Researchers from the Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital in Piacenza, Italy, took 12 blood pressure readings at one-minute intervals from 94 patients with mild hypertension. The patients’ mean age was 53.

Patients were seated in a comfortable armchair in a doctor’s consulting room and left alone after the first blood pressure reading was taken using an automatic device.

Researchers phoned the patients at least three times and found that when the patient was on the phone or receiving a call, their blood pressure reading jumped from 121/77 on average to 129/82.

The American Heart Association says less than 120/80 is a healthy reading for adults age 20 and older.

Data compiled by the US Census Bureau using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Study on Global Aging and Adult Health show hypertension to be ‘by far one of the most common health conditions for those age 50 and older in Russia’, with nearly half of 50- to 69-year-olds and almost two-thirds of people over 70 suffering from hypertension.

Other data, gathered by Wireless Intelligence, an Atlanta-based mobile technology research and analysis firm, show that Russia is Europe’s largest mobile phone market by connections, or the number of active mobile devices that are connected to a network.

A report by Wireless Intelligence found that, as of June last year, there were 227.1 million mobile connections in Russia where the population is 141.9 million. That’s a mobile phone penetration of 160%.

In the US, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says around 30% of adults have high blood pressure, the ratio of mobile phone connections (321.7 million) to population (311.6 million) is 103%.

During the blood pressure study, neither diastolic blood pressure – the lower number in a blood pressure reading, which is a measure of the force of blood in the arteries when the heart relaxes between beats – nor heart rate increased significantly when patients received a call.

Oddly, though, the researchers found that patients who got more than 30 calls a day seemed to have developed a form of immunity to the blood pressure spikes seen in the study. Beta-blockers also seemed to help stave off blood pressure spikes.

The researchers concluded that phone calls received when a mildly hypertensive patient is having a blood pressure reading could cause systolic pressure to spike, and advised that they turn off their phone, at least for the duration of the blood pressure test.

Source: IANS

The study found that most casualties were slum dwellers, older people, youngsters and outdoor labourers. Based on the results and analysis, the team from IIPH helped Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) devise a heat action plan.

‘The best way to counter heat-related deaths is to keep in touch with your near and dear ones, informing them when not to venture out. The old must be encouraged to consume more liquids,’ said one of the researchers. The study also found that patients with heart ailments have to be extra careful as their blood circulation increases due to the heat leading to their heart being overworked.

IIPH director Dileep Mavlankar said, ‘Threshold temperature for Ahmedabad has been found to be 42 degrees Celsius, after studying mortality patterns of the past several years. The AMC now plans to open all its parks in the afternoons so that people can take shelter under trees and cool off during heat wave situations, besides installing electronic temperatures gauges at various points in the city.’

According to various experts the most vulnerable are people suffering from diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases. ‘Hypertensives and heart patients on diuretics are at a risk of losing lot of fluids and essential electrolytes including excessive sodium and lower blood pressure,’ said cardiologist Dr Sameer Dani. ‘Diabetics generally suffer from excessive urination at a risk of losing excessive fluids which lead to increase in sugar levels in concentrated blood,’ said diabetologist Dr Banshi Saboo.

Tips to beat the summer woes

Expert dietician Neha Chandna, a well-known nutritionist gives some pointers to beat the heat:

Increase your water intake. In high humidity, you do not sweat adequately due to which you cannot release heat efficiently from your body. That is the reason why you need to drink enough water at regular intervals even if you are not thirsty, to cool your system.

Eat lot of fresh fruits, raw salads and lightly spiced foods. Fruits and veggies are easy to digest and high in water content which helps in hydration. Avoid fried and junk foods as they take time to digest and require a lot of water. Spicy foods can also increase body heat.

Drink naturally cooling beverages like coconut water, lemon juice, buttermilk, sugarcane juice, etc. rather than aerated soft drinks, caffeine, and alcoholic beverages as they contain sugar and other preservatives which act as diuretics (increase the flow of urine) and can cause loss of water from the body. To read more click here.

• Eat regular meals. Have at least three meals at about the same time everyday. Eating every four to five hours can help control blood sugar. Always carry with you some type of carbohydrate food or drink that has 10 to 15 grams of carbohydrate which you can use in case of emergency (low glucose level).
• Eat a variety of foods. Choose foods that fulfill your body’s nutritional needs. Eat less fat, less sugar and less salt.  Avoid fried foods. Baked, boiled or steamed foods are healthier to eat. Avoid red meat. Have low fat dairy products. Eat more high-fiber foods, like vegetables, fruit and whole grain breads and cereals.
• Monitor your blood glucose two to four times every day with a blood glucose meter, if your doctor has advised you to. It is an electronic device for measuring the blood glucose at home. The blood glucose test is performed by pricking your finger with a small, sharp needle (lancet), putting a drop of blood on a chemically active disposable test strip and then placing the strip into a digital meter that displays your blood sugar level. Within a few seconds, the blood glucose level will be shown on the digital display.
• Get an A1C test done once every 3 months. This helps assess your diabetes control for the past few months by basically measuring the amount of glucose that has been sticking to your red blood cells. Each red blood cell is replaced by a new one every 3 to 4 months. Hence, this test tells you how high the glucose levels have been during the life of the cells. Your aim is to keep your A1C around 6-7%. If most of your recent blood glucose readings have been near normal (70 to 140mg/dL), the A1C test will be near normal (about 6-7%). Many readings above normal will make your A1C test read higher.
• Avoid alcohol and smoking. They can cause health problems, especially if you are diabetic. Alcohol adds calories without giving you any nutrition. Drinking alcohol may cross-react with the medicines for diabetes and cause problems. Your blood glucose can also go down drastically if you drink alcohol on an empty stomach.
• Be active. Physical activity keeps you fit and helps you control your blood glucose and weight. It can help prevent heart and blood flow problems. It helps you lose weight.
• Keep a check on your blood pressure and cholesterol. Have your blood pressure checked two to four times a year and cholesterol checked (fasting lipid profile) at least once every year. If you have diabetes, you are at a greater risk of developing high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which can lead to other serious conditions.
• Watch out for the nerve damage symptoms. Diabetic neuropathy is damage to nerves in the body that occurs due to high blood sugar levels from diabetes. Symptoms may include numbness and tingling of extremities, diarrhoea, erectile dysfunction, loss of bladder control, vision changes, dizziness, etc. If you have any of these symptoms report to your doctor. During your physical exam, your doctor will check how well you can feel touch, pain, movement, etc. and also your strength and reflexes. If nerve damage is suspected electromyogram (EMG) and nerve conduction studies may be done.
• Take care of your feet. Nerve damage and poor circulation are common complications of diabetes. This makes foot problems common among diabetics. Check them every day for signs of injury and infection. Avoid walking barefoot to reduce the risk of injury. Trim your toenails straight across to help prevent ingrown nails. Keep your feet warm at all times.
• Get your eyes examined every year to check your vision. Prolonged and inadequate blood glucose control can damage and weaken the small blood vessels in the retina (innermost layer) of the eye; a condition called diabetic retinopathy. It can cause blurred vision, double vision and a severe, permanent loss of vision. It also increases the risk of developing cataracts and glaucoma.
• Get your kidneys checked once a year because diabetes can cause damage to the blood vessels in your kidney (diabetic nephropathy) and the risk increases if you have both diabetes and high blood pressure. The first sign of nephropathy is protein in the urine. When damage to the kidneys gets worse, your blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels rise. There may be swelling in your body, at first in your feet and legs. In a urinary albumin test your urine is tested for albumin protein. Blood urea nitrogen and urine creatinine are the other tests that may be done to check kidney function. Kidney damage, if caught in early stages, can be slowed with treatment.
• Get your teeth and gums checked by your dentist twice a year. Diabetes can affect your teeth, gums and oral cavity as well. Increased blood sugar level increases your risk of tooth decay. Gum disease can happen more often, be more severe, and take longer to heal if you have diabetes.

Also read: Living with diabetes

Based on the new results, it is unclear if eating more fruit will influence blood pressure, said Oude-Griep, of the Imperial College London School of Public Health. Oude-Griep and her coauthors analysed data from a study of 4,680 middle aged men and women randomly selected from Japan, China, US and UK.

Participants recalled what they had eaten the previous day two days in a row, having blood pressure measurements taken as well, then repeated the process three weeks later. Their blood pressures averaged at or just below 120/80, the safe cutoff point according to the Centers for Disease Control, but people with higher measurements were included.

The researchers calculated each person’s fruit and fruit juice consumption as grams per 1000 calories of food eaten. People in the U.S. ate the least raw fruit, averaging 52 grams, equivalent to half an apple, per 1000 calories, compared to 68 grams in China, the country with highest consumption. Fruit juice was not commonly consumed in the Asian countries; in the U.S., the average was 46 grams, or less than a cup.

For the group as a whole, there was no association between fruit and blood pressure. When the researchers considered Japan and China alone, blood pressure actually increased with more fruit, but the change was almost imperceptible. But the study was small and only looked at one group of people at one point in time, so the results have limitations and the door is open for more research, Oude-Griep said.

‘The main limitation of this study is that dietary intake was assessed on only a single day, and that is not a good representation of a person’s usual diet,’ Dr Walter Willett told Reuters Health by email. Previous studies which found a decrease in blood pressure followed individual eating patterns over longer periods of time and were probably more reliable, said Willett, chair of the nutrition department at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

Other differences may have also played a role. In the new study, high fruit consumers were more often women, older, more educated, less likely to smoke or drink alcohol, and tended to have healthier diets overall. People who ate more fruit got more vitamin C, fiber, potassium and magnesium, according to the study.

Fruit juices contain lots of rapidly absorbed sugars that might offset some of the benefits of fruit itself, Willett said. ‘My main concern is that this article should not dissuade people from eating fruit, which has increasingly been found to be part of a healthy diet (along with vegetables),’ said Dr Martha Grogan, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

 Most doctors don’t expect eating more fruit to lower blood pressure by itself, but achieving a healthy weight does lower blood pressure, and eating more fruit and vegetables is a part of that process, Grogan told Reuters Health by email.

‘Our research suggests that there may be another reason to call it ‘the incredible, edible egg,’‘ said study leader Zhipeng Yu, Ph.D., of Jilin University.‘We have evidence from the laboratory that a substance in egg white — it’s a peptide, one of the building blocks of proteins — reduces blood pressure about as much as a low dose of Captopril, a high-blood-pressure drug,’ Zhipeng Yu said. Yu and colleagues, who are with Clemson University, used a peptide called RVPSL. Scientists previously discovered that the substance, like the family of medications that includes Captopril, Vasotec and Monopril, was an angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor.

 It has a powerful ability to inhibit or block the action of ACE, a substance produced in the body that raises blood pressure. The results of feeding the substance were positive, showing that RVPSL did not have apparent toxic effects and lowered blood pressure by amounts comparable to low doses of Captopril. ‘Our results support and enhance previous findings on this topic,’ Yu said. ‘They were promising enough to move ahead with further research on the effects of the egg white peptide on human health.’

Source: IANS

This year’s theme for World Health Day April 7 is hypertension or high blood pressure. The disease is now striking at an earlier age, and even those in their 20s and 30s are affected, say doctors.

‘Earlier, it was usually people in their 40s and 50s who reported hypertension. These days, I have at least three or four patients every week in their 20s and 30s with the problem. There has been a 10 to 20% rise in such cases over the last few years,’ said Monica Mahajan, senior consultant (Internal Medicine) at Max Hospital.

The incidence of coronary heart disease and heart attack among people in their 30s – something unheard of earlier – is also becoming frequent, she added.

According to the World Health Statistics 2012 Report, one in three adults worldwide suffers from hypertension, a condition that causes half the deaths by stroke and heart disease.

Mahajan recalled the case of a 27-year-old BPO employee who came to her with complaints of headache and lack of sleep. ‘When I checked his blood pressure, it was 150/100, which was high. The triglyceride level was also high, but thankfully his kidney function was ok. The main culprit was his lifestyle.’

Ravi (name changed) worked in the late night shift, often ate out and had been smoking for the past eight years. Weekends consisted of binging on alcohol and fast food. A gradual change in lifestyle and a committed effort to exercise every day helped him recover his health.

‘Changing social norms on drinking and smoking has definitely increased the risk of hypertension in youngsters. Regular drinking beyond a certain amount and even a small amount of tobacco could prove harmful. Also, diet plays a big role. Extra salt can increase blood pressure,’ Mahajan said.

Chandan Kedavat, senior consultant (Internal Medicine) at Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute (PSRI), concurred with Mahajan.

‘With all the junk food and processed food, where salt is used as a preservative, our salt intake goes up to 15-18 gm a day, when it should ideally be 5-6 gm a day. Cutting down on excess salt intake can lower BP,’ added Kedavat.

The normal BP level is 120/80. A reading between 120/80 and 139/89 is termed pre-hypertension (denoting increased risk of hypertension), and BP of 140/90 or above is considered hypertension.

Doctors say that hypertension can lead to a host of illnesses, including damaged organs, kidney failure, aneurysm (blood-filled bulge in the wall of a blood vessel), stroke and heart attack.

‘Stress is another cause of hypertension. In a schedule of 12-14 working hours, one has to find ways to de-stress, and exercise at some point of the day to reduce health risks,’ said physician Sunidhi Malhotra.

And if you are one of those who pop the pain killer for every small headache, beware! Doctors say that over-the-counter self medication can affect the kidneys in the long run – and in turn, make you hypertensive.

‘Another thing to keep in mind is that it is not necessary that you will get headaches and have swollen feet if you are hypertensive. Many times, people find out about the condition only incidentally. It’s a silent killer. I would advise all youngsters, even in their 20s, to go for regular check-ups, especially if there is hypertension in the family,’ advised Kedavat.

Source: IANS

Tired of reading? Check out our YouTube Channel 

April 7 is World Health Day and theme this year is hypertension or high blood pressure.

The World Health Organization is worried about the disease, particularly in low income countries where there’s a rise in the number of patients. Once exclusive to the developed world, the disease now kills 1.5 million people in low and middle income regions in SE Asia every year. Most of these deaths can be prevented through healthy lifestyles, early detection and treatment. Hypertension is a silent killer because many people do not realize that they have it or are reluctant to start treatment on time, putting them at risk of complications. It is treatable through medication. Preventing high blood pressure must be a public health, social, economic and development priority. This is only possible through political will and increased public awareness.

 ‘Every individual has the power to prevent high blood pressure by adopting a healthy lifestyle- eating a balanced diet, reducing salt, regular exercise, avoiding harmful use of alcohol, quitting  tobacco and checking their blood pressure regularly’ said Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia. ‘Governments need to create health promoting environments that enable people to adopt healthy lifestyles. Regulations need to be in place to decrease the amount of salt in packaged food and make healthier foods affordable and accessible’ he added. Preventing, detecting and treating hypertension early is cheaper than interventions such as cardiac bypass surgery or dialysis that may be needed if the condition is diagnosed late. 

Hypertension disease burden in SE Asia

• High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for death claiming 1.5 million lives each year.
• One in three adults has high blood pressure.
• Males have a slightly higher prevalence of high blood pressure than females in almost all countries.
• Prevalence of hypertension is increasing in many countries in the Region. In India, raised blood pressure increased from 5% in the 1960s to nearly 12% in 1990s, to more than 30% in 2008.
• Ageing population, rapid urbanization and transition from agrarian life to a wage-earning, modern city life are reported as major contributors to increased blood pressure in urban areas.

Subrojit had just left home and was driving his car to work when a sudden spell of dizziness hit him. Thinking it was due to the intense summer heat, Subrojit continued driving. All of a sudden, he developed intense chest pain, accompanied by blurred vision and dizziness. His head started throbbing and soon  he lost control of his vehicle. Collapsed on the road, people assumed he was another victim of an accident and rushed him to the hospital. On checking his vital signs doctors found that Subrojit had suffered a hypertensive emergency and he was now in a coma.

Hypertension is something most people ignore. And this because they are mostly unaware of its symptoms and signs. This ‘silent killer’ as it is better known, has no real indicators and can strike at any moment. And to make matters worse, most people think it is an ‘old-age’ disease while it isn’t. It is now affecting a large young population as well. As of 2012, India had one in three people who were hypertensive.  

If you’ve been having symptoms like severe headaches, blurred vision, fatigue or confusion, chest pain, difficulty in breathing, palpitation or irregular heart rate and pounding in the chest, neck and ears, you shouldn’t ignore them as they could indicate that you have hypertension or high blood pressure.

In cases like that of Subrojit,  a person’s blood may spike suddenly leading to what is called a ‘hypertensive crisis’. It is a condition where the blood pressure rises to such an extent that it threatens to damage the organs within the body. Most often this crisis is triggered by emotional stress, weather change, fatigue or increased physical activity.

Some of the most common symptoms of a hypertensive crisis are:

• Headaches or blurred vision
• Increased confusion
• Seizures
• Increasing pain in the chest
• Swelling or oedema  
• Shortness of breath
• Excessive sweating

You have to keep in mind that not all people are made alike, and therefore your symptoms may vary from another person. In such a case it is prudent to remember that  any discomfort is worth investigating.

A hypertensive crisis is of mainly two types, one is a ‘Hypertensive urgency’, in which the blood pressure spikes momentarily but does not affect other organs of the body. This condition can be easily brought under control with the right medication.

The other type of crisis is a ‘hypertensive emergency’; in this case the patient’s blood pressure is so high that organ damage can occur. The blood pressure has to be lowered immediately, to avoid irreparable damage to organs such as the kidneys, eyes, brain etc.

If you suffer from a hypertensive emergency, and it is untreated, the resulting organ damage can lead to the following complications,

• Increased disorientation and confusion
• Bleeding into the brain
• Heart failure
• Chest pain, also called as unstable angina
• Fluid in the lungs also called as pulmonary oedema
• Aneurysms
• Eclampsia (this is a condition that only occurs in pregnant women)

A hypertensive emergency is rare, but when it does occur, it happens because the patient either has hypertension and has not been diagnosed or has not taken the right medication. In some rare cases a patient may suffer a ‘hypertensive emergency’ if they are allergic to certain medication.

In case of a hypertensive crisis, here a few first aid  tips you should follow:

1. Call for an ambulance
2. Lay the patient down with his/her head in a slightly higher position than the rest of his/her body
3. Ask them to take deep breaths
4. Do give the patient anything to eat or drink
5. Do not give him/her any medication unless advised by his/her doctor.

Untreated hypertension can lead to several complications including stroke, heart disease, kidney failure and eye disorders. So don’t ignore that nagging headache, or that discomfort in your chest, instead get a regular health check-up.

 Tired of reading? Check out our YouTube Channel

Many people are now taking to leech therapy to treat conditions ranging from blood pressure to gout, from healing wounds to even hair fall. Only the medicinal leeches are used for treatment, which are brown, red striped and olive-coloured. ‘The therapy has a lot many advantages, without any side effects. It is a major therapeutic tool and helps in many blood-related diseases. It also minimises the chances of blood rejection in blood transfusion cases,’ ayurveda specialist Ravi Raghuvanshi told IANS.

Describing the therapy as ‘safe and advantageous’, Raghuvanshi said the treatment is already ‘very popular’ in the West. ‘The therapy is very popular in the West particularly in countries like the US and Germany. The reason is there is good awareness in the West as a lot of research has been done on the subject.’ ‘In India, where the therapy originated, there is hardly any awareness or much research, though the practice dates back 5,000 years. The knowledge has not been transferred well. The popularity is also scattered. Only 300-400 people every year in Delhi and NCR use leech therapy,’ Raghuvanshi said.

In 2008, the union health ministry decided to recognise leech therapy to treat a range of diseases, including eczema, gangrene, vascular reconstruction and vascular surgery in chronic wounds. The technique is in vogue in Jammu and Kashmir, coastal Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and some parts of Gujarat. Now the therapy is also practised in some clinics across metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Divya Sharma, 47, a resident of east Delhi’s Rohini area, says she found the treatment very effective and life-saving. ‘I had suffered serious injury to my legs in an accident some months back. The wounds turned gangrenous and doctors said they might have to amputate my legs if the injury does not heal. Then a friend advised me to try leech therapy. After I started it, my injuries began to get better day by day. The doctors said no operation was required.’

‘The therapy is usually done on patients with rheumatoid arthritis, skin disorders and even in cases of hair fall. People suffering from bleeding disorders are not given the therapy. Otherwise the practice has only advantages,’ S. Jain, a Delhi-based ayurveda specialist, told IANS. ‘The subject has been taken out of ayurveda, but not many people have the awareness. It will, however, gain in reckoning in the near future,’said Jain, whose clinic provides the facility.
‘About 150 patients avail of this service every year,’ he added.

According to medical experts, leeches remove blood from their host and release pain-killing and blood-thinning substances into the blood through their saliva. The saliva contains about 100 different bioactive substances, including anti-coagulants, vaso-dilators and anaesthetics. The medicinal leeches are brown, red striped and olive-coloured. In Jammu and Kashmir, this traditional medicinal practice has consolidated its position, with many people preferring the therapy to conventional medication. A high number of patients in the state prefer leeches over allopathic medicine to cure various skin and blood-related diseases.

Srinagar-based skin specialist Aaliya Nowsheri says the treatment has been very popular traditionally among the people of the Kashmir Valley. ‘A good number of patients have shown interest as they find the treatment effective, hygienic and clean. Moreover, the practice has always been present in the state through traditional healers who are preferred by many in rural areas,’ Nowsheri told IANS over phone. ‘The leeches used have special enzymes which quickly coagulate the blood sucked out. No further action or medicine is given to the patient post treatment. The patients get instant relief without much pain,’ she added.

The first description of leech therapy, classified as blood letting, was found in the text of Sushruta samhita (dating 800 B.C.) written by Sushruta, who was also considered the father of plastic surgery, according to information on the web. The application of medicinal leeches for cleaning the blood of poison was used in Egypt around 2,500 years ago. The therapy was common until the mid-1800s when newer therapies took their place. In the 1980s, medicinal leech therapy got a big boost by plastic surgeons who used leeches to relieve venous congestion, especially in transplant surgery. In 2004, use of blood-sucking leeches was also approved by the US government as a tool for healing skin grafts and for restoring circulation.

Tired of reading? Check out our YouTube Channel 

Source: IANS

A team of scientists at Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL) has developed a tiny device that can analyse the concentration of these substances in the blood.  Implanted just beneath the skin, it can detect up to five proteins and organic acids simultaneously, and then transmit the results directly to a doctor’s computer, reports Science Daily. The research results were published and presented March 20, 2013, in Europe’s largest electronics conference, DATE 13.

This method will allow a much more personalised level of care than traditional blood tests can provide. Health care providers will be better able to monitor patients, particularly those with chronic illness or those undergoing chemotherapy, reports Science Daily. The prototype, still in the experimental stages has demonstrated that it can reliably detect several commonly traced substances. The implant, a real gem of concentrated technology, is only a few cubic millimetres in volume but includes five sensors, a radio transmitter and a power delivery system.

Outside the body, a battery patch provides 1/10 watt of power, through the patient’s skin, thus there’s no need to operate every time the battery needs changing. Information is routed through a series of stages, from the patient’s body to the doctor’s computer screen. The implant emits radio waves over a safe frequency.  The patch collects the data and transmits them via Bluetooth to a mobile phone, which then sends them to the doctor over the cellular network.

Tired of reading? Check out our YouTube Channel 

Source: IANS