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High blood pressure is dangerous to your heart. Find out how high blood pressure increases your risk for heart failure.

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, can lead to the development of heart disease, which includes heart failure. According to the data, about half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, but only one in four have it under control.

Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that in 2020, over 670,000 deaths in the U.S. had high blood pressure as a primary or contributing cause. To help you avoid becoming another statistic, it’s important that you find out how these two health conditions are related – and what you can do about it.

Hypertension Causes

How High Blood Pressure Increases Your Risk for Heart FailureMost people with high blood pressure suffer from primary hypertension, which is when there’s no identifiable cause behind it. However, there are some factors that we know contribute to the development of primary hypertension.

“It’s very common as we get older for the [blood] vessels to get thicker,” says Keith C. Ferdinand, MD, FACC, the Gerald S. Berenson Endowed Chair in preventive cardiology and a professor of medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. As a result, you can experience poor circulation to and from your heart, which increases blood pressure levels.

Other common contributing factors of primary hypertension include a poor diet, lack of exercise, excessive drinking, stress, tobacco use, and certain chronic conditions. High blood pressure also tends to run in families, so let your doctor know if you have a family history of hypertension or heart disease.

Hypertension and Heart Failure

If your heart can’t pump enough blood to supply your body with what it needs, it results in heart failure. Since uncontrolled hypertension can damage the arteries and muscles that affect your heart’s pumping abilities, it can potentially lead to heart failure.

Hypertension also forces your heart to work harder, which causes the main pumping chamber in your heart to thicken over time. “The longer you have high blood pressure, the bigger and thicker your heart muscle will get,” says David N. Smith, MD, a cardiologist at Premier Cardiovascular Care in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a clinical assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine.

What You Can Do

l-arginine plusIf you want to control your blood pressure, whether it’s high or in a normal range, then you need to focus on what you can do. In other words, make healthy lifestyle changes like eating nutritious foods, limiting your sodium intake, and exercising regularly.

You can also manage your stress, get restful sleep each night, and take heart supplements like L-arginine Plus. Its ingredients promote healthy circulation, blood pressure, cholesterol, and more. Give your health the support it needs by practicing healthy habits and taking L-arginine Plus.