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How Hypertension Ignorance can Lead to Stroke?

High blood pressure is so commonly seen these days that we forget that it’s a health problem at all. When your blood pressure stays high over a long period, it’s called hypertension. You are usually diagnosed with hypertension if it's consistently higher than 140/90mmHg. Most of us do not know Hypertension Ignorance can Lead to Stroke.

High BP is the leading cause of the non-communicable disease (NCD) in India and the prevalence rates of hypertension are expected to almost double from 118 million in 2000 to 213 million in 2025.

It is also a well-known fact that most hypertensive individuals are unaware of their high blood pressure. This is not only the case with our society but even in developed countries. This lack of awareness has many reasons. Hypertension by itself has no specific symptoms and thus patients present late only when they develop complications.

Common man in our society, because of illiteracy does not understand the importance of routine checks on his blood pressure. Few people are diagnosed during a routine medical check-up. Even less are aware of the dangers of high blood pressure; including the risk of stroke.

What is the link between high blood pressure and stroke?

Hypertension is often called a “silent killer”. It is a contributing factor in around half of all strokes, making it the biggest single risk factor for stroke. Your blood pressure can go up and down over the course of a day, such as during exercise or sleep.

These short-term changes are not likely to cause a stroke. But when your blood pressure stays high over a long period of time, this leads to damage to the blood vessels in the brain and can eventually cause a stroke. So, Hypertension ignorance can lead to Stroke.

Stroke can occur in two ways:

1. High blood pressure puts a strain on all the blood vessels throughout your body, including the ones leading to the brain. This strain can damage your blood vessels, causing them to become harder and narrower. This makes a blockage more likely to occur, which could cause a stroke.
2. The extra strain that high blood pressure puts on your blood vessels may cause a weakened blood vessel to burst inside the brain, causing bleeding on and into surrounding tissues. This is called a haemorrhagic stroke. 

How to identify a stroke?

BE FAST

B- Balance; there is loss of balance, dizziness

E- Eyes; blurred vision

F- Face; one side of the face may be drooping

A-Arms; arm or leg weakness

S- Speech; speech difficulty

T- Time; time to call for an ambulance

How can you reduce your risk of hypertension and stroke?

• Since hypertension doesn’t have any symptoms, you must measure it to tell if your blood pressure is high. All adults should have their blood pressure checked regularly. If you're using a home monitor, discuss with your doctor.
• Maintain your body weight. If we are overweight and obese is we can get chronic problems.
• Reduce your excess salt intake.
• Eat lots of fruits and vegetables.
• Exercise regularly. Be more active.
• Reduce caffeine intake.
• Avoid smoking and alcohol consumption.
• Reduce your stress levels and take time to relax.
• Try to get at least six hours sleep a night.

Salt intake in India

Having learned that Hypertension Ignorance can Lead to Stroke, we need to understand the role of salt. The average Indian diet has undergone a drastic nutrition transition over the last three decades. The intake of unprocessed cereals, fruits, and vegetables has decreased while consumption of meat products and processed foods has increased.

According to the National Institute of Nutrition, a normal person requires 2000mg-2300mg of sodium in a day. In general, 1 tsp of table salt contains 2300mg of sodium. However, the daily intake in Indians varies between 2.3 g - 9.2 g depending on the dietary habits, which is very high.

How can you reduce salt intake in your diet?

• Use salt only for cooking. Both table salt and rock salt have sodium.
• Avoid sprinkling salt in salad or in any food items. Use other herbs like pepper, mint etc to enhance taste.
• Avoid all kinds of packaged, processed foods in your daily life. They contain high amounts of sodium which goes unrecognized. For e.g. bakery products, biscuits, sauces, chips, cheese, namkeen, papad etc all have large amounts of salt.
• Fast foods like pizza, burger, etc contain a lot of salt.

It is also a well-known fact that most hypertensive individuals are unaware of their high blood pressure. This is not only the case with our society but even in developed countries. Out of 50 million adult hypertensive individuals in USA 30.

In short, physicians and the community both have the responsibility to disseminate awareness regarding the asymptomatic nature of hypertension at least in its early stages, and the importance to recognize and treat it early to minimize the risk of coronary vascular disease and its complications

In conclusion, physicians and the community both have a responsibility to spread awareness. We need to understand the asymptomatic nature of hypertension at least in its early stages. Also, the important to recognize and treat it early to minimize the risk of stroke.

Connect with us for the Dash diet which can help in managing hypertension.