By giving up smoking, many people will reduce their chances of developing hypertension. Other causes of essential hypertension may be linked to genetic or environmental factors. These can be adjusted. The more serious problems of hypertension begin when both the systolic and diastolic pressures remain high. As the muscles of the left side of the heart have to work harder pumping the blood, the heart becomes enlarged and may weaken to the extent that some degree of heart failure results.
Arteries also have to bear the strain and occasionally one ruptures.
If this happens in one of the small arteries of the brain, the result is a cardiovascular accident or stroke. Complications of hypertension Apart from a cerebral haemorrhage, stroke can also be caused by a cerebral thrombosis when a clot forms which partially or totally blocks an artery that may already have been narrowed by atherosclerosis. A cerebral embolism is a small clot formed elsewhere in the bloodstream that is carried along by the blood until it similarly obstructs an artery leading to the brain. Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart failure and plays a key role in the development of the disease. Early treatment of hypertension reduces the risk of progression to heart failure.