As the nation’s socio-economic condition worsens with hope seemingly appearing bleak, physicians fear the situation, if not promptly addressed, may plunge a substantial number of Nigerians into serious health crises due to increased physical and mental stress.
The recent removal of fuel subsidy on fuel, further depreciation of the naira, impending increase in electricity tariff, and the introduction of Value Added Tax on diesel, amid an already battered economy, have further worsened the cost of living, pushing many Nigerians into untold hardship.
In the face of the aforementioned, the senior health professionals said people may have to watch their stress levels as they struggle to make ends meet, to avoid harming their health.
According to them, stress causes kidney failure, brain and heart damage, adding that already, the prevalence of chronic kidney disease is rising, yet remains underdiagnosed in the country.
The medical practitioners also revealed that stress causes diabetes, hypertension, and stroke, warning that it impacts blood vessels and major organs of the body negatively.
The Nigeria Association of Nephrology in April 2023, revealed that about 20 million Nigerians are presently living with chronic kidney diseases.
The body also said over 10 per cent of Nigerians, live with kidney diseases and that many have no access to medical facilities due to the high cost of treating kidney-related ailments.
The physicians who spoke exclusively to PUNCH Healthwise noted that though stress could serve as a positive motivator while handling life challenges, especially when channelled properly, it could, however, harm an individual’s health if the body is under high levels of stress for sustained periods.
A United States non-profit organisation, the National Kidney Foundation, says stress and uncontrolled reactions to stress can lead to kidney damage.
NKF noted that the combined impacts of increased blood pressure, faster heart rate, and higher fats and sugar in your blood due to high stress levels, can contribute to several health problems, including diabetes, and heart disease (also known as cardiovascular disease).
“As the blood filtering units of your body, your kidneys are prone to problems with blood circulation and blood vessels.
“High blood pressure and high blood sugar can place an additional strain or burden on the kidneys. People with high blood pressure and diabetes are at a higher risk for kidney disease.
“People with kidney disease are at higher risk for heart and blood vessel disease. If you already have heart and blood vessel disease and kidney disease, then the body’s reactions to stress can become more and more dangerous”, the foundation stated.
Data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bank of Nigeria showed that Nigeria was struggling with poor economic growth.
The Gross Domestic Product growth has hovered below five per cent, PUNCH Healthwise has learnt.
The World Bank recently warned that Nigeria’s economic growth was too slow to address the challenges of extreme poverty in the country.
Speaking with our correspondent, the President of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria, Professor Taiwo Obindo, said though low stress could have a positive impact by increasing productivity, it could however, be injurious to the body when it continues.
He noted that stress leads to non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, stroke, cancer, kidney failure, and heart disease, expressing worry that the current hardship had exacerbated the stress Nigerians were already going through and therefore, making them more vulnerable to certain killer diseases than ever before.
He said, “The body responds to these challenges such that chemicals are released into the system. These chemicals over time, due to their chronic presence in the system could cause so many things.
“When we talk about the heart; it could cause hypertension and stroke. The blood vessels become constricted and eventually, they may be wounded and block blood flow to the heart and even the brain.
“Stroke has to do with things happening in the brain. It is either the blood vessels in the brain burst, or get blocked, thereby preventing the supply of nutrients to some parts of the brain, and this could affect every organ of the body. That will impact the outcome.”
The psychiatrist reiterated that too much stress does a lot of harm to the body over some time if left unchecked.
On mental health, the professor said stress could lead to headaches, anxiety disorder, and depression.
According to him, “When somebody faces challenges, the heartbeat increases, blood vessels constrict and depletes blood supply, and the heart overbeats.
“That is why high blood pressure may arise. That is why the blood supply to the kidneys may be affected and then could cause kidney failure because if the blood supply to the kidneys is cut off for a very short period, it can cause acute renal failure.
“So, all these things can happen to the heart, kidneys and the brain. Particularly for the brain, if the stress continues, it could lead to anxiety disorder and depression.”
Recommending ways to manage stress, the mental health expert urged Nigerians to know their stress triggers and learn to manage them effectively.
“Everybody must identify the signs of being under stress. Somebody must be able to identify how much stress they can take because it gets to a level that if you start seeing symptoms, then you need to back out.
“If it starts affecting your sleep, starts giving you constant headaches, increases your heart rate and blood pressure, then you need to rest. Rest is important,” he advised.
Obindo also counselled Nigerians to have adequate sleep and eat well, affirming that both are important in stress management.
Corroborating his colleague’s position, a professor of Medicine and Endocrinology at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Olufemi Fasanmade, told PUNCH Healthwise that stress makes people prone to all NCDs including hypertension, diabetes, and cancer.
Stress, he also said was one of the reasons why diabetes and hypertension are now common in Nigeria.
Fasanmade observed that the major predisposing factor to NCDs is stress, stating that stress affects hormonal balance.
The endocrinologist said, “We don’t have enough social support. Everybody is struggling. Some people are doing four jobs to make ends meet.
“Some people are carrying the burden of three or four families because somebody has died. So, there is a lot of stress and all that stress makes the hormones change, such that blood pressure and blood sugar levels start to go up.
“Those stressors also lead to the damage of the body tissue. It can cause cancer to occur very easily. All the CDs are worsened by environmental factors and those stressors can be physical, psychological, financial, etc.”
The professor further noted, “When a person is under stress, for instance, there will be more of medical conditions affecting the brain including stroke.
“When you have a lot of stress and your blood pressure goes up, it damages the kidneys and the heart.
“So, these three major organs, the kidneys, heart, and brain suffer immensely when there is a lot of stress.”
He advised Nigerians to engage themselves in things that reduce stress such as exercise and to consume healthy diets, especially fruits and vegetables.
