What causes high blood pressure? You need to know these reasons

Hypertension is a common cardiovascular disease in clinical practice. Hypertension is mainly divided into two types: primary and secondary. Many people are not clear about what causes hypertension. The most common cause is genetics, which is considered primary hypertension. Other factors can also cause hypertension.

1. Genetic factors (30%):

About 75% of patients with essential hypertension have a genetic predisposition, and patients with hypertension often appear in clusters within the same family. Essential hypertension is believed to be a polygenic genetic disease. It is reported that hypertensive patients and those with a family history of hypertension but normal blood pressure have transmembrane electrolyte transport disorders. There is a hormone-like substance in their serum that can inhibit the activity of Na+/K+-ATPase, resulting in reduced sodium-potassium pump function, increased intracellular Na+ and Ca2+ concentrations, enhanced contraction of SMC in the arterial wall, increased density of adrenergic receptors, and enhanced vascular reactivity. These all contribute to increased blood pressure in the arteries. Recent studies have found that there may be 15 defects in the angiotensin (AGT) gene. People with normal blood pressure occasionally have defects, while patients with hypertension have the same mutations in three specific sites on the AGT gene. A brother or sister with high blood pressure may receive an identical copy of the AGT gene from both parents. Hypertensive patients with this genetic defect have higher plasma angiotensinogen levels than controls.

2. Psychosocial stress (15%):

According to surveys, social and psychological stress is closely related to the incidence of hypertension. Stressful life events include: early death of parents, broken love, widowhood, death of family members in traffic accidents, illness and disability, family breakdown, economic and political shocks, etc. The prevalence of hypertension in subjects who were stimulated by life events was higher than that in the control group. It is thought that psychosocial stress can alter the hormonal balance in the body, thus affecting all metabolic processes.

3. Renal factors (10%):

The secretion disorders of anti-hypertensive lipids such as prostaglandins and anti-hypertensive neutral renal medullary lipids by renal medullary interstitial cells and the sodium excretion dysfunction may be related to the onset of hypertension.