Chioma Umeha
A Consultant Cardiologist, Prof. Janet
Ajuluchukwu, has warned that High Blood Pressure (HBP), high salt diet and
increase in blood sugar are major risk factors of heart damage.
Ajuluchukwu made this known in an interview with
the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.
She said that HBP wasn’t only a risk factor of
heart damage but also a disease on its own.
“HBP, also called hypertension is a disease on its
own; it’s also a risk factor for heart damage.
“When there’s HBP or hypertension, the heart will
enlarge and any enlarged organ is telling you that it is easily damaged.
“The heart enlarges to do more work.
“Meanwhile, by enlarging; it also gets into
trouble and can get into heart failure,” she said.
The cardiologist explained that the risk factors
for hypertension, including smoking, a high salt diet, herbal medications,
obesity and increase in weight could also cause heart damage.
Ajuluchukwu stressed the need for individuals to
avoid foods with high salt content because it could cause a sudden increase in
their Blood Pressure (BP).
“Salt is also a preservative. Tinned foods or
foods sold for commercial reasons tend to have a high salt content, so it
doesn’t spoil quickly.
“But that high salt is very injurious to us.
Anything that has a lot of salt can make the BP go up,” she warned.
The cardiologist said that another major risk
factor of heart damage was diabetes.
She decried the increase of diabetes which she
attributed to be majorly caused by lifestyle choices.
“Before it was only three per cent some years ago,
but now it is getting to nine per cent in the community having diabetes issues
due to lifestyle”.
“Lack of exercises, obesity and increase in weight
are factors that increase the possibility of HBP as well as diabetes,” she
said.
Ajuluchukwu urged Nigerians to be more physically
active, especially at their work places and during their leisure time.
She advised that people go for regular BP, blood
sugar and urine checks.
NAN reports that the Nigeria Hypertension Society
(NHS) said on May 17 that one-third of Nigeria’s adult population is
hypertensive.
The President of the Society, Prof. Ayodele
Omotoso, said this on the side-line of the World Hypertension Day.
Omotoso, lecturer with the Cardiology Unit,
Department of Medicine, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), said
then the theme of the 2018 World Hypertension Day is: “Know Your Numbers”.
“The meaning of the 2018 theme is simply “know
your blood pressure recordings’’.
Regrettably, the Cardiologist said that only
one-third of adult Nigerians, who are hypertensive are aware of their status
and just one-third of them are on treatment in spite of availability of potent
drugs.
He said that the purpose of the commemoration was
to increase the awareness of high blood pressure around the world.
“The ultimate target is to encourage citizens of
all countries to prevent and control this silent killer, the modern epidemic,’’
Omotoso said.
He described hypertension as a situation in which
there is sustained elevation of blood pressure above a threshold of 140 mmHg
systolic and 90 mmHg diastolic in an adult.
NAN also reports that the expert warned that
hypertension only announced its presence in most people after they had suffered
a stroke, heart failure, heart attack or kidney failure.
He explained that the social and economic toll of
the complications of hypertension on immediate families and the nation at large
was enormous.
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