High Blood Pressure: Causes

What causes high blood pressure?

In most cases, high blood pressure has no known cause. This is called essential hypertension. High blood pressure can also be caused by a specific condition, disease or medication. This is called secondary hypertension.

Causes of high blood pressure

Diseases, disorders and conditions that cause high blood pressure include:

• Alcoholism

• Anxiety and stress

• Aortic valve disease

• Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)

• Coarctation of the aorta (narrowing of the aorta)

• Endocrine disorders (hyperthyroidism, Cushing’s syndrome, hyperparathyroidism)

• Fever

• Kidney disease (kidney cancer, kidney failure, renovascular high blood pressure, glomerulonephritis)

• Pain

• Potassium deficiency

• Pregnancy (gestational high blood pressure, preeclampsia)

Medications and substances that cause high blood pressure

Illicit drugs and common medications that can cause high blood pressure include:

• Cocaine

• Methamphetamine

• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)

• Oral contraceptives (birth control pills) and other hormone drugs

• Over-the-counter cold medications

• Steroids

Risk factors associated with high blood pressure

High blood pressure is linked to several risk factors. Not all people who are at risk for high blood pressure will develop the condition, and not all people who develop high blood pressure have risk factors. Risk factors include:

• African-American ancestry

• Aging—when only the top number in a blood pressure measurement is high, it is called isolated systolic high blood pressure, which is common in older adults

• Anxiety and stress

• Diabetes

• Diet that is high in salt

• Excessive alcohol use

• Family history of high blood pressure

• Male gender

• Obesity

• Prehypertension

• Sedentary lifestyle

• Smoking or use of chewing tobacco

Life-threatening types of high blood pressure

In some cases, high blood pressure may be severe enough to be immediately life threatening and should be evaluated quickly in an emergency setting:

• Accelerated high blood pressure (malignant high blood pressure)

• Hypertensive crisis

What are the possible complications of high blood pressure?

Complications of long-term high blood pressure are serious and can be life threatening. High blood pressure can damage the arteries throughout your body including those that supply blood to vital organs, such as the kidneys, brain and heart. You can control high blood pressure by following the treatment plan you and your health care professional design specifically for you. Complications of uncontrolled high blood pressure include:

• Aneurysm

• Coronary heart disease

• Heart failure

• Hypertensive crisis

• Kidney failure

• Malignant high blood pressure

• Organ damage

• Stroke

• Vision changes and blindness