Hypertension: ‘The Silent Killer’
EmPower Research
October 08, 2007
By Sharada K.S.
Fast-paced lifestyle, lack of physical activity, pressing deadlines, domestic pressures, crumbling relationships, degenerating environment; blame it on anything, and the five-letter word stress has come to occupy permanently a corner of our brains, and silently cause a host of ailments.
One in four adults suffer from high blood pressure (BP) or hypertension which increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and death. According to The Lancet medical journal, the number of BP patients may rise to 1.56 billion by 2025, up from 972 million in 2000.
Lifestyle factors like stress, physical inactivity, a salt-rich diet with high fatty foods, and alcohol and tobacco abuse is primarily the cause of the problem spreading from developed to developing economies like India.
According to recent estimates, one in five Indians (roughly 15-18% of the population) have high BP, but as there are no symptoms for it, nearly one-third of these people don’t even know they have it. Which is why high BP is often called the “silent killer”. And it’s a common knowledge today that uncontrolled high BP can lead to stroke, cardiac arrest, heart failure or kidney failure.
Hypertension is classified as:
Normal blood pressure: less than 120/80 mmHg
Prehypertension: 120-139/80-89 mmHg
Hypertension: greater than 140/90 mmHg
Stage 1 Hypertension:140-159/90-99 mmHg
Stage 2 Hypertension: 160 or greater/ 100 or greater mmHg
Signs and Symptoms
Hypertension is found incidentally through - "case finding" - by healthcare professionals during a routine checkup. The only test for hypertension is a blood pressure measurement. Hypertension in isolation usually produces no symptoms although some people report headaches, fatigue, dizziness, blurred vision, facial flushing or tinnitus.
Hypertension is often confused with mental tension, stress and anxiety. While chronic anxiety is associated with poor outcomes in people with hypertension, it alone does not cause it. Accelerated hypertension is associated with somnolence, confusion, visual disturbances, and nausea and vomiting (hypertensive encephalopathy).
High blood pressure tends to run in families and is more likely to affect men than women. Race also is a factor: blacks are more likely than whites to have high blood pressure and for it to occur earlier in life and with greater severity. Other factors associated with high blood pressure include obesity, diabetes, stress, sedentary lifestyle, alcohol consumption, and insufficient potassium, calcium, and magnesium.
Treatment Overview
Mild hypertension is usually treated by diet, exercise and improved physical fitness. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low fat or fat-free dairy foods and moderate or low in sodium lowers blood pressure in people with hypertension. This diet is known as the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), and is based on National Institutes of Health sponsored research. Dietary sodium (salt) may worsen hypertension in some people and reducing salt intake decreases blood pressure in a third of them. Many people choose to use a salt substitute to reduce their salt intake. Regular mild exercise improves blood flow, and helps to lower blood pressure. In addition, fruits, vegetables, and nuts have the added benefit of increasing dietary potassium, which offsets the effect of sodium and acts on the kidney to decrease blood pressure.
The goal of hypertension treatment is to lower high blood pressure and protect important organs, like the brain, heart, and kidneys from damage. Treatment for hypertension has been associated with reductions in stroke (reduced an average of 35-40%), heart attack (20-25%), and heart failure (more than 50%), according to research.
Medications
There are several types of drugs used to treat hypertension, including:
ACE inhibitors such as captopril, enalapril, fosinopril (Monopril), lisinopril (Zestril), quinapril, ramipril (Altace)
Angiotensin II receptor antagonists: eg, telmisartan (Micardis, Pritor), irbesartan (Avapro), losartan (Cozaar), valsartan (Diovan), candesartan (Atacand)
Alpha blockers such as doxazosin, prazosin, or terazosin
Beta blockers such as atenolol, labetalol, metoprolol (Lopressor, Toprol-XL), propranolol
Calcium channel blockers such as amlodipine (Norvasc), diltiazem, verapamil
Direct renin inhibitors such as aliskiren (Tekturna)
Diuretics: eg, bendroflumethiazide, chlortalidone, hydrochlorothiazide (also called HCTZ)
Combination products (which usually contain HCTZ and one other drug)
In the long term
Here are some suggestions that can lessen your chances of developing high blood pressure and helps to keep you healthy in many other ways:
Maintain a normal weight for your height
Exercise regularly. This can help prevent you from becoming overweight or helps you in losing pounds if you need to. Exercise also helps keep your heart and blood vessels strong and healthy
Eat a healthy diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables
Don't smoke. Smoking and high blood pressure are major risk factors for having a heart attack or stroke later in life
Keep your stress levels in check. It may help to practice relaxation techniques such as deep breathing exercises
Decrease your sodium (salt) intake. Consuming less sodium has been proven to help lower blood pressure in some people and may prevent some from developing high blood pressure in the first place
Avoid drinking too much alcohol, which is associated with high blood pressure
Know your blood pressure. Have it checked regularly because, although high blood pressure is more common in adults, hypertension can occur at any age
By treating hypertension, complications can be avoided and average life expectancy will remain almost normal.
Without treatment, life expectancy may well be reduced due to the risk of developing complications such as heart failure or stroke.
References:
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertension
The Economic Times
www.webmd.com
Fast-paced lifestyle, lack of physical activity, pressing deadlines, domestic pressures, crumbling relationships, degenerating environment; blame it on anything, and the five-letter word stress has come to occupy permanently a corner of our brains, and silently cause a host of ailments.
One in four adults suffer from high blood pressure (BP) or hypertension which increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and death. According to The Lancet medical journal, the number of BP patients may rise to 1.56 billion by 2025, up from 972 million in 2000.
Lifestyle factors like stress, physical inactivity, a salt-rich diet with high fatty foods, and alcohol and tobacco abuse is primarily the cause of the problem spreading from developed to developing economies like India.
According to recent estimates, one in five Indians (roughly 15-18% of the population) have high BP, but as there are no symptoms for it, nearly one-third of these people don’t even know they have it. Which is why high BP is often called the “silent killer”. And it’s a common knowledge today that uncontrolled high BP can lead to stroke, cardiac arrest, heart failure or kidney failure.
Hypertension is classified as:
Normal blood pressure: less than 120/80 mmHg
Prehypertension: 120-139/80-89 mmHg
Hypertension: greater than 140/90 mmHg
Stage 1 Hypertension:140-159/90-99 mmHg
Stage 2 Hypertension: 160 or greater/ 100 or greater mmHg
Signs and Symptoms
Hypertension is found incidentally through - "case finding" - by healthcare professionals during a routine checkup. The only test for hypertension is a blood pressure measurement. Hypertension in isolation usually produces no symptoms although some people report headaches, fatigue, dizziness, blurred vision, facial flushing or tinnitus.
Hypertension is often confused with mental tension, stress and anxiety. While chronic anxiety is associated with poor outcomes in people with hypertension, it alone does not cause it. Accelerated hypertension is associated with somnolence, confusion, visual disturbances, and nausea and vomiting (hypertensive encephalopathy).
High blood pressure tends to run in families and is more likely to affect men than women. Race also is a factor: blacks are more likely than whites to have high blood pressure and for it to occur earlier in life and with greater severity. Other factors associated with high blood pressure include obesity, diabetes, stress, sedentary lifestyle, alcohol consumption, and insufficient potassium, calcium, and magnesium.
Treatment Overview
Mild hypertension is usually treated by diet, exercise and improved physical fitness. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low fat or fat-free dairy foods and moderate or low in sodium lowers blood pressure in people with hypertension. This diet is known as the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), and is based on National Institutes of Health sponsored research. Dietary sodium (salt) may worsen hypertension in some people and reducing salt intake decreases blood pressure in a third of them. Many people choose to use a salt substitute to reduce their salt intake. Regular mild exercise improves blood flow, and helps to lower blood pressure. In addition, fruits, vegetables, and nuts have the added benefit of increasing dietary potassium, which offsets the effect of sodium and acts on the kidney to decrease blood pressure.
The goal of hypertension treatment is to lower high blood pressure and protect important organs, like the brain, heart, and kidneys from damage. Treatment for hypertension has been associated with reductions in stroke (reduced an average of 35-40%), heart attack (20-25%), and heart failure (more than 50%), according to research.
Medications
There are several types of drugs used to treat hypertension, including:
ACE inhibitors such as captopril, enalapril, fosinopril (Monopril), lisinopril (Zestril), quinapril, ramipril (Altace)
Angiotensin II receptor antagonists: eg, telmisartan (Micardis, Pritor), irbesartan (Avapro), losartan (Cozaar), valsartan (Diovan), candesartan (Atacand)
Alpha blockers such as doxazosin, prazosin, or terazosin
Beta blockers such as atenolol, labetalol, metoprolol (Lopressor, Toprol-XL), propranolol
Calcium channel blockers such as amlodipine (Norvasc), diltiazem, verapamil
Direct renin inhibitors such as aliskiren (Tekturna)
Diuretics: eg, bendroflumethiazide, chlortalidone, hydrochlorothiazide (also called HCTZ)
Combination products (which usually contain HCTZ and one other drug)
In the long term
Here are some suggestions that can lessen your chances of developing high blood pressure and helps to keep you healthy in many other ways:
Maintain a normal weight for your height
Exercise regularly. This can help prevent you from becoming overweight or helps you in losing pounds if you need to. Exercise also helps keep your heart and blood vessels strong and healthy
Eat a healthy diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables
Don't smoke. Smoking and high blood pressure are major risk factors for having a heart attack or stroke later in life
Keep your stress levels in check. It may help to practice relaxation techniques such as deep breathing exercises
Decrease your sodium (salt) intake. Consuming less sodium has been proven to help lower blood pressure in some people and may prevent some from developing high blood pressure in the first place
Avoid drinking too much alcohol, which is associated with high blood pressure
Know your blood pressure. Have it checked regularly because, although high blood pressure is more common in adults, hypertension can occur at any age
By treating hypertension, complications can be avoided and average life expectancy will remain almost normal.
Without treatment, life expectancy may well be reduced due to the risk of developing complications such as heart failure or stroke.
References:
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertension
The Economic Times
www.webmd.com
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