Patient was educated on risk factors and causes for primary hypertension as follows:

• African American race
  1. Individuals belonging to this race are genetically more prone to hypertension.

• Alcoholism
  1. Alcohol has calories and intake can lead to increase in cholesterol deposition and unwanted weight gain.
  2. Deposition of cholesterol in the blood vessels can lead to damage of the blood vessels, plaque formation, hardening of the blood vessels, and narrowing of the blood vessel lumen.
  3. Hardening and narrowing of blood vessels offer more resistance for blood flow, thus increasing the pressure, contributing to hypertension.

• Stress and anxiety
  1. Stress and anxiety can result in increased secretion of steroid hormones, as a compensatory measure.
  2. Steroid hormones help better management of stress and anxiety.
  3. In addition to the therapeutic use of stress management, steroid hormones also have a side-effect of increased sodium and fluid retention in the body, thus increasing the blood volume.
  4. Sodium has the tendency to further retain water in the body, thus adding more to blood volume.
  5. Increased blood volume will exert more pressure on the blood vessels and result in hypertension.