India should involve its experts and develop guidelines for the treatment of hypertension, according to Daniel Lackland, president of World Hypertension League.
New guidelines
“The country should use experts and develop plans to lower blood pressure (BP) levels. The resources are available. What is good for the United States may not be good for India. So, it is critical to include the resources that India has,” he told during an interaction on the sidelines of 28th National Conference of Indian Society of Hypertension, BPCON 2018, on Friday.
To lower blood pressure, a local plan was essential for the country, he reiterated.
Both America and Europe have come up with new guidelines for hypertension, said C. Venkata S. Ram, scientific advisor, Indian Society of Hypertension.
“Last year, America downgraded the definition of high BP from 140/90 mm Hg to 130/80 mm Hg. As per the American guidelines, those with a BP greater than 130/80 mm Hg have high BP. This drop is a paradigm shift,” he observed.
Europe, while maintaining 140/90 mm Hg as high BP, fixed 130/80 mm Hg as the goal BP.
With the World Health Organisation targeting to cut down salt intake by 2025, Dr. Lackland said every country has a problem with salt intake.
“We take excess salt. There should be increased awareness on what we take,” he added.
He added that drugs prescribed to lower BP worked better if salt intake was reduced. While the ideal salt intake is about 1,500 milligrams a day, no country is even closer as the intake was at least five times more, experts pointed out.
Salt intake
Dr. Ram said that voluntary efforts to cut down salt intake were not enough. “We need a law to be brought in by the Parliament to regulate food processing and the amount of salt.
There is labelling of content on perishable and canned food. But it has no effect as people read after consumption,” he said.
Need for prevention
Experts said that there was a need to focus on prevention as overall control of BP reduced the risk of stroke, cardiac disease and kidney disease.
A critical component was measuring BP as early as possible.
Dr. Ram pointed out that cases of hypertension was four times more than diabetes in the country.
S. N. Narasingan, organising secretary of the conference, said while diabetes is increasing, same was true for hypertension.
“Hypertension is much more. Now, 26% of the population are hypertensive. It is predicted that 1/3rd of the population will have hypertension by 2025. A huge chunk of persons are not diagnosed,” he said.
He stressed the need to comply with lifestyle modifications including physical activity, reduce salt intake and increase consumption of fruits and vegetables.
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