What Are the Dangers of High Systolic Blood Pressure for Women?
Blood Flow When your heart beats, systolic pressure pushes blood throughout your body. Your blood carries nutrients to your body, and carries away toxins and waste. Pressure on your blood vessels can damage them. Vessels As the blood leaves your body, it travels through a series of vessels that branch off into smaller and smaller vessels. High blood pressure can cause these vessels to lose elasticity, and become hard and damaged. Pregnancy Women can develop different types of hypertension during pregnancy, such as preeclampsia and gestational hypertension. Symptoms include headaches, fluid retention, and vision problems. Hypertension during pregnancy can be very serious. Aneurysm High blood pressure can cause a bulge to form in a blood vessel. This is called an “aneurysm.” A ruptured aneurysm can be life threatening. Heart Failure The strain of pumping against high pressure can cause your heart to become thicker. This can lead to difficulty pumping blood and cause heart failure. Stroke
