A good friend of mine recently returned home, after six months of therapy following a stroke.
He is an intelligent and well-read individual and, yet, his stroke was caused by a simple factor – he ignored his high blood pressure.
There is a reason why high blood pressure is known as the “silent killer.” Someone can have high blood pressure for years and not know it, not feel any symptoms and, thus, ignore it.
Reality is, one in five people has high blood pressure, or hypertension.
While it is possible to have it as a young adult, it is generally a condition that manifests itself later in life or as the result of lifestyle choices that put someone at risk.
There’s no simple formula for the cause of high blood pressure, but the two most significant factors are genetics and salt intake. If someone has high blood pressure in their family, the chances of developing the condition are that much higher.
Interestingly enough, in countries where salt intake is extremely low, high blood pressure is almost non-existent. Salt, of course, retains water, which increases blood volume and blood pressure.
On average, we lose about 3.8 grams of salt a day through perspiration, but if we are taking in much more than that, then we are storing it and it begins to retain water. This, in combination with a tendency for high salt foods to also be high calorie foods, generally leads to obesity, a significant factor in non-genetic hypertension.
Just a few decades ago, high blood pressure was treated with strict dietary control and some stern lectures from a physician about exercising more.
While a few frightened individuals responded, most found it difficult to break their lifestyle habits and a sigh of relief came as hypertension medications became more prevalent. That medication is now the most common form of treatment, especially since the medical profession does not have much time to lecture patients anymore.
It was an eye-opener for me to watch what happened to my friend and to see the struggles he continues to have and may have for the rest of his life. In a matter of seconds, a bleed in his brain, caused by the rupture of a small artery due to excessive pressure on the walls, reduced his speech to zero, his memory of names to zero, his ability to access his long-term memory to perhaps 10 per cent and his ability to use his hand and leg on one side to less than 10 per cent.
He has worked hard and has recovered perhaps 50 per cent of what was lost, but his intensive therapy is now over and the amount he will recover from here on in is uncertain. He is optimistic he’s going to get back to 90 per cent.
Prior to his stroke, he had known for some time that his blood pressure was fluctuating. He’d made a few minor dietary changes, but not really changed his lifestyle, nor set up regular checks to determine what was happening.
Silently and relentlessly, the hypertension was doing its damage until he felt dizzy at work, slumped into a chair, and was helpless until someone else called for medical assistance.
Suffice it to say, it is wise for anyone over the age of 40 to have a regular check up that includes blood pressure monitoring and to take some serious steps to intercept the condition if it becomes consistent or if it begins to rise systematically.
A stroke is devastating, but it is not the only outcome of untreated hypertension. Loss of vision, heart enlargement, kidney failure and, for that matter almost any major organ can be damaged by relentless high blood pressure.
It’s easy to check and worth doing so.
– By Graham Hookey, who writes on education, parenting and eldercare (ghookey@yahoo.com).