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On Saturday July 3, 2021, I lost a close family member in the Emergency Section of Federal Medical Center Umuahia. He had called me by 6: 30am complaining that he got up for his morning devotion, took some water, and immediately started experiencing excruciating chest cum abdominal pain. He told me to rush to his house. As I was driving to his house with my wife, he called again, and bellowed my name in an agonizing shrill, and probably that was when he gave up the ghost.
Later his brother-in-law called, requesting that I re-route my journey straight to Federal Medical Center Umuahia. On arrival at the pouch of the Emergency Section, the man died. All efforts by a team of doctors and myself to resuscitate him failed. He died of hypertensive heart disease, which resulted in heart attack and subsequently cardiac arrest. If you have read me thus far, and above 40. Tell me honestly when did you check your BP last. Do not answer me. The question is rhetorical. For your family’s sake. Do the right thing.
Then hell broke loose. Every person that came to condole with the family, was anxious to know what is hypertensive heart disease, and what causes hypertension. But, but…. I protested this is an inauspicious moment to start explaining hypertension. The consensus was arrived, that I should discuss hypertension in my next Doctor Sun column. So here we are.
Since 2003, that is 18 years of my writing this column, I have discussed hypertension donkey times, but each week, each month and each year my readers one way or the other, will inundate me with requests to discuss hypertension again, especially if their dear ones suffered from it.
Let me go elementary I have said ad nauseam that high blood pressure (hypertension) is generally a symptomless condition in which abnormally high pressure in the arteries – as a result of daily wear and tear of the struggles for life survival. This increases the risk of problems such as stroke, aneurysm, heart failure, heart attack and kidney damage.
To many people, the word hypertension suggests excessive tension, nervousness or stress. In Medical terms, however hypertension refers to a condition of elevated blood pressure, regardless of the cause. It has been called “the silent killer “, because it usually does not cause any symptoms for many years – until a vital organ is damaged, like the heart or kidney.
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The number of Nigerians who have high blood pressure is estimated to be more than 50 million. Among those with hypertension only an estimated two out of three people with high blood pressure have been diagnosed. In those diagnosed above 75% of them abandon their treatment half way through.
Have you noticed recently how people are dropping dead. The engine block of these sudden deaths is high blood pressure. The first cause of hypertensive is what we medically call idiopathic, that is primary or essential hypertension. Hypertension often starts in the early 30s, but no age is exempt, and it is not caused by aging. Heredity seem to be one factor.
If an underlying condition is the cause of increasing blood pressure doctors call this secondary hypertension. Primary or essential hypertension result from multiple factors, including blood pressure volume, hormone activity in people who manage blood volume and pressure using medications, environmental factors such as stress and lack of exercise.
Secondary hypertension has specific causes and is a complication of another health problem. Please let your doctor do the total evaluation and management of your high blood pressure.
Always be medically guided.
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