The difference between knowing that one suffered from hypertension, and not knowing, was a minimum 10 years of normal life, said Andhra Group of Hospitals Managing Director and Chief Surgical Gastroenterologist P.V. Ramana Murthy.
Addressing doctors, paramedics and patients at the World Hypertension Day observed by the Heart and Brain Institute of the Andhra Hospitals Group in association with The Hindu on Tuesday, Dr. Murthy said with a simple health check, hypertension could be detected. Undetected hypertension was a dangerous disease like diabetes or cancer that reduced the life expectancy of a person.
Senior interventional cardiologist J. Sreemannarayana said World Hypertension Day was an initiate of the World Hypertension league (WHL). The theme for Hypertension Day was “know your Blood Pressure”. Everyone should keep track of the fluctuations in their blood pressure and take medical advice, if necessary.
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Dr. Sreemannarayana explained that hypertension was a “silent killer’ as there were no clear symptoms, initially. The symptoms that appeared after the hypertension became severe caused organ damage but were not specific and general in nature. Very inexpensive tests were the only way to confirm the disease, he said.
There are two types of hypertension — primary or essential hypertension — on the basis of causative factors and secondary hypertension was caused by kidney malfunction, adrenal gland over-activity, sleep apnoea syndrome, tumours and several other medical conditions.
He said three out of 10 people were suffering from hypertension worldwide.
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About 1.8 billion were suffering from the disease globally, and 50 per cent of them were totally unaware of their condition and half of the people who were aware of their condition were not taking their medication properly.
As many as 1.4 million had hypertension in India and the number was likely to go up to 2.20 million by 2030.
ESI Hospital General Medicine head T.V. Narayana Rao said everyone developed hypertension with the advancement of age. After 50, everyone should have periodic checks whether others in the family had the disease or not. He said diet was another factor that contributed to hypertension. Pickles like Aavakaya and Gongurra, which are salty, should be avoided by those with hypertension. He said patients who had diabetes and cholesterol along with hypertension were at a greater risk. Patients should consume more fruits and vegetables and less rice. M. Madhavi, MD, General Medicine, said that blood pressure varied from person to person, and it was not possible to establish the exact blood pressure of a patient with just one reading. There were several factors that brought about changes in blood pressure.
Doctors took several factors into consideration before prescribing medication, and patients should also strictly follow the guidelines in diet and lifestyle prescribed by the doctors, she said.