Ignoring hypertension may lead to heart attack, stroke: docs

JAIPUR: Despite hypertension being one of the major risk factors for heart diseases, kidney failure and brain stroke, people often deliberately or inadvertently ignore it. According to city-based doctors, persistent ignorance towards hypertension leads to major health hazards.

“The biggest challenge is hypertensive people not being aware of their blood pressure and even if they are aware, more than 50% do not treat it adequately,” said Dr Sudhir Bhandari, principal and controller, Sawai Man Singh Medical College.

Dr Bhandari adds that hypertension is directly responsible for 57% of all stroke deaths and 24% of all coronary heart disease (CHD) deaths in India. The WHO rates it as one of the most important causes of premature deaths worldwide.

High blood pressure (BP) is ranked as the third most important risk factor for cardiovascular health status.

Even though, hypertension is taking a toll on the health of increasing number of people, it is seen that people are not taking proper precautions and treatment.

“I see at least one patient in a week, who has blood pressure above 200 mm of Hg and high creatinine level in the blood. It shows that high blood pressure has already started affecting their kidney function, when they come for treatment. Also, I have seen that patients do not come even for measuring blood pressure regularly despite the fact that they have hypertension. They keep taking same medicines for years thinking that the medicine prescribed by the doctor is lifelong,” said Dr Adil Aziz, consultant physician of a private hospital.

City-based cardiologists too expressed concern on the stressful life people are leading, increasing the risk of hypertension. “Extensive tension is the root cause of hypertension nowadays. A healthy lifestyle including a balanced diet, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise and a stress-free mind are the key to prevent the hazards of high blood pressure,” said Dr Rasheed Ahmed, cardiologist of a private hospital.

Another city-based cardiologist Dr Anshul Gupta said, “Hypertension is a silent killer. If affects almost every organ in our body. If diagnosed early, all such ill effects can be easily avoided. So there is a need to check blood pressure regularly.”

Dr Amit Kumar Singhal, consultant, Cardiology, of a private hospital said, “Hypertension is a condition when the blood pressure is consistently more than 140/90mm/Hg. Often considered a ‘silent killer’ because it doesn’t manifest specific symptoms and therefore goes undetected in many people, hypertension is the cause of many NCDs such as heart attacks, kidney failure, stroke and damage to the eyes.”