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The increased blood pressure is caused by arterial resistance to the blood flow.
As the resistance increases, the body finds it more and more difficult to supply oxygen, which is carried by the blood, to essential body organs.
Furthermore, the problem builds upon itself as the harder the heart has to work to pump blood through the narrowing vessels, the weaker and more spent it becomes.
As the blood vessels become stiffer and thicker eventually the pressure will become so high that the heart can no longer pump enough blood through the arteries.
At this point, the condition is potentially life threatening.
This disease comes in two forms: Primary pulmonary hypertension - this is when PHT occurs without any causal heart, lung, or other disease.
It's a relatively rare disease and it's cause is not known.
What is known is that for some reason the lung blood vessels become diseased causing the blood pressure in them to rise.
It's also known that primary pulmonary hypertension affects females more than males although we don't know why.
Secondary pulmonary hypertension - this is when PHT occurs as a result of some other underlying pre-existing disease such as a heart disorder or lung disease.
It's called "secondary" because it is secondary to some other medical problem.
Whatever the cause, the earlier it is diagnosed, the better.
Just like high blood pressure, the longer it's left untreated the more damage it does.
Without treatment, at some point, a tipping point is reached and the patient is left with no options.
A person with high blood pressure will normally experience no symptoms.
A person with pulmonary hypertension, however, may experience a multitude of symptoms such as shortness of breath, dizziness, abdominal swelling due to the accumulation of fluid, swelling of the limbs, fainting, and others.
But the symptoms do not come suddenly.
They usually gradually creep up on a person over the course of a number of years making it more difficult to recognize.
In fact, untreated PHT is the third most common form of cardiac disease for those over 50.
Treatment for PHT will be determined by what category of disease it falls into - arterial, venous, hypoxic, thromboembolic, or miscellaneous PHT.
Lifestyle changes such as those recommended for high blood pressure while useful for keeping the body healthy in general, will probably not be enough for those suffering from pulmonary hypertension.
Although, your primary health care physician, will of course make the final recommendation, some sort of prescription drug treatment is almost guaranteed.
In more severe cases, surgery is also a possibility.
Fortunately, with the ongoing medical advancement and inventions of new drugs and surgical procedures, the survival rates for those suffering from PHT is on the rise.
Even in the worse possible circumstance where the sufferer will require a lung transplant, 1 year survival rates are over 73%.
And while not perfect, we can expect those odds to improve in the near future.
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