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Amarachi Okeh
Health experts have dispelled the notion that too much thinking can cause hypertension, noting that the assumption that there is a link between hypertension and thinking has no scientific backing.
According to the experts, the major risk factor for increased blood pressure is age, stressing that thinking does not cause hypertension.
They stated that thinking may cause a person’s blood pressure to go up momentarily. This short-lived increase, they said, is usually resolved when the issue troubling the person is solved, stressing that this is not the pathway of hypertension.
The experts, a Professor of Medicine, Dr. Augustine Odili, and Consultant Clinical Pharmacologist, Dr. Sunday Ogundele explained that hypertension is a sustained rise in blood pressure that does not go away until treated.
Speaking with PUNCH HealthWise, Odili, who is also a Consultant Cardiologist, said, “Thinking doesn’t cause hypertension, whatever thinking means to people.
“The greatest risk factor for increased blood pressure is age. So, whether you like it or not, as you age, your blood pressure begins to rise.”
He said irrespective of the activities a person engages in to keep active, getting on in age is still a great risk factor for hypertension.
“As you age, your blood pressure increases so that fact must be sold to the public,” he said.
He also revealed that the second leading risk factor for hypertension is obesity.
Odili, whose research is focused on hypertension revealed that the prevalence of the condition in Nigeria is high, disclosing that a study conducted by his team, found that 38 per cent of Nigerians suffer from hypertension, adding that the study also revealed that more people above 60 years are at risk of the disease.
On his part, Ogundele, who is the Secretary of the Nigerian Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics urged people to stop associating thinking with hypertension.
He said most people assume that because they do not think they are not at risk of hypertension but that is not true.
“If you ask them if they have hypertension they would say ‘Aah, I don’t have hypertension, what am I thinking?’ But that is not the cause of hypertension,” he said.
According to the World Health Organisation, hypertension is a condition in which the blood vessels have persistently raised pressure.
WHO explained that blood pressure is created by the force of blood pushing against the walls of blood vessels (arteries) as it is pumped by the heart. The higher the pressure, the harder the heart has to pump.
The global health agency said hypertension is a serious medical condition, adding that it can increase the risk for heart, brain, kidney, and other diseases.
It is also a major cause of premature death worldwide, with over a billion people living with the condition, WHO said.
Speaking further with our correspondent, Ogundele urged persons who have lived with the condition for years not to be swayed by enticing sellers assuring them that there’s an alternative drug that can cure the condition permanently, noting that hypertension can only be managed medically and has no cure.
A person who goes off their medication will also not feel anything wrong with them until organ end damage has occurred, he warned, noting that hypertension is a silent killer because it does not show any symptoms until the organs have been damaged.
Ogundele said most Nigerians suffering from hypertension are not aware of it, adding that despite the high prevalence of the disease in the country, many people are yet to understand that it is a serious health issue that should be properly treated and managed.
“If you go to the medical emergency, you would probably see three to four people admitted today with stroke as a result of hypertension.
“You would probably see a few people with chronic kidney diseases because they have hypertension.”
What is most puzzling about this silent killer disease is that it shows no symptoms until the person has developed severe complications, he said.
“For instance, if someone has hypertension long term and the heart is becoming enlarged, he can start having palpitation or someone will start seeing snakelike movement, it is when the blood vessels get thickened.
“Or someone having headache when the blood pressure is very high or someone having blurry vision, it is when the hypertension is very high and they are having hypertensive retinopathy.”
Some of the complications that can arise from long-term untreated hypertension are stroke, chronic kidney diseases, heart failure, and heart attack, he added, noting that hypertension is also one of the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.
While stressing that there is no cure for hypertension, the health experts urged Nigerians to embrace a healthy lifestyle and adherence to the medication they are given by physicians to manage the health condition after they are diagnosed.
The experts also urged Nigerians to cultivate the habit of going for a regular blood pressure check, noting that the only way to diagnose hypertension is by checking blood pressure.
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