Gone are the days when high blood pressure was associated only with people of old age. A survey released today shows that more than one third of youth face the same health condition. 35% of those aged between 16 and 34 were found to have hypertension among the 8000 people tested. Alarmingly, approximately one in every twenty of these youth showed very high levels of blood pressure.

The reasons for this increase in high blood pressure condition among youth are supposed to excessive drinking, uncontrolled diet, obesity, smoking and sedentary lifestyle. The survey was carried out by Shafeeque Mohammed who is a health expert working at Lloyds pharmacy. He feels that the rise in number of youths with high blood pressure is of major concern as hypertension is associated with higher risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney diseases.

The study also revealed that 1/10^th over-55 year’s adults were at higher risk of severe hypertension which puts them at greater risk of a stroke or heart attack. Men were found to be at higher risk of hypertension than women.

According to the authors of the study, there are recent evidences which prove that there has been an increase in prescriptions of drugs for lowering the blood pressure but unfortunately, no decrease in blood pressure cases have been noticed.

The data available showed that in 2004-05, approximately 191,000 patients with alcohol-linked hypertension were treated. But in 2008-09, the figure took a huge jump forward to 330,000 numbers of patients for high blood pressure due to alcohol addiction.

The Department of Health issued a statement that those individuals who consume eight or more alcohol units per day are at a 4 times higher risk of developing hypertension. When the level of blood pressure gets higher, the blood exerts more and more force on the arteries’ walls thereby paving way for a heart attack. People should reconsider their lifestyle irrespective of their age so as to reduce risk of high blood pressure.

Source:

Daily Mail, UK