This article provides a detailed overview of the symptoms of high blood pressure, particularly the early signs. What manifestations does hypertension exhibit? What happens when you have high blood pressure?
Symptoms of High Blood Pressure
Early Symptoms:
- Headaches: Usually occurring at the back of the head, accompanied by nausea and vomiting.
- Dizziness: More common in female patients.
- Insomnia: Difficulty sleeping.
- Numbness in Limbs: Frequent numbness in fingers and toes, feeling of ants crawling on the skin, and lack of finger agility.
Late-Stage Symptoms:
- Left Ventricular Hypertrophy: Thickening of the left heart chamber as a compensatory response.
- Renal Decline: Gradual reduction in kidney function leading to frequent urination at night, polyuria, and eventually renal failure with signs of azotemia or uremia.
- Cerebral Ischemia: Various levels of headache, dizziness, blurred vision, limb numbness, or temporary speech impairment and paralysis.
- Changes in the Eye's Fundus: Moderate hardening.
Related Symptoms:
- Elevated blood pressure, headache, head heaviness, dizziness, palpitations, and abnormalities in the eye's fundus.
Typical Symptoms of High Blood Pressure
- Asymptomatic: Many patients show no symptoms, even with systolic pressure over 200 mmHg.
- Dizziness: The most common symptom, either transient or persistent.
- Headaches: Often persistent dull or throbbing pain, more intense in the morning.
- Irritability, Palpitations, Insomnia: Linked to cortical dysfunction and autonomic nervous system disorder.
- Lack of Concentration, Memory Decline: Becomes more evident as the condition progresses.
- Numbness in Limbs: Commonly felt as tingling or stiffness.
- Bleeding: Less common, often as nosebleeds or bleeding in the eyes or brain due to increased arterial fragility.
Types of High Blood Pressure Symptoms
Slow-Progressing Hypertension
- Early Stage: Often asymptomatic initially.
- Brain Symptoms: Headaches and dizziness are common.
- Heart Symptoms: Early compensation followed by heart failure in later stages.
- Kidney Symptoms: Progressive renal impairment leading to proteinuria and eventually renal failure.
Rapidly-Progressing Hypertension (Malignant)
- Characterized by significantly elevated blood pressure and rapid symptom development, potentially leading to kidney failure, heart failure, or hypertensive crises.
Stages of Hypertension
- Stage 1: Elevated blood pressure without heart, brain, or kidney damage.
- Stage 2: Presence of organ damage such as left ventricular enlargement, narrowed blood vessels in the eye, or mild increase in serum creatinine.
- Stage 3: Severe complications like stroke, heart failure, or renal failure.
Types of Hypertension
- Primary Hypertension: The most common type, with unknown causes.
- Secondary Hypertension: Caused by various diseases such as renal, adrenal, or cardiovascular disorders.
- Pediatric Hypertension: Increasingly common, often secondary to other health conditions.
- Pregnancy-induced Hypertension: Specific to pregnant women, commonly occurring after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
- Elderly Isolated Systolic Hypertension: Common in people over 60, characterized by high systolic pressure with normal diastolic pressure.