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Dr Annamore Jamu
“Hi Doc! What can I take for a nagging headache?” Before I could answer anything, the traffic lights turned green. I did not have her number to try and find out why she was having a headache for so long. Perhaps she is not the only one who trudges on throughout the day with some health issues, hoping it will disappear soon.
More so she wanted a quick fix to a medical issue without knowing what is causing it.
Signs and symptoms of high blood pressure (HBP) can be dizziness, double vision, tingling in any area of the body, loss of sensation in hands and feet, ringing in the head or ears, heart beating fast, headache and the list goes on. Sadly, there might not be any signs at all and yet someone have a very high blood pressure reading.
This is the reason why it has been referred to as a silent killer.
What is high blood pressure?
It is a condition when the heart pumps blood to the rest of the body using too much force (systole — the upper reading) and when the heart refills with the blood from the peripherals under great force as well (diastole — the lower reading).
The textbook normal reading is 120 over 80 that is (120/80). Note that if one is a sportsperson then the normal blood pressure can be slightly higher than 120/80 because the heart muscle is also well developed and strong and therefore can afford to pump the blood at a higher reading than a non-sportsperson.
Causes of high blood pressure
Anything that stresses your body can cause you to have high blood pressure reading, whether temporary or as a condition. Pain, lack of sleep, anxiety, bad news, dehydration, pregnancy: these tend to raise blood pressure readings. Fortunately, when these factors are eliminated or controlled, the blood pressure readings tend to go down too.
The worrisome causes of HBP are obesity, some medical conditions such as poor kidney function and poor thyroid function, some medications and bitterness, the list goes on. As people age, blood pressure tends to rise in some.
I would like to refer to it as that kind of wear and tear of the body. Adequate accumulation of toxins in our bodies over the years tends to raise blood pressure.
For some women who take family planning pills, their blood pressure goes up. This is the reason why every woman who wants to use family planning tablets should not just buy the tablets from the streets without having been prescribed by a nurse or medical doctor after a BP check.
The opposite is true: if a woman has normal BP reading before commencing on family planning tablets, she must have her blood pressure checked at least every three months.
If the blood pressure starts to rise with time, she should discuss with her health service provider and her partner with a view to change the birth control method.
Complications of HBP
Unfortunately, quite a number of people get diagnosed with HBP when they come to see a healthcare giver with what turns out to be complications from the untreated HBP.
A man dragged in his weak right foot and right arm into a consulting room and said, “Doctor, can you fix this weakness in my right side of the body because I have a business trip in two weeks’ time.
“And while you are looking at that, may I tell you also that I can’t feel my tongue properly and saliva sometimes escapes my mouth.”
No need to tell you that what then followed was a lengthy counselling session with this gentleman. To make the counselling session more challenging was the fact that on measuring the blood pressure, the reading was in the normal range.
When someone has just had a stroke, in the case of this gentleman, more often than not the reading soon after that is in the normal range.
There are times when the blood pressure reading is normal even in a known person who has been diagnosed with HBP. So when you go for your BP check and it is normal, go again several times just to make sure.
Unmanaged HBP in a pregnant woman can end up killing the unborn baby.
Pregnant ladies who have been diagnosed with HBP should make sure that they are being well monitored at the clinic throughout the pregnancy.
They should make sure also that they feel the baby kicking on a daily basis.
If unsure of the foetal movements, they should quickly ask their healthcare provider.
Sexual activity might decrease because of unmanaged HBP.
Kidney function often reduces when HBP is not managed.
People with chronic kidney failure can seek medical attention on noticing that the volume of urine passed is decreasing over time. They may start to feel tired or even have sudden hair loss for no apparent reason.
Eyesight deterioration is another complication of uncontrolled HBP.
For some people this may come quite sudden. A friend of mine kept changing her spectacles every three months until an eye specialist looked at the back of her eye and told her that she was slowly bleeding onto her retina.
Heart attacks are on the rise and sadly even in children. The heart attacks that are caused by HBP tend to be fatal. If one survives it, then there is a big chance that the heart attack can recur. I remember an old professor at the medical school taught us that if a patient comes to you complaining of chest pain, ask him to locate the pain using his right hand. If he points with a finger, suspect angina (chest pain or discomfort that occurs if an area of the heart muscle is not getting enough blood that is rich in oxygen ). At times angina pain has been misdiagnosed as indigestion.
The pain can shoot into shoulders, left arm, neck, jaw and even into the back. It can also feel like pressure squeezing in your chest.
If he uses the whole palm to locate the pain, then suspect a mild heart attack. If it was a huge heart attack, you would not have anyone to describe the pain because he would have died on the spot.
Your healthcare provider will let you know what to take if you have been diagnosed with HBP. The management of this silent killer is always to try and find out what caused the HBP so that you try and reverse the situation by addressing the cause.
For the rest of you who do not have HBP, it is important to prevent it in the first place. This is particularly important for the growing children. If they are taught to live a healthy life right from the time they start crying for junk foods, then we would have done our nation proud.
I would personally want to see the day when our children start to tell us not to pack too many sweet things in their lunch boxes. How happy would parents be when their two-year-old child returns from crèche with her muffin untouched and tell you that it was too oily and hence she preferred the apple her friend Jane from school shared with her.
At the end of the day the message I am trying to drive home is that good eating that prevents diseases is a choice someone makes. Who is making your choice for you? After reading this article, please make a choice today to try and live and eat healthily. It’s never too late to start.
Exercising is also a choice you have to make. Physical activity is in many forms. The challenge is how to keep that constant.
It is not good enough to be enthusiastic for only a month, if you stick to it that long. It should be a lifestyle. High blood pressure is preventable in most of the cases.
Walk in the morning or evening. Prefer to take steps rather than using an escalator.
Don’t sit down the whole day in the office, move around and take some stretches often.
Live a stress-free life. Solve the problem when it comes, don’t procrastinate. Be quick to forgive – you are only releasing yourself by so doing.
Dr Annamore Jamu is the producer and TV anchor for HealthSense. Feedback [email protected]
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