A Consultant Family and Lifestyle Medicine Physician, Dr. Moyosore Makinde, says it is important for people to understand that High Blood Pressure (BP) condition is a lifetime illness hence the need for modification to healthy lifestyles. Makinde, also the President of Society of Lifestyle Medicine of Nigeria (SOLONG), who made the assertion in Lagos, said high blood pressure is an illness often as a result of one’s lifestyle. She explained that high BP was not a health condition that could easily be cured, saying that a patient could be managed of BP all through his/her lifetime once detected.
The physician advised that BP patients should ensure they took their drugs regularly and as prescribed by the doctor. According to her, the mistake most BP patients make that often results to hypertensive emergencies, is suspending or not taking their medication. “One thing I have noticed is that most patients are actually hypertensive; which some of them are aware that they have the condition, but despite this knowledge, they are not using their drugs. “My advice to them is that anybody that is diagnosed with hypertension should be aware that hypertension is a lifetime illness and an illness of lifestyle. “Even if the drugs given to you at the hospital finished, try to get more and continue with the medication or make effort to see the doctor. “
That’s the mistake most people make; they think once the prescribed pack of drugs given to them at hospital finishes, their BP will be fine, but that’s not the truth. “They end up coming down with hypertensive emergencies,” Makinde said. She also identified ‘stress’ as the major cause of high blood pressure and sudden death among Nigerian adults. According to her, there is need to create time for relaxation and sleep, saying studies have shown that people who don’t sleep well have a higher risk of developing heart attack as compared to those who sleep about seven to eight hours a day.
