9 Facts about hypertension you need to know

1. Hypertension is a chronic disease condition and it’s real.

It affects majorly the adults and the chances of becoming hypertensive increase as we grow older.

2. It is more common in:

  • people who are obese or overweight
  • people who drink alcohol excessively
  • those who smoke
  • those who consume a lot of salt (more than 2g a day),
  • the diabetics
  • women who use oral contraceptives
  • those who leave sedentary lifestyle.

3. One might not be aware that he is hypertensive unless he is checked.

4. Some lifestyle we indulge in makes us become hypertensive earlier than it would have come.

5. It kills and it does that silently

6. Most times, if you don’t have the habit of checking your health status from time to time, the time you would realize that you have hypertension; it might have caused a lot of damage to your body. First step to manage hypertension effectively lies on regular checking of your blood pressure to know its value each time. For those who are hypertensive, weekly check is good. Although, it can be as regular as daily if the value is excessively high. 

7. People whose values are less than 120/80 mmHg are not hypertensive. 

People whose values are between 120-139/80-89 mmHg are about to become hypertensive. Those whose value are 140/90 mmHg and above are hypertensive. 

8. Hypertension leads to other disease conditions. 
These are its complications and majorly occur when it is neglected. By being neglected, we mean when it is not being treated. These disease conditions include stroke, kidney failure, heart diseases and impaired vision or blindness.

9. Hypertension can be well managed. 

This is done either by lifestyle modification or through drug therapy or their combination. Lifestyle modification needed by the hypertensive include smoke cessation, drinking alcohol responsively, losing weight if overweight, avoidance of junk foods and too much salt intake, and by engaging in aerobic exercise regularly.

Don’t allow hypertension to kill you or any of your relatives, kill it instead. Just follow the recommendations here and that of your healthcare providers. 

Leave healthy to stay healthy.

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