pressure in your arteries as your heart beats and is called systolic pressure.
- The lower or second number measures the pressure in the arteries between heartbeats and is called diastolic pressure.
Both readings are essential, but after age 50, the systolic number is even more significant. We may wish to take your blood pressure several times at separate appointments because your blood pressure varies naturally throughout the day.
We may want to conduct a 24-hour blood pressure monitoring test, measuring your blood pressure at regular intervals over 24 hours. Other tests may be suggested, including a urine test, blood test, cholesterol test, and an electrocardiogram that measures your heart’s electrical activity.
Although it is easy to use blood pressure screenings in some stores and measure your blood pressure for free, these machines can have limitations. While they can provide some helpful information, the accuracy of readings depends on using the machine correctly and selecting the correct cuff size.
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High Blood Pressure Treatment in Midtown NYC and New York’s Upper East Side
If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure, we might suggest modifying your lifestyle as even small changes can help considerably with hypertension treatment. It’s essential to make sure you eat a heart-healthy diet and reduce your salt intake if needed.
Get plenty of regular physical exercise, and maintain a healthy weight. If you are overweight or obese, it can be helpful to lose weight. Also, limit the amount of alcohol you drink.
Although modifying your lifestyle can help, it may not be sufficient, and we could suggest using medication to lower your blood pressure. The medicines suggested depends on your treatment goal and your current health, and we will provide an individualized treatment plan. A range of medications are helpful for high blood pressure treatment, and the most frequently prescribed are listed below.
- Diuretics: Diuretics help your kidneys to eliminate sodium and water, which reduces blood volume. Increased urination is a common side-effect.
- Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors: These work by relaxing the blood vessels and preventing the formation of a chemical that narrows them.
- Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs): These also relax the blood vessels but don’t prevent the formation of the chemical that narrows blood vessels but merely block it.
- Calcium channel blockers: These aim at helping relax your blood vessel muscles and are more effective than ACE inhibitors alone.
Pulmonary Hypertension Treatment
Pulmonary hypertension is often harder to diagnose because the specialist cannot always detect it in a routine physical exam. Although it isn’t curable, this condition is manageable, but it can take some time to find the most appropriate pulmonary hypertension treatment.
Treatment for pulmonary hypertension is often complex, and if another condition is causing it, doctors will address the underlying cause whenever possible.
Lifestyle changes may help manage pulmonary hypertension, and we can discuss appropriate changes to consider.
Hypertensive Emergency Treatment
When high blood pressure becomes dangerously high, it can cause organ damage. You must reduce blood pressure immediately to prevent this damage, and the specialist can provide the treatment in intensive care.
The organ damage associated with a hypertensive emergency can include heart failure or heart attack, aneurysm, stroke, chest pain caused by unstable angina, fluid in the lungs, or pulmonary edema.
Symptoms of hypertensive emergency include seizures, worsening chest pain, feeling increasingly short of breath, becoming confused, having a severe headache, or blurred vision. Thankfully hypertensive emergencies are rare but may occur if someone fails to take their blood pressure medication or has taken an over-the-counter medication that has increased their blood pressure.
Hypertension Treatment Plan
When deciding how to treat high blood pressure, we may prescribe a combination of low-dose medications rather than a larger dose of a single drug. Frequently, it is more effective to use two or more blood pressure drugs than just one in high blood pressure treatment. However, each case is different, and only your doctor can put you on an effective treatment regimen.
Please make an appointment at one of our convenient locations in Midtown Manhattan or Upper East Side with hypertension treatment specialists. Our doctors look forward to meeting you!
Manhattan Primary Care Locations: Manhattan Primary Care (Upper East Side) 983 Park Ave, Ste 1D22, New York 10028
(212) 389-9929 Manhattan Primary Care (Midtown) 56 W 45th St, Ste 808, New York, NY 10036
(212) 389-1887 Manhattan Primary Care (Union Square) 55 W 17th St, Ste 105, New York 10011
(212) 378-9987
