Increased awareness, improved management, monitoring needed in dealing with hypertension

aCCORDING to the Philippine statistics authority (Psa), ischemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and neoplasms continue to be the top three leading causes of deaths in the country for the period January to september 2022.

Diabetes mellitus, on the other hand, was the fourth leading cause of death in the country with 23,602 cases or 6.4-percent share, while hypertensive diseases recorded 21,160 cases or 5.8-percent share, making it the fifth leading cause of fatalities in the Philippines.

this is also the same situation for the same period last year, says the country’s central statistical authority on primary data collection.

in the last nine months of the year, the Psa recorded a total of 67,601 cases of ischemic heart diseases that made this disease the leading cause of deaths in the Philippines with 18.4 percent of total fatalities. Cerebrovascular disease was at second place with 37,936 deaths or a 10.3-percent share, while neoplasms, or what is commonly called “cancer,” came a close third in terms of cause of deaths in the country as it registered 37,470 recorded cases for a 10.2-percent share.

ischemic heart disease generally refers to the weakening situation of the heart due to reduced blood flow, which is the result of coronary artery disease, or the narrowing of the heart’s arteries.

Compared to ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, which includes stroke, carotid stenosis, vertebral stenosis and intracranial stenosis, aneurysms, and vascular malformations, the reduced blood flow may be caused mainly by the narrowing of blood vessels, formation of clots, blockages or worse, blood vessel rupture.

neoplasms or cancer, on the other hand, is about the presence of tissue mass in the body that is formed due to abnormal cell growth. it can be classified as benign (not cancerous) or malignant when it spreads into, or invades, other tissues or other parts of the body.

Focus on hypertension

even though it is only the fifth leading cause of deaths in the country, much effort in raising awareness, management and monitoring of hypertension remains a vital issue. High blood pressure continues to be a risk factor more than heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic, a non-profit group committed to clinical practice, education and research. when left uncontrolled, it “can quietly damage the body for years before symptoms develop, and can lead to disability, poor quality of life, or even a deadly heart attack or stroke.”

Hypertension can also cause damage to the arteries, the heart, brain, kidneys such as kidney scarring and kidney failure, increases the risk of damage to the eyes, particularly the retina or retinopathy, even cause erectile dysfunction.

as hypertension continues to be among the top causes of deaths in the country, further focus, increased awareness and its improved management remains a crucial national health priority. as such, efforts to educate and help Filipinos mitigate or manage hypertension are necessary to ease the burden of the disease.

Staunch advocacy on blood pressure monitoring

FOR the past several years, OMRON Healthcare continues to strengthen and align its efforts in staunchly advocating the value of continued monitoring of blood pressure among Filipinos in partnership with the Philippine society for Hypertension. One such activity is the May Measurement Month, the global campaign organized by the international society of Hypertension to encourage more people to get their blood pressure checked on a regular basis.

and just recently, OMRON announced its continued partnership with Mercury Drug, where OMRON will officially retail its HEM-7120 blood pressure monitor (BPM) at all Mercury Drug stores nationwide so that more Filipinos will have better access to innovative and intuitive health monitoring devices.

“OMRON Healthcare’s mission has always been centered around offering accessible healthcare innovations to as many Filipinos as possible. Mercury Drug has proven to be a strong partner to us in this goal, and we are happy to be launching the HEM-7120 blood pressure monitor in Mercury Drug’s extensive network of branches nationwide. we strongly believe that this helps bring us closer to our vision of zero hypertension cases in the country,” according to Yusuke Kato, general Manager for OMRON asia Pacific Pte. ltd-philippine Branch (Healthcare Division).

Clinically validated by the Philippine society of Hypertension, the OMRON HEM-7120 was proven to be reliable in ensuring accuracy and reliability in home blood pressure monitoring. it comes with a Cuff wrapping guide to guide users in correctly putting the cuff wrap. if there is inaccuracy due to unexpected body movements, body movement detection also aids in asking the user to perform the measurement again.

it also comes with a Hypertension indicator with a heartbeat symbol that would blink if the user’s systolic or diastolic pressure is higher than the recommended value to easily determine if the user has high blood pressure.