Does Gender Affect Blood Pressure?
When heart pumps blood out to distribute oxygenated blood throughout the body,
it has to do it with large force to pump the blood to each and every capillary in the body tissues.
The harder it is ,the larger the force is required, hence the larger the systolic pressure is. The
greater the resistance of the arteries to the flow of blood the greater the blood pressure. When
the heart relaxes, the blood from the body tends to flow back into the heart. But sudden closing of
some specific valves in the blood vessels as well as between atria and ventricular, the blood can
only flow into the atria. The pressure of blood in this situation is called diastolic blood
pressure. Because of their bigger body size, normally men have higher blood pressure than that of
women. But genetic aspects are also very significant contributors in determining the blood pressure
of a person. The problem comes when blood pressure remains abnormally high, for a person, because
it is the cause of cardiovascular disease, stroke as well as kidney disease. It is remarkably
important to remain well aware of the situation of the blood pressure because the cardiovascular
disease is the leading cause of death in women.
Causes of high blood pressure
Obesity, excessive alcohol intake, nicotine and other
chemicals associated with smoking, which cause hardening of the arteries, are some of the most
conjoint causes of the high blood pressure developing. Diabetes, lack of exercise causing
development of high levels of low-density cholesterols in the blood; as well as heredity factors
are also the reasons. Age of an individual is also a reason but it is always associated with the
high risk factors stated above.
Women already have high blood pressure and certain factors
that include pregnancy, oral contraception as well as hormone replacement therapy can increase
the blood pressure even further, which is damaging to the health of a pregnant woman. This is
because it not only causes the damage to the kidneys but also causes the birth weight of the
infant to be very low. Kidneys, brain, liver of a pregnant woman, are at high risk of damage as
well as effects on the placenta, by the development of a condition known as Pleeclampsia. Its
serious consequence is the development of seizures, which amongst the roots of death of a
A recent study was conducted to study the effect of gender
on the blood pressure. Men and women with wide range of different genes, having high and low
blood pressures, were the subject. The results of the study can be judged by the statement
released after the study, which is: “development of genotype-based diagnostic and therapeutic
indices for hypertension must take gender into account.” So, in men and women, effects of
genetic deviations are different.