May 17, 2021 – Today is World Hypertension Day. This year’s theme is Measure Your Blood Pressure Accurately, Control It, Live Longer, focusing on combatting low awareness rates worldwide, especially in low to middle-income areas, and accurate blood pressure measurement methods.
Often neglected as just a headache or high BP, hypertension can lead to serious health crisis if not treated properly at the right time.
Hypertension affects more than 30% of the adult population worldwide, more than one billion people around the world. It is the main risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, especially coronary heart disease and stroke, but also for chronic kidney disease, heart failure, arrhythmia and dementia.
The burden of hypertension is felt disproportionately in low- and middle-income countries, where two-thirds of cases are found, largely due to increased risk factors in those populations in recent decades.
What’s more, around half of people living with hypertension are unaware of their condition, putting them at risk of avoidable medical complications and death. Accurate blood pressure (BP) measurement is essential for the proper diagnosis and management of hypertension.
BP measurement is perhaps the most commonly performed procedure in clinical medicine and, although it seems simple at first glance, current suboptimal measurement leads to negatively impacting clinical management decisions in 20 – 45% of cases.
World Hypertension Day is a great oppourinity to do a basic check on our health status particularly amid the coronavirus pandemic and a deluge of tragic news around coming in every day.
On World Hypertension Day, here is a look at the theme and a few essential facts that can help raise awareness about the crucial health parameter that can prevent a crisis.
What is hypertension?
The term hypertension is often used casually but do we know what it actually refers to? According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), ”hypertension, also known as high or raised blood pressure, is a condition in which the blood vessels have persistently raised pressure.
Blood is carried from the heart to all parts of the body in the vessels. Each time the heartbeats, it pumps blood into the vessels. 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.”
World Hypertension Day 2021: Important facts
- Many people with high blood pressure often have no symptoms, ”even if blood pressure readings reach dangerously high levels.”
- A few people ”may have headaches, shortness of breath or nosebleeds, but these signs and symptoms aren’t specific and usually don’t occur until high blood pressure has reached a severe or life-threatening stage.”
- Blood pressure should be checked ”at least every two years starting at age 18. If you’re age 40 or older, or you’re 18 to 39 with a high risk of high blood pressure, ask your doctor for a blood pressure reading every year.”
- Common risk factors include age, family history, being overweight or obese, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, using too much salt in your food, drinking too much alcohol and high levels of stress.