Hypertension, also often known as hypertension, is a medical condition that impacts nearly 120 million adults in the USA and one in three adults globally.
A latest report by the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that despite being a treatable condition, 4 out of 5 people all over the world with hypertension don’t receive adequate treatment.
The report revealed that the number of individuals affected by hypertension has doubled from 650 million in 1990 to a staggering 1.3 billion in 2019. It further stated essentially the most concerning aspect of this drastic growth was that almost half of the individuals were unaware of their condition, making it difficult for them to receive early medical intervention and management.
The statistics showed that greater than 75% of adults with hypertension reside in low and middle income countries, underscoring the urgent need for equitable healthcare access. The health officials stated that if countries can scale up coverage, 76 million deaths could possibly be prevented between now and 2050.
What’s hypertension?
Hypertension is a standard condition that affects the body’s arteries. Having hypertension signifies that the blood pushing against the artery partitions is consistently higher than normal, which causes the guts to work harder to pump the vital fluid.
The one approach to know for those who are affected by hypertension is to have a blood pressure test.
Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). On the whole, hypertension is defined as having a blood pressure reading of 140/90 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or higher.
Hypertension might be dangerous as symptoms may go undiagnosed and never show up for years, resulting in more serious conditions like strokes, heart attacks, heart failures, kidney damage, and several other other health complications.
While aspects like genetics and aging do influence the danger of hypertension, modifiable features akin to a high-salt weight loss program, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol consumption play a major role in increasing the danger of hypertension.
It’s crucial to underscore that early detection and efficient management of hypertension are amongst essentially the most cost-effective interventions in health care.
Making lifestyle adjustments like consuming a healthier weight loss program, quitting tobacco use, and increasing physical activity can significantly assist in reducing blood pressure.
Nevertheless, certain individuals may have medications to effectively regulate hypertension and forestall complications related to it.
“Hypertension might be controlled effectively with easy, low-cost medication regimens, and yet only about one in five individuals with hypertension have controlled it,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO.
“Hypertension control programmes remain neglected, under-prioritized and vastly underfunded. Strengthening hypertension control have to be a part of every country’s journey towards universal health coverage, based on well-functioning, equitable and resilient health systems, built on a foundation of primary health care,” he added.
WHO reported that the economic advantages of improved hypertension treatment programs outweigh its costs by about 18 to 1.
Blood pressure is amongst those topics which are “unsexy to speak about” because it’s extremely common, and likewise because individuals generally don’t experience noticeable symptoms from it, Dr. Gregory Katz, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Heart and an assistant professor within the Department of Medicine within the Leon H. Charney Division of Cardiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in Recent York, said.
“From a public health standpoint, it’s reducing sodium in processed foods, and attempting to make environments conducive to exercise. For people, it’s stress management, sleep, and exercise. For doctors, it’s outreach to communities where blood pressure will not be as well monitored. It’s understanding what the numbers are and recognizing barriers to treatment, after which intervening,” Katz told Healthline.
Treating hypertension through primary healthcare services will help save lives, while also saving billions of dollars every year, Michael R. Bloomberg, WHO’s Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, told the Pan American Health Organization.
Published by Medicaldaily.com