Health:Be aware of risk factors for hypertension

Hypertension or high blood pressure is a chronic condition where the individual’s blood pressure (pressure against which the blood flows) is higher than normal. A person may have symptoms like headache, restlessness, e.t.c., due to high blood pressure or there may be no symptoms at all. The high blood pressure may be detected while doing a physical examination for some other problem or prior to a surgical intervention. Once detected, high blood pressure needs dietary restrictions to keep it under control. Most of the people also need medication throughout their lives to maintain a normal blood pressure. Higher doses of drugs or more drugs are needed after a period to keep the blood pressure controlled. All the antihypertensive drugs cause some side effects which add to the sickness of the patient. Untreated hypertension damages other organs in the body like kidneys, eyes, heart, brain and peripheral vessels. Therefore it is important to keep it within normal range, i.e. 130/ 80 mm.Hg., or less. Considering the harmful effects of hypertension and its medicines, it is prudent that one knows the risk factors causing high blood pressure and prevents its development from a young age. Large quantities of saturated fats in the diet increase lipid levels in the blood which is a risk factor for both hypertension and heart problems. Therefore it is important for an individual to reduce intake of food substances containing saturated fats like cheese, butter, margarine, cream, eggs and meat products. Daily consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grain, e.t.c., vegetable products and lean meat like fish, is healthy. Doing physical exercise daily is vital in avoiding hypertension. It also prevents obesity and diabetes, which along with hypertension are risk factors for coronary artery disease. Exercises like brisk walking, swimming, light jogging and yoga are ideal for prevention of hypertension and its related problems. They also help in treating hypertension with minimum amount of drugs. Breathing exercises of yoga if done regularly are very useful in this regard. Many scientific studies have shown the beneficial effect of yoga on high blood pressure. Even if somebody develops it, after doing breathing exercises regularly for some months, the blood pressure can be controlled with little or no medicines. A word of caution here, any exercise done should not be strenuous or exhausting for the patient, otherwise it will be more harmful than beneficial. Exercises like weight lifting or muscle building should be avoided. These kinds of exercises release adrenalin in the body and augment blood pressure. Alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking are other risk factors for developing hypertension. Hence it is better to quit them before some damage occurs to the body. Physical and mental strain also leads to hypertension in people. One should learn to work within limits of his endurance. It is important to work hard in life. But it is equally important to keep good health. Hence it is desirable that one increases the amount of work done gradually and keeps regular hours of eating and sleeping. Mental stress should also be avoided if one wishes to avoid hypertension. A person can achieve mental relaxation by means of yoga, meditation, reading good literature, e.t.c., along with creative past times. Charity, generosity, friendly and cooperative attitude are other traits which help a person feel happy and relaxed mentally. Advancing age and hereditary are two other factors responsible for hypertension which cannot be avoided totally. But it should be known that brittleness of blood vessels occurring with advancing age causes only systolic hypertension (increased upper level of blood pressure). But if one has no other risk factors it will not affect him much. Similarly one can have some hypertension if there is a strong family history for it. But with other no other risk factors present, one can delay its development and keep it well controlled. Therefore it is good for individual health that a person is aware of the risk factors causing high blood pressure and tries to avoid them as much as possible. Dr. Rachna Pande is a Specialist-Internal medicine-Ruhengeri Hospital E-mail-rachna212002@yahoo.co.uk