Detailed Nursing Report: Hypertension Risks, Prevention and Strategies

This nursing report addresses the critical health issue of hypertension, defining it as a significant medical condition increasing the risk of severe complications like heart attack and stroke. It highlights the global prevalence of hypertension, emphasizing its impact on both developed and developing countries, and identifies key risk factors, including excessive salt intake, unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles, and genetic predispositions. The report further details the serious complications associated with uncontrolled hypertension, such as heart failure and cerebral haemorrhage. It then explores preventive strategies, such as dietary modifications (reducing salt, increasing fruit and vegetable intake), regular physical activity, alcohol cessation, smoking cessation, and stress reduction. The report references key sources like the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association to support its findings, providing a well-rounded understanding of the topic.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL NURSING
Professional Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
PROFESSIONAL NURSING
Risks of hypertension
Hypertension or elevated blood pressure can be defined as a serious medical condition
that increases the overall risk of developing heart attack, cerebral haemorrhage, kidney
disease and other associated complications. Nearly 1.13 billion people in the world have
hypertension and majority of them are from low to middle income countries. Men are more
vulnerable to develop hypertension in comparison to the women (World Health Organization,
2019). Hypertension is also regarded as the major cause of the premature deaths throughout
the world. It is regarded as one of the fatal non-communicable disease. The main risk factors
of the modifiable risks factors that promote the development of the high blood pressure
include excessive consumption of salts, increase in the intake of the high saturated fat and
trans fats along with the low intake of the fruits and vegetables. Sedentary lifestyles,
excessive consumption of tobacco, alcohol and obesity also increase the risks of
hypertension. Non-modifiable risk factors include age above 65 years and presence of other
co-existing disease like diabetes or kidney disease and genetic predisposition (Elliott, 2020).
The complications associated with uncontrolled hypertension include chest pain or angina,
heart failure, heart attack, irregular heart beat that will eventually lead to heart failure and
death. Hypertension can also resulting in blocking or leakage in the arteries that supply blood
and oxygen to the brain and thus leading to the development of cerebral haemorrhage
(American Heart Association, 2020).
Preventive factors for hypertension
The main preventive factor behind reduction in the vulnerability of hypertension
includes overcoming the non-communicable factors that promote the hypertension. Some of
the common preventive factors underlying the effective prevention of hypertension include
reduction in the intake of excessive salt (less than 5 grams) in the daily diet and increase in

2
PROFESSIONAL NURSING
the consumption of green vegetables and fruits (Xavier et al., 2018). Regular conduction of
the mild to moderate physical activities helps to reduce weight and thereby helping to reduce
the overall blood cholesterol and this in turn reduces the percentage of blockage or thinning
of the arteries and decrease in the level of hypertension or blood pressure. Consumption of
alcohol increase the level of cholesterol in the body and this in turn increase the development
of heart attack. Thus alcohol consumption must be ceased completely in order to reduce the
threat of hypertension or decrease in the severity of the disease. This must be followed by
decrease in the smoking of tobacco and limiting the intake of the food that are high in the
saturated fat content (Jordan, Grassi & Tank, 2016). Tobacco consumption blocks the
pulmonary arteries and thus increases the chance of high blood pressure due to blockage of
the blood flow through the lungs. Cessation of smoking reduces the amount of tar deposited
in the lungs and thus helping to overcome the severity of heart attack. Eliminating and
reduction in the trans-fat in the diet is also helpful for reducing the threat of hypertension.
The modulation of the diet plan must be done under the supervision of trained dietician.
Reduction in the level of stress (psychological) also helps in reducing the severity of
hypertension (American Heart Association, 2020).

3
PROFESSIONAL NURSING
References
American Heart Association. (2020). High Blood Pressure. Access date: 10.04.2020.
Retrieved from: https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure
Elliott, J. (2020). Physiology of Blood Pressure Regulation and Pathophysiology of
Hypertension. In Hypertension in the Dog and Cat (pp. 3-30). Springer, Cham.
://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33020-0_1
Jordan, J., Grassi, G., & Tank, J. (2016). Device-based treatments in hypertension: think
physiology. Journal of hypertension, 34(8), 1502-1504. doi:
10.1097/01.hjh.0000538967.58643.f6
World Health Organization. (2019). Hypertension. Access date: 10.04.2020. Retrieved from:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hypertension
Xavier, T., Brisson, C., Gilbert-Ouimet, M., Duchaine, C., Dalens, V., Talbot, D., & Milot,
A. (2018). Masked Hypertension Incidence: Risk Factors In A Prospective Cohort
Study. Journal of Hypertension, 36, e2. doi: 10.1097/HJH.0000000000000992