At least, three in 10 adults in Nigeria have high blood pressure, according to Dr Tochukwu Uwaezuoke, a Chief Consultant Cardiologist/ Physician at the National Hospital, Abuja. In this interview with Health Reporter, Marcus Fatunmole, the Cardiologist stresses the need for people to adopt various preventive measures to avoid the deadly condition. He calls for weight shedding, increased natural food consumption, less salt intake, among others, for such measure. Excerpts:

 

Sir, What manner of condition do you refer to as high blood pressure?

 

High blood pressure is a condition that exists when the blood pressure is found to be elevated persistently above what we regard as normal. We have blood pressures; but whether it is high is a different ball game. Blood pressure is necessary because that is the pressure that the heart requires to pump blood round our system and to supply blood oxygen and nutrients to our various organs. So, when that pressure becomes higher persistently than what we expect, we regard that as high blood pressure or hypertension.

 

What is the specific range at which our blood pressure should flow?

 

By convention, because God has not placed a limit, it is doctors who arbitrarily fix these values. At a value of more than 140 upon 90, systolic and diastolic, we say that the person has high blood pressure or hypertension.

 

What actually causes hypertension?

 

Hypertension is a disease that we can only be sure of the cause in less than five percent of cases. In the vast majority of patients, we do not know the cause because we investigate these patients and we do not find obvious reasons why they have high blood pressure. However, there are certain factors that we have come to associate with high blood pressure. Factors like genetics, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, advancing age, smoking, excess alcohol use, there are a number of factors that are normally associated with high blood pressure. What I am saying is that as people age, they tend to have high blood pressure more than people that are younger. You find that in people who are in their 20s, we find very few of them with high blood pressure. But, as people get to their 40s and 60s, more likely it is that they become hypertensive.

 

Could you elaborate on the disease genetic condition of the disease?

 

There are some evidences that high blood pressure can be inherited. We know clearly that when one’s parent has high blood pressure, the risk will increase. And, when your both parents are hypertensive, the risk will increase dramatically. It is a hereditary disease.

 

Could you provide some statistics on patients with high blood pressure in Nigeria?

 

At least, three in ten of adults in Nigeria have high blood pressure. And of these figures, less than onethird would know that they have high blood pressure. Most people will not know ordinarily unless they do routine checks. That is why we doctors insist that people do routine checks. What I am saying in effect is that high blood pressure basically has no symptoms. There are people who have associated high blood pressure with headaches, dizziness, and tiredness. But, these are by no means fool proof. There is no concrete evidence that once someone has high blood pressure, he has headache or vice versa. Sometimes, we have some people who have high blood pressure with headache, some have dizziness. Basically, high blood pressure is in-symptomatic, that is symptomless. You only find out when you go to hospital and get your blood pressure checked. That is why it is called a silent killer because it silently works to cause harm.

 

 

Hypertension has been said to result in heart failure, slumping, how does it graduate to this level?

 

That is actually the big deal about blood pressure. The higher the blood pressure, the more likely you will get complications. The organs that are most easily targeted are the heart, the kidneys, the brain and sometimes the eyes. What is does basically is to damage the vessels to those organs. It damages the vessels that go to the heart, it damages the vessel that go to the brain thereby causing stroke. It damages the vessels that go to the kidneys.

 

The heart, particularly, is the organ that bears the brunt of blood pressure. This means it is the heart that pumps and generates the pressure. When the heart generates pressure for a long time, the heart is working too hard and that heart could fail. It can cause heart failure, it can cause heart attack, it can cause stroke, and it can also cause kidney failure.

 

Many Nigerians, including prominent people have been heard to suddenly slump and died. Would you say hypertension is responsible for this?

 

We know, medically, that all deaths that occur suddenly are not truly sudden. Most of them that we see are not truly sudden. The backgrounds of those deaths have been laid down for a while. High blood pressure would form the majority of those deaths because like I said earlier on, it affects the heart muscles; it affects the vessels that work with the heart. Therefore, it can block the vessels and cause heart attacks. Heart attacks are the commonest cause of somebody that you have seen apparently healthy and dies suddenly. High blood pressure is the commonest cause of sudden deaths in Nigeria. It occurs often because the patients do not check their blood pressure.

 

How long could one have high blood pressure before it leads to sudden death?

 

Well, that is a question that is difficult to answer because like human beings, we have different ways of responding to diseases. Some people will respond to diseases very fast. Other will respond very badly. It depends on the make-up of the person. The fact is that the longer you are hypertensive, the more likely it develops complications.

 

What preventable measures can be taken against this disease condition?

 

That is actually where I think that emphasis should be laid because drugs are expensive; high blood pressure is not curable. Prevention is the best thing that we can do. The first step is to ensure people go for check regularly. Blood pressure doesn’t just rise overnight. It rises slowly overtime. If one doesn’t take adequate measures, it begins to rise. There are measures you can take. You can exercise regularly, you can eat a lot of fruits; you can lose weight if you are obese; you can quit alcohol drinking if you drink; you can also quit smoking. If you do all these, you could reduce the chances of developing high blood pressure.

 

What is the prevalent rate of the disease here in Nigeria, compared to developed nations of the world? High blood pressure is a worldwide disease. It affects every race. What we do know for sure is that the complications appear to be heavier or more serious in blacks. Black, especially male, tend to have more stroke, more heart attacks and generally more complications than in other races. If you have high blood pressure and you are a black male, you are at a higher risk to have complications.

 

People often attribute stress to high blood pressure. How true is this?

 

It is being said and it is something that is being pushed. Stress can obviously cause high blood pressure but it is being overstated. When you talk of stress as cause of high blood pressure, it is being overstated. If you look around the society, you discover that both the rich and the poor have high blood pressure. People that are lazy have high blood pressure; people that are busy have high blood pressure. It is not a question that it is just stress. But, stress might worsen. With much stress, it is likely to rise. If you have stress for like a week, and that force sustains your high blood pressure for like a month, that is something that is clear.

 

Could there be a way of stopping the disease from its genetic transmission to the new born?

 

The fact that we say high blood pressure is genetic or hereditary does not mean that it is infectious. But, if there is anything you have noticed that your parents do that makes them to have high blood pressure, you try to avoid such. If for example your parents are obese or eat too much salt, you should avoid being obese and you should also limit your salt intake. As for children, there are recent reports that children that are malnourished from the womb tend to have higher blood pressure.

 

Given the lifestyle and nature of food consumed in urban and rural areas in any society, where do you think high blood should be prevalent?

 

That is a very key point; it is a very good point you have raised. It is clear and we also notice that westernization has increased the burden of high blood pressure. The reason is that people now eat fast food. Fast foods contain more salt and they also make us fat. We exercise less in the cities. Our fathers in the villages will eat and go to farm, work and sweat; they never grow so fat. They tend to have less blood pressure. There are other factors as well that compound this problem. But, basically, less salt, less fat, the less obese you become, the less your high blood pressure. It is quite clear that if people will eat more of natural food, they will have less blood press

 

By National Mirror