What Are the Dangers of High Systolic Blood Pressure for Women?

Systolic pressure is the amount of pressure on your blood vessels each time your heart beats. If you have high systolic blood pressure, you may have isolated systolic hypertension. High blood pressure is serious and can cause major health problems.

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

• Hardened or damaged arteries in your brain can rupture, causing a stroke.