Acupuncture and Herb to treat Hypertension(High Blood Pressure)

acupuncture for high blood pressure

Hypertension refers to the increasement of systemic arterial blood pressure*, which may be associated with the function of organs such as heart, brain and kidney, or clinical syndrome of organic damage. Hypertension is the most common chronic disease and the most important risky factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

*systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure, *systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mm Hg

Causes

1. Genetic factors:      Approximately 60% of hypertensive patients have a family history. Caused by polygene inheritance, 30% to 50% of hypertensive patients have a genetic background.

2. Mental and environmental factors:         Long-term mental stress, agitation, anxiety, and other factors such as noise or poor visual stimulation can also cause high blood pressure.

3. Age factor:            The incidence rate increases with age, especially higher in those over 40 years old.

4. Lifestyle factors:          All the unreasonable dietary, such as excessive sodium salt, low potassium diet, heavy drinking, excessive intake of saturated fatty acids, can increase blood pressure. Also, smoking can accelerate the process of atherosclerosis and is a risk factor for hypertension.

5. The impact of drugs:              Contraceptives, hormones, anti-Inflammatory painkillers and etc. can also affect blood pressure.

6. Effects of other diseases:   including obesity, diabetes, sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome, thyroid disease, renal artery stenosis, renal parenchymal damage, adrenal space occupying lesions, pheochromocytoma, and other neuroendocrine tumors.

Classification of hypertension

Clinical hypertension can be divided into two categories:

1. Essential hypertension An independent disease with elevated blood pressure as the main clinical manifestation. The cause is not clear, accounting for more than 90% of all hypertensive patients.

2. Secondary hypertension Also known as symptomatic hypertension, hypertension is only one of the clinical manifestations of this disease, and blood pressure can be temporarily or persistently elevated.

Clinical manifestations of hypertension

The symptoms of high blood pressure vary from person to person. Early symptoms may be asymptomatic or not obvious, such as common are dizziness, headache, neck tightness, fatigue, palpitations, and many other cosmetic problems. Blood pressure only   rises after fatigue, stress, and mood swings, and normally returns to normal after a break.

As the disease progresses, the blood pressure continues to rise, and various symptoms gradually appear. This is called slow-onset hypertension. Common clinical symptoms of slow-moving hypertension include headache, dizziness, inattention, memory loss, limb numbness, nocturia, palpitations, chest tightness, and fatigue. Most of the symptoms can be aggravated after stress or fatigue.

After morning activities, blood pressure can rise rapidly, and early morning hypertension can occur, leading to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events occurring in the early morning.

When the blood pressure suddenly rises to a certain extent, there may even be symptoms such as severe headache, vomiting, palpitations, dizziness, etc. In severe cases, unconsciousness and convulsions may occur, which is a critically ill hypertension. that might cause serious damage to the heart, brain, kidney and other organs, such as stroke, myocardial infarction, renal failure, etc. There is no consistent relationship between symptoms and elevated blood pressure levels.

The clinical manifestations of secondary hypertension are mainly related to the symptoms and signs of primary disease, and hypertension is only one of its symptoms. The increase in blood pressure in patients with secondary hypertension may have its own characteristics. For example, hypertension caused by aortic coarctation may be limited to the upper limbs, and the increase in blood pressure caused by pheochromocytoma is paroxysmal.

The purpose and principle of treatment

The main goal of hypertension treatment is blood pressure compliance. The ultimate goal of antihypertensive therapy is to minimize the incidence of heart and cerebrovascular disease and mortality in patients with hypertension. Antihypertensive therapy should establish a target for blood pressure control. On the other hand, hypertension often coincides with other risk factors for heart and cerebrovascular diseases, such as hypercholesterolemia, obesity, diabetes, etc., which synergistically aggravate the risk of cardiovascular disease, and the treatment should be comprehensive.

Different people have different antihypertensive goals. The general patient's antihypertensive target is below 140/90mmHg. For all patients, regardless of whether the blood pressure at other times is higher than the normal value, attention should be paid to the monitoring of morning blood pressure. Studies have shown that more than half of the patients with blood pressure in the office have not reached the standard in early morning blood pressure.

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