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How hypertension silently threatens future of Nigerian young adults (Page 352)

By Lilian U. Okoro

A Consultant Cardiologist, Dr Adisa Adams, has decried the increasing number of Nigerian young adults in their 30s being diagnosed with hypertension, describing the condition as a threat to their lives and future.

Adams, who works with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), made the assertion on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

A report from the World Health Organisation shows that no fewer than 1.3 billion adults globally live with hypertension, with nearly half unaware of their condition and only one in five achieving controlled blood pressure.

In Nigeria, the situation is dire, with studies showing that approximately 25 per cent of emergency hospital admissions in urban areas stem from hypertension-related complications such as stroke, kidney failure, and heart attacks.

Adams, who described hypertension as a silent killer, decried that it was now common among young people unlike before when majorly old people of 50 years and above were seen with hypertension.

According to him, the death of most young Nigerians can be linked to heart-related challenges caused by undetected and unmanaged hypertension.

He said, “There have been instances of young Nigerians dying with cardiovascular/heart-related diseases.

“In my earlier years of practice, high blood pressure is mostly an issue of the mature and old folk starting from 50 years, but now we see 28 to 35-year-old hypertensive patients”.

Adams, who decried the rate of sudden deaths among Nigerian young adults, blamed the development on young life mentality syndrome and lack of preventive measures among the younger people.

He added that lack of proper information and education about the disease were other contributing factors.

“The first issue with the younger generation is the false and unwise belief that they are young and thus, do not need to regularly check themselves.

“The second is the fact that they are not taking preventive measures, well as lack of public information and sensitisation about the dangers associated with hypertension and even low blood pressure,” he said.

The cardiologist advised that young adults should embrace preventive measures and lifestyle changes that could help to live healthy life, to thereby, curb the prevalence of hypertension.

He advised Nigerians to imbibe the culture of going for medical checkups from the age of 28, as absence of symptoms did not mean it wasn’t present.

“We have had some cases of young men dying of cardiac arrest during a tennis match, while jogging, and even as they went to bed.

“This could have been prevented if they knew they had heart problems.

“When you do a comprehensive health assessment, abnormalities in the body may be detected and corrected,” he said.

A Lagos-based businessman, Mr Jude Madukwe, recounted how his brother-in-law, Alex Obiora, had heart attack and died in the course of watching a football match.

He explained that Obiora, aged 39, slumped in 2024 while watching the semi-final match between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and Bafana Bafana of South Africa, in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), in Cote D’Ivoire.

According to him, the demise of Obiora left a big vacuum in their family, as his wife has yet to recover from the shock.

Another consultant cardiologist, Dr Ramon Moronkola, said that sudden emotional surge either extreme excitement or sadness could put a lot of pressure on the cardiovascular system of an individual.

Moronkola, who works with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), explained that underlying untreated cardiovascular health conditions could trigger causes that might lead to sudden death of an individual.

According to him, if this individual has no underlying morbidity – that’s, the heart is fine, the vessels are okay; usually it doesn’t cause much problem, but in a situation where the individual already has some malfunctions in the system, it can result to sudden cardiac attack.

“There are situations where people die suddenly during emotional surge, because that’s definitely what happened. In that situation, it can happen when an individual is extremely happy or grieved.

“Similarly, during football match, people are really tensed, there are a lot of emotional commitment/assertion; this may put a lot of pressure on individual’s cardiovascular system.

“If such individual has no underlying health conditions, it usually doesn’t cause problem, but in a situation that such individual has underlying cardiovascular disease, maybe the person is hypertensive or diabetic and he doesn’t or he knows, but not managing it well

“With the underlying cardiovascular diseases and the person is exposed to emotional surge, he/she can develop heart attack or heart failure and die,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Vivian Ihechu

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How hypertension silently threatens future of Nigerian young adults (Page 352)