Get your blood pressure checked Today

A healthy you means a healthy society. Khaleej Times’ latest campaign under the ‘KT For Good’ umbrella highlights four common lifestyle diseases — diabetes, obesity, hypertension and cardiac issues — and how you can avoid or manage them

Hypertension or high blood pressure is the most common chronic disease in the developed world, affecting up to 25 per cent of the adult population.

It remains to be the most important modifiable risk factor for coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, renal disease and peripheral vascular disease. Sub-optimal blood pressure control is responsible for 62 per cent of cerebrovascular disease, 49 per cent of ischemic heart disease and leads to an estimated 7.1 million deaths a year.

The overall prevalence of hypertension in adults is around 30 to 45 per cent.

Based on recently published data from the UAE, the prevalence was found to be 30 per cent among the adult population in this part of the world. Although the risk of developing hypertension starts to increase after a person turns 18, it is progressively higher with advancing age — with a prevalence of more than 60 per cent in people aged over 60 years, and more than 75 per cent in people aged over 75 years. A sedentary lifestyle, increased body weight and poor dietary habits play a major role in the statistics.

Lowering one’s blood pressure (BP) to normal target levels can significantly reduce premature morbidity and mortality. A number of proven, highly effective and well-tolerated lifestyle and drug treatment strategies are available to achieve this reduction in BP.

Despite this, BP control rates remain unacceptably high worldwide due to lack of awareness and patient and physician inertia. Consequently, hypertension remains a major yet preventable cause of cardiovascular disease and all-cause death globally.