Under pressure: Hypertension strikes the young

Hypertension’s (high blood pressure) victims are getting younger.

Statistics reveal that around 1% of the paediatric population suffer either from secondary or primary hypertension, due to the increasing incidence of obesity among children. Around 15 to 20% of urban children are obese. And many of these obese children are susceptible to high blood pressure.

“In such cases we need to put them on exercise and dietary regimes. But in cases where the BP level is too high, we need to put them on medication,” said Dr Preethi Galgali, consultant paediatrician, Radha Ortho and Paediatric Centre and a member of Indian Paediatric Association. However, she stated that it was difficult to confirm high BP cases among children as their normal BP level varies according to age, height and sex. “We need to take at least three readings at different times before confirming high BP,” she said.

High blood pressure among paediatric patients was never uncommon. “Usually high blood pressure among children comes with a cause, like chronic renal disease, kidney disease, cardiac complications. And mostly once the cause is identified, this can be treated surgically,” said Dr Galgali. But of late, what is worrying is that children are getting primary hypertension due to obesity and lifestyle.

And it’s not just children, but due to lifestyles, eight to 10% of young adults below 30 years of age are falling prey to hypertension. “Present day work culture has changed. A high pay package comes with a handy Blackberry. And while you are expected to put 12 to 14 hours at work, for the remaining time, you are expected to deliver through you laptop or Blackberry. Deadline pressure and work stress is definitely rising and leading to lack of peace-of-mind and a rise in metabolic syndromes like hypertension,” said S Venkatesh, interventional cardiologist, Fortis Hospital.

“While earlier we used to get a handful cases of youngsters below 35 suffering from secondary hypertension [wherein some underlying problems gave rise to blood pressure] now there are more youngsters with primary hypertension. The trend has increased over the last couple of years,” said Dr Aravind Jagadeesh, consultant, internal medicine, BGS Global Hospital.

The reasons are many, explained the doctor. “Less physical activity, sedentary lifestyle, junk food intake, work pressure, family tension and family history of high BP, all contribute to developing high BP at a young age,” said Dr Jagadeesh.

Men, however, are prone to developing high BP at a younger age. While more youngsters are being affected by hypertension, thanks to regular health check-ups by companies, more people below 30 are coming for BP check-ups too, said Dr Venkatesh. “Salt as such is not available in nature. Fruit and vegetable is not salty. Earlier people used salt as a preservative and over the years it became a part of our diet thus triggering hypertension,” he said.

Mild BP can be controlled with exercise and lifestyle modification. Thus doctors generally give a three to six months phase to the patient to bring down the BP through exercising and dietary modifications, before introducing any medication, said Dr Jagadeesh.

What is the long term effect of people with high BP? “Though there is no concrete study on this, generally it is seen that people suffering from hypertension for a long period of time reduces life expectancy by around 10 years, compared with those suffering no hypertension,” said Dr Venkatesh. That apart, high BP also triggers cardiac diseases, kidney diseases and stroke, he added.