How to Treat and Prevent Hypertension

JULIUS Agbo, a top bank executive was being welcomed home one evening by his wife and children after a hard day at the office. He was in the process of returning their warm welcome when suddenly, he collapsed.

Stella, his wife tried all she could to revive him but there was no response from Julius. Stella was sensible enough to realize her husband was only few minutes away from death. Continue...

 

She raised alarm and with the help of neighbours got him to a nearby hospital. Immediately, doctors started work on him. Julius had a heart attack. Further investigation showed that he had high blood pressure. Even he did not know he was hypertensive. His blood pressure was 300/150. Efforts by the medical personnel to save him proved abortive as he never responded. Within 30 minutes, Julius, a 42 year old man was gone.

Julius is just one out of the millions Nigerians living with hypertension. He also falls among the 40 per cent of Nigerians who do not know their hypertension status. Experts say if Julius had known his status and monitored his blood pressure, he would be alive today.

Types of hypertension

Primary hypertension

Cause not known, tends to develop gradually over many years

Can be ameliorated only by lifelong drug therapy

Constitute 80-90% of hypertensives

Secondary hypertension

Elevated BP due to specific and potentially treatable cause.

Causes of secondary hypertension

• Kidney disease
• Adrenal disease
• Thyroid disease
• Drugs – NSAIDS, steroids, OCP, cocaine amphetamine, decongestants
• Sleep apnoea
• Pre-eclampsia/eclampsia 

Symptoms of hypertension

Most times there are no symptoms

This is why almost 1/3 of people who have hypertension are not aware of it

Some may have

Headaches

Light headedness/ diziness

Nosebleeds

How to Prevent Hypertension

• Weight reduction
• Low-fat and saturated diet
• Be more physically active
• Low sodium diet- less than 6g of salt per day
• Limited alcohol- <21units/week for men and <14units/week for women
• Increase fruit and vegetable consumption
• Stop smoking
• Effective stress management

Treatment

•  Drugs
•   Lifestyle modification