Despite surplus information available today to a wide audience and obtainable from a wide spectrum of sources, there are hardcore traditional beliefs and ideas some people hold, hence they cannot be swayed by the truth. In the way they express these ideas and considering the tenacity with which they hold on to them, one is often tempted to leave such people with their beliefs. However, the downside of such an attitude is that they pass the wrong message to their audience, who sometimes find it easier to believe them than trained professionals. One of the disease conditions about which some of these dangerous myths are held is hypertension, a condition which we have discussed so much on this page in the past. This is why I have decided this week to shed some light on the topic. Even though the incidence of this disease is probably on the increase, there is still a huge gap in understanding the condition. It is common, for instance, to hear people say that they do not think too much about things and, therefore, do not understand why they developed hypertension, or use that as an avenue to believe they are immune from hypertension. Even though the causes of hypertension are not usually known in more than 90 per cent of cases, thinking too much is not one of its causes.
Too much thinking about anything is equal to undue worry; that does not cause hypertension. What is more likely to cause the condition is unnecessary agitation and undue aggression in the approach to things. Therefore, despite the increasing incidence of this disease condition, it is widely misunderstood. Blood pressure will rise and fall in the course of the day in response to a variety of situations. It can rise during exercise or a workout and fall during a prolonged period of rest. When the blood pressure is raised over a long period of time, it increases the danger that it can pose to various organ systems in the body such as the brain, the eyes, the kidneys and the heart. This reality goes against the belief many hold, quite erroneously, that a rise in blood pressure is usually not serious. It can be serious and very damaging. It can cause a stroke to happen. It can damage the eyes and cause blindness. It can be responsible for sexual dysfunction. Hypertension can cause the heart to fail and in acute situations, can be responsible for angina or a heart attack. It can also damage the kidneys and cause them to fail, thereby causing the sufferer to resort to special meals and kidney dialysis, beyond which kidney transplantation will have to be considered.
High blood pressure causes the damage named above by causing the elasticity of the muscles of the arteries to become progressively less. This will reduce the amount of blood that can reach the organ such an artery supplies with both nutrients and oxygen and lead to its gradual loss. In the brain, such damage over time increases the probability that the vessels could burst or become blocked. Some people use these tiny bits of information to sow misinformation and propagate illiteracy by claiming that high blood pressure is inevitable with age. That is not materially correct because while it is true that blood pressure rises with age, it is not a part of the ageing process, and it is not an inevitable fact that all elderly people suffer from a rise in blood pressure. By the age of 60 years, for example, more than 60 per cent of seniors would have developed hypertension, and even this reality can be checked or prevented by the adoption of certain lifestyle changes, which would make that scenario far less likely. Some of these measures are things we have discussed before on this page and they include the adoption of regular exercises, quitting cigarette smoking, reducing the consumption of salt and sugar, and eating better meals made up of less fat and carbohydrates.
There are people who also refuse to believe that they can have high blood pressure without experiencing any symptoms. These people do believe that if they had the condition, they would know. The fact of the matter is that there are no symptoms one might feel or have that are indicative of hypertension. That is responsible for the reason why the condition is called a silent killer. Another group of people believe that they have nothing to worry about since hypertension is not known to exist in their families. However, isolated or sporadic cases might be responsible for many of these incidents. The obverse of the coin is that in some cases, hypertension does run in the family. It is not an inherited disorder in such settings, but certain common genetic streaks may make family members prone to developing the condition, especially if they do not adhere to certain lifestyle restrictions. It is clear through the availability of large-scale studies in a number of countries that even when people carry this genetic risk, the maintenance of healthy body weight, low alcohol usage, moderate and regular exercises, plus shunning cigarette smoking diminish their chances of getting the condition.
The other myth which is laughable is the insistence by a number of people who are diagnosed with hypertension that they do not take an undue amount of salt. It is interesting that people believe that the salt they take only involves table salt, which they can physically appreciate. However, that is not usually the case as shown by the United States Centers of Disease Control, which states that about 40 per cent of the salt we consume comes from about 10 different types of food. These foods are eggs, cheese, chicken, soups, stews and burritos. Other sources are snacks like potato chips, popcorn and crackers; foods like pizza, bread, sandwiches and processed meat. Besides, the food category known as ultra-processed food is particularly high in salt content. These would include things like chocolates, soft drinks, fruit juices, sweetened breakfast cereals and canned foods. Therefore, we silently consume huge quantities of salt from these various foods without actually realising it. In a study published in the British Medical Journal, data obtained from more than 100,000 people did not only endorse these findings but also showed these things were responsible for more than 10 per cent cases of breast cancer.
The final myth we shall explore refers to those people who feel that because they have recorded comparatively low blood pressure over time, they can dispense with their medications. It does not work like that; at the time of diagnosis, you should expect to have to treat the condition over a lifetime. Usually, the decision to cut the dose of your medication will have to be taken by your doctors when they observe that you have maintained normal blood pressure for up to a year or more. It is quite rare for the treatment to be stopped completely and it is vital that some form of treatment be maintained over a long time, even at the minimum possible dose, in order to ensure consistently good results. This fact puts a lie to the thesis put out for their peers to feed on that hypertension can ultimately be cured. The only possibility in that connection is the type of hypertension associated with issues that are amenable to surgical treatment. When the relevant operation is performed, therefore, hypertension is treated. This clearly occurs only in a minority of cases. The patients who can become the subject of such treatment can belong to any age bracket.
