The worst part of this issue is that there is no guarantee a person with hypertension will show any symptom, as a result 33 per cent of patients actually do not know that they are suffering from the condition, and this ignorance can last for years leading to serious consequences. The most common consequence of hypertension is said to be ‘stroke’ as worldwide 20 million people suffer from the brain attach each year, five million die, and another five million are disabled, and it is estimated that one in six people in their lifetime will have a stroke.
Hypertension, also referred to as high blood pressure, is a condition in which the arteries have persistently elevated blood pressure. Every time the human heart beats, it pumps blood to the whole body through the arteries. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing up against the blood vessel walls. The higher the pressure the harder the heart has to pump. The transitory or sustained elevation of systemic arterial blood pressure to a level can induce stroke, heart disease, kidney failure and other adverse consequences.
According to experts, a stroke occurs when a blood vessel bringing blood and oxygen to the brain gets blocked or ruptures. When this happens, brain cells don’t get the blood required. Deprived of oxygen, nerve cells stop functioning and die within minutes, so the part of the body they control can’t function either. This situation calls for immediate medical help if one does not even know about the problem.
If a patient reaches the hospital early, blood clot busting drug can help to completely reverse the effect of ischemic stroke. It is absolutely essential that the patient should reach the hospital within 30 minutes if they suffer from numbness of face, arm or leg, sudden physical fatigue, loss of balance, troubled vision, etc. Doctors warned that hypertension can, over a period of time, wreak havoc with one’s system.
In India, 1.5 million suffer from stroke each year and 3000 to 4000 are affected each day, yet a large number of people across the country are unaware of strokes and their link to brain damage. A recent survey carried out in six metros of the country concluded that awareness of a ‘stroke’ is abysmally low. According to the survey, 48 per cent of the people did not even know what ‘stroke’ meant.
The survey was conducted across people aged between 25 to 50 years. A total of 1507 persons were interviewed from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai. It mainly captured the respondents’ awareness and understanding of the term ‘stroke’, its symptoms, perceived causes, the prevailing knowledge about treatment options, and their experience with stroke sufferers. Unfortunately, most of the people interviewed in the survey were found to think that stroke was related to the heart.
Besides, a trend evident in the survey was that increasingly young people were becoming vulnerable to brain strokes. Doctors maintained that a lot is to do with lifestyle, work culture and eating habits. It was observed an increase of about 15 to 20 per cent in the age group of 25 to 40 reporting a stroke or atleast unmistakable symptoms of it.
Goa is said to be already on par with metros when it comes to lifestyle diseases, particularly hypertension-induced coronary ailments, due to various factors responsible especially the Goan diet, casual attitude towards alcohol intake and smoking. With an average 54000 stroke cases being reported each year, local neurological experts have raised questions whether the relatively affluent state is slowly seeing a large number of people getting strokes, and could be on the way to becoming an epicenter of the disease. Indeed, fears have been raised that Goa might soon be highlighted in the list of leading Indian states having the maximum number of stroke cases, after certain North Indian states.
Exact causes of hypertension are usually unknown but there are several factors that have been highly associated with the condition, such as smoking, high levels of alcohol consumption, obesity or being overweight, diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, mental stress, genetics and a family history of BP, lack of physical activity, high levels of salt intake (sodium sensitivity), etc. According to American Heart Association (AHA) sodium consumption should be limited to 1,500 milligrams per day, and that includes everybody, even healthy people without high blood pressure, diabetes or cardiovascular diseases. Another important factor associated with hypertension is said to be Vitamin D deficiency.
A recent research claims to have proved beyond doubt that lower the Vitamin D level in our body, higher the blood pressure. The research took into consideration 35 earlier students, covering 1.5 lakh people across Europe and North America, and found people with high concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) had lower blood pressure and therefore, a reduced risk of hypertension. A pre-hormone 25-hydroxyvitamin D or calcidiol, is produced in the liver when Vitamin D is synthesized. The study found that for every 10 per cent increase in 25 (OH) D concentration, the risk of developing hypertension decreased by 8.1 per cent. Hence, theories for Vitamin D therapy along with the usual drugs to treat high blood pressure have gained importance of late.
According to experts, a critical step in preventing and treating hypertension is a thorough awareness of the condition, adopting a healthy lifestyle and possibly drug therapy. People with blood pressure greater than 120/80 should make lifestyle modification, such as eating a healthier diet, quitting smoking and getting more exercise. Treatment with medication is recommended to lower blood pressure to less than 140/90. Patients who have diabetes or chronic kidney disease, the recommended blood pressure is less than 130/80.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
