EVERY day 350 people across the UK suffer a stroke or heart attack due to high blood pressure – a life-threatening occurrence which could be prevented if the condition had already been spotted.
Unfortunately for many, high blood pressure is thought only to hit the obese, the stressed-out or the junk-food addicts of the world, unhealthy and riddled with self-inflicted problems. The reality is, anyone can be struck at any time – many of us ar
e entirely unaware we already have been.
Lothians GP Dean Marshall, pictured below, said: "The best analogy I can give about high blood pressure is that it is like household plumbing. If you have an increased build-up of pressure, something is going to give. In this case, damage will be done and it will be to a person's arteries. So many people are unaware they have the condition because there are no symptoms whatsoever.
"Often it can be due to family history and sufferers can end up coming from nowhere, perhaps only when having their high blood pressure recognised when joining a gym, for example."
Figures released this week show high blood pressure – or hypertension – accounts for 13 per cent of all early deaths worldwide. Research published in The Lancet revealed that in 2001 – the latest year for which global data is available – there were 7.6 million deaths due to hypertension. In the same year, the condition was responsible for 54 per cent of strokes and 47 per cent of heart disease.
More alarmingly perhaps is that hypertension is not a problem affecting only high-income, western countries – a long-held misunderstanding – as studies show 80 per cent of deaths linked to the condition now occur in the developing world.
New Zealand's Dr Carlene Lawes and Professor Anthony Rodgers, of the University of Auckland, led a team of researchers estimating the worldwide burden of disease attributable to high blood pressure.
For the purposes of the study, high blood pressure was defined as an average systolic reading of 115 millimetres (mm Hg) of mercury or more. Systolic blood pressure is pressure occurring with each heart beat and a good reading is considered not higher than 120mm. It emerged that in 2001 wealthy countries experienced 1.39 million premature deaths from hypertension, while 6.22 million were in low to middle-income locations.
The authors wrote: "Most of the disease burden caused by high blood pressure is borne by low-income and middle-income countries, by people in middle age and by people with lesser degrees of high blood pressure. Prevention and treatment strategies restricted to rich countries or individuals with hypertension will miss much blood-pressure related disease."
Doctors across Edinburgh and the Lothians have stepped-up their efforts over the last four years to diagnose high blood pressure, by encouraging all patients to undergo regular testing, aware many people are ignorant of the illness.
Consequently, detection rates are on the increase as more and more patients are diagnosed and receive the treatment needed to control the problem, while getting advice on how to improve their condition through diet and exercise.
Dr Marshall said: "Hypertension is a massive problem here, especially in more deprived areas of Edinburgh where people do not go to their doctors often enough. That's why we are so keen to get people checked. Diagnosing high blood pressure is a daily occurrence at my practice. We spend a lot of time every day dealing with sufferers. It's actually very enthusing, because it is a condition we can do something about and help people."
But Professor Mike Rich, executive director of the Blood Pressure Association, believes more can and should be done to raise awareness of high blood pressure.
He said: "This research rightly shows the size of the global problem with 7.6 million deaths attributed to high blood pressure annually. The majority of the burden is clearly being felt in the developing world and it is vital that something be done about it, but it is also clear the UK picture is nothing to be proud of.
"Even with the availability of effective blood pressure-lowering medicines and knowledge of lifestyle changes that will reduce hypertension, the UK is still failing to effectively reduce blood pressure-related disease. This research highlights the continuing need for us to help the 16 million people in the UK who have high blood pressure, including the third who do not even know it."
