Chronic inflammation and hypertension can damage your heart.
Here’s how to reduce your risk of both.
High blood pressure, orhypertension, is common.
Getty Images
Nearly half of adults in the United States have hypertension, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention.
An insidious force, called inflammation, also affects your heart health in a variety of ways.
What Is Inflammation?
Inflammation is your body’s normal response to an illness or injury, according to theNational Institutes of Health.
Inflammation can be either acute or chronic.
Acute inflammation happens when the immune system activates to tackle something sudden, like a bee sting.
What’s the Link Between Inflammation and High Blood Pressure?
The two are closely related, and they affect your health in profound ways.
Here’s a closer look.
Many studies have investigated the link between inflammation and hypertension.
That opened the possibility that treating inflammation may also treat hypertension.
How to Reduce Inflammation to Prevent High Blood Pressure
Inflammation can be reduced in several ways.
“There’s not one magic treatment option to reduce inflammation,” Shah says.
That’s because the root cause of inflammation is different for everyone.
There are steps you might take on your own to reduce inflammation.
The Bottom Line
Chronic inflammation can contribute to high blood pressure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes.
Because inflammation and blood pressure are linked, reducing inflammation can help lower blood pressure.
Many heart-healthy lifestyle changes are recommended for improving both inflammation and hypertension.
Acute inflammation may show up as swelling or redness, for example.
Whether damage can be reversed depends on the extent of the damage, Shah says.
