High Blood Pressure: Things You Should Know About It As A Young Person

By Tolulope Popoola
In the world we are today, a lot of people do not pay attention to their health especially Nigerians. The struggle to earn a living and make ends meet, see thousands of Nigerians out of their homes as early as 4:00am and getting back to their homes nothing earlier than 7:00pm.
So much of our time and energy is consumed by our daily activities making people lose sight of other health-related concerns, increasing the number of people that drop dead every day.

For us to get back in touch with ourselves, let’s take a look at something that affects up to 38.8% percent of Nigerians today.

High Blood pressure is a condition that is projected to affect roughly 80 million Nigerians with 26.7million receiving treatment. Many times, it is regarded as an illness that needs our attention later in life but the narrative has changed of recent, as even young people battle with this killer illness. Also called hypertension, there are numerous causes with very few – or no – symptoms. As mentioned earlier, adults and even teens across all age groups are prone to face this health issue but they benefit from early awareness and prevention.

While the risk of high blood pressure is no respecter of age, there are various steps to ensure that one’s health is managed properly to prevent or manage high blood pressure.

1. Bear in mind that young people are at risk of having high blood pressure. Gone are the good old days when age used to be a determinant factor of high blood pressure.
2. Another risk factor of high blood pressure is family history: A typical illustration will be that of a couple Mr. and Mrs A with up to 4 children. If any or both of Mr. A’s parents have hypertension, likewise Mrs A, there is a huge tendency that any or 3 out of the 4 children will have hypertension if care isn’t taken. This is something that is passed down in the genes of the children, lying redundant until is triggered and becomes active by other health hazards. This makes family history a strong risk factor of this illness.
   Other risk factors are:
3. Weight
4. Physical activity level
5. Smoking
6. A high sodium diets
7. Alcohol consumption
8. Stress
   In addition, sources of high blood pressure fall into two types.
   i. Primary or essential hypertension: It is a type of hypertension that tends to develop over years and without a clear cause.
   ii. Secondary Hypertension: This is one important type that is caused by underlying conditions, such as sleep apnea, kidney problems and adrenal gland tumors. People who already have these underlying health issues are at high risk of nursing hypertension.
   Often times, there aren’t any signs or symptoms of high blood pressure – which is why the American Heart Association calls hypertension “the silent killer.” Some patients have reported headaches, shortness of breath or nosebleeds, ignoring the fact that these indicators aren’t specific and usually don’t appear until a patient’s blood pressure has reached dangerous or life-threatening levels.

Hypertension can lead to several health issues as the artery tissues can become torn due to increased force, creating tears for “bad” cholesterol to get caught and form plaque. Over time, these vessels become more and more narrow, which further increases pressure. This can lead to many issues like:
• Arrhythmia (problem with the rate or rhythm of your heartbeat)
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Kidney disease or failure
• Loss of vision
• Sexual dysfunction
• Angina
• Peripheral artery disease
The Way Forward
The best of advice to patients seeking to reduce their risk of hypertension is to:
a. Schedule regular visits with their primary care doctor.
b. By checking your blood pressure frequently on every visit to a physician, the doctor is equipped to review the current health, family history and risk factors of every patient, which enables him to offer healthy choices (diet, exercise and sleep, among others) as well as determine a good frequency of consultations.
c. In as much as paying regular visits to the doctor is an excellent way to prevent hypertension, many young people should have a primary care doctor. Many young people between the ages of 18 to 29 do not see it as a necessity, hence they have none. Let’s change that today and reduce the rate at which young people die of hypertension.