Your kidneys play a role in keeping your blood pressure at the
right level. This is important because blood pressure is closely related to
the health of the kidneys. High blood pressure, also called hypertension,
can damage the kidneys.
As blood flows through your veins, it presses against the walls
of your blood vessels. Extra fluid in your body increases the volume of fluid
in your blood and makes your blood pressure higher. Narrow or clogged blood
vessels also raise blood pressure.
High blood pressure makes the heart work harder and, over time,
can damage blood vessels throughout the body. If the blood vessels in the
kidneys are damaged, they may stop doing their job of removing wastes and
extra fluid from the blood. The extra fluid may then raise blood pressure
even more.
After diabetes, high blood pressure is the leading cause of kidney
failure, commonly called end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Patients with ESRD
must either go on dialysis or receive a new kidney through transplant. Every
year, high blood pressure causes more than 15,000 new cases of ESRD in the
United States.
Most people with high blood pressure do not have any symptoms.
The only way to know if your blood pressure is high is to have it measured
by a health professional. The measurement consists of two numbers that represent
the pressure when your heart is beating and when it is resting between beats.
A person's blood pressure is considered high if it goes over 140/90.
African Americans are more likely than whites to have high blood
pressure and to develop kidney problems from it even when blood pressure is
only mildly elevated. In fact, African Americans ages 25 to 44 are 20 times
more likely than their white counterparts to develop hypertension-related
kidney failure.
There are four steps that can help control blood pressure:
- Control your weight.
- Limit your sodium intake.
- Get plenty of exercise.
- Avoid excessive consumption of alcohol.
Many people need medication to control high blood pressure. A group of medications
called ACE inhibitors lower blood pressure and have an added protective effect
on the kidney in diabetic patients. If you have high blood pressure, see your
doctor regularly.
