Hypertension

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Hypertension
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Hypertension

• Involves having consistently high BP (usually 140
  systolic and 90 diastolic)
• Blood pressure
• Force of the blood pushing through the body
• Force exerted on the artery walls as blood is
  pumped through the circulatory system
• When the heart is at rest between contractions,
  it fills with blood
• Blood pressure in this system measured at this
  rest point is called the diastolic pressure
• When the heart pumps the blood out and through
  the body, the maximum force in the arteris is
  called systolic pressure

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Etiology of Hypertension

• 5 due to kidneys inability to regulate BP
• 90 essential

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Behavioral Factors in Hypertension

• Essential Hypertension
• Condition in which blood pressure is chronically
  elevated
• No single cause can be identified
• 15 of the US pop
• Incidence increases with age
• Before the age of 50, more common in men
• Race?

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Behavioral Factors in Hypertension

• Hypertension
• Considered to be asymptomatic
• Increases the risk for
• Stroke
• Heart attack
• Kidney disease

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Behavioral Factors in Hypertension

• Risk factors for blood pressure
• Age
• Family history
• Dietary intake of salt
• obesity

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Behavioral Factors in Hypertension

• Julius Esler (1975)
• High levels of E NE found in hypertensives
• Genetics?
• Evidence from animal models
• Evidence from human studies

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Behavioral Factors in Hypertension

• Salt intake
• Believed to play role in essential hypertension
• Excessive intake of sodium acts on the kidneys to
  increase the volume of blood
• Is it unique to certain cultures?
• Acculturation
• Interaction with stress
• Decreasing sodium intake in hypertensives will
  lower BP

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Behavioral Factors in Hypertension

• Obesity
• Sodium intake?
• Weight loss?

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Stress, Sociocultural factors and Essential
Hypertension

• Race
• SES
• Dietary Patterns
• Exercise
• Background stress
• Nonwestern Cohesive societies
• Detroit Study
• Compared high stress and low stress environment
• High stress black males
• White and Black low stress males

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Stress, Sociocultural factors and Essential
Hypertension

• Henry (70s)
• Mice kept in isolation were housed in a cage that
  forced them to interact w/ several animals when
  they went to get food and water
• Showed elevation in BP
• Other studies involving fear, electric shock, and
  experimentally-induced conflicts induced
  hypertension
• Animals blood pressure tends to normalize when
  stressor is removed
• Humans do not

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Stress, Sociocultural factors and Essential
Hypertension

• Haythornewaite (1992)
• Medical students during exam week (high stress)
  and during vacation (low stress)
• Half consumed salt tablets
• Half consumed placebo
• Results?

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Personality Factors and Hypertension

• Cynical hostility
• John Henryism
• High effort copers

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Psychosocial Treatment

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
• Biofeedback
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Hypnosis
• meditation