Hypertension can Kill

High blood pressure or hypertension is one of the most preventable diseases in the world and yet it has been defined as one of the leading risk factors for various kinds of deadly diseases throughout the world. It also causes disability-adjusted life years. It can cause kidney failure, heart disease, and stroke, all of which can cause disability or death. This is why the World Hypertension League has created World Hypertension Day.

It all began when the Malaysian Society of Hypertension brought up the idea of having a day that brought to light the problems and preventative nature of hypertension. The first World Hypertension Day was initiated in 2005 and it has continued to be on May 17^th each year since.

The theme for 2012 was to emphasize a healthy lifestyle as part of maintaining good blood pressure. It focuses on healthy eating and exercising as ways to get blood pressure down. It is important because the incidence of high blood pressure among Malaysians has increased to 43 percent, which is a vast increase over the incidence of 33 percent in 1996. Malays have a higher incidence of high blood pressure compared to the Chinese and Indian races.

Females appear to have more high blood pressure than men having an incidence among Malays of 48 percent as compared to 39 percent among Indians and 39 percent of Chinese. The prevalence was found to be highest in those who have decreased education, low income and live in rural areas.

Not everyone was aware of their disease and, in fact, the highest number of those unaware of their disease occurred in Malays.

There are seven key strategies for helping to treat high blood pressure, including prevention and promotion of awareness of the disease so more people get screened for the disease. Media campaigns need to be in place that help get the word out about the disease and get screened properly. Social networking on the internet can be used as well to increase awareness of the disease.

Hypertension is one of the noncommunicable diseases that is among several related diseases such as diabetes, stroke and ischemic heart disease—all diseases increasing in frequency and all that are easy to prevent with the right planning and screening tests. Lifestyle plays a large role in these diseases and patients need to be supported in changing their lifestyle to prevent these diseases from debilitating them.