the.com/hypertension
The quiet arsonist of arteries — no smoke, all damage.
means Chronically high blood pressure, the kind that strains your arteries and heart with no obvious symptoms until it causes real damage.
from Built from Greek parts: 'hyper-' meaning over or beyond, and 'tension' from Latin 'tendere,' to stretch. So literally, 'over-stretching' — a fitting name for blood pushing too hard against vessel walls. The medical use of the term solidified in the 19th-early 20th century as doctors gained the tools (the cuff-based sphygmomanometer) to actually measure blood pressure rather than just guess at it from a patient's pulse or complexion.
- nickname
- the silent killer, because symptoms show up late
- threshold
- 130 over 80 now counts as high
- fix
- salt, sleep, and stress cut it more than pills alone
- risk
- doubles with every extra 20 points of pressure