In Nigeria, hypertension prevalence is on the rise with low rates of awareness, treatment, and control. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), hypertension is the commonest form of cardiovascular disorder, occurring in 86.4 percent of patients with cardiovascular disorders and in 38 percent of the adult population.
Experts say the present economic hardship in the country is one predisposing factor to hypertension. This is as a result of stress people face trying to navigate through the hardship and meet up with their family demands and health needs considering the high price of commodities and other bills.
A 53-year-old civil servant, Arisekola Adegbola narrated to NewsNGR how he broke down some weeks back following the pressure of his children’s school fees, work and other personal issues.
“If not for people’s intervention, I would have been gone by now, and all the problems remain unsolved still.
“I still could not tell how it happened, I only found myself in the hospital, but thank God and people I am better now,” the father of five explained.
This silent deadly ailment called hypertension have some risk factors like unhealthy diet, (e.g. diets high in saturated fat and trans fats, excessive salt consumption which causes fluid retention in the body thereby increasing blood pressure, excessive tobacco and alcohol consumption which releases the hormones dopamine and adrenaline (the vessel constrictors) that causes the narrowing of the vessel, overweight and family history.
In a just concluded Lagos state government launch of a screening and public enlightenment campaign on hypertension and diabetes, on Friday October 25, the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotosho, at a news conference in Alausa, Ikeja, buttressed the fact that stress fuels hypertension.
“Many Nigerian journalists are suffering from hypertension due to work-related stress. He added that high blood pressure is prevalent among media professionals because of newsroom pressures and deadlines,” he asserted.
In an exclusive interview with NewsNGR, a medical health practitioner, Dr. Noble Adindu of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital,explained that stress is a factor that triggers the blood pressures to go up.
“Stress does not cause hypertension but for someone that is hypertensive, it is a factor that triggers the blood pressure to go beyond the border line.
“For families that has hypertension in their bloodline, and may not have been taking care of it, facing the present economic cries, not having enough sleep, always thinking about his/her problems is a stress that will trigger the blood pressure to go up,”he said
Equating stress to other health challenges, Adindu explained that stress is not limited to hypertension alone but also many other health issues like diabetes, which is also a risk factor to hypertension.
“When somebody is stressed, hormones like cortisol which is an antagonist of insulin, is released in the body, and it stops insulin from doing its work, (which is absorbing the sugar in the bloodstream and distributing it to the cells that require them for effective functioning of the body).
“If insulin is not able to carry its job in the body, diabetes will erupt,” he explained.
However, he advised that, “Anybody that is hypertensive or diabetic should always go for routine medical checkup before it becomes a complication, always take your drugs, abstain from over thinking, everybody is financially constrained in the country and over thinking will not solve it. And above all, reduce stress,” he said.
Another medical practitioner, Dr. Emmanuel Isuajah also is of the opinion that stress has a connection with hypertension.
He however stated that it operates in multiple ways.
“There are people who have risk factors for hypertension, familial, habit, and otherwise, this group are just waiting for a trigger, and such a trigger will finalize what has been gradual. This is because the risk factor for hypertension, including age, where the building blocks of the arteries known as collagen continue to suffer where there is break down so that the elasticity of those arteries decreases and the usual rhythmic expansions and contractions are limited making the heart to pump with higher pressure to overcome the fitness of the arteries, which is actually known as high pressure. (High blood pressure)
“Such people with such risk coming to withstand stress, stress is known to increase the chemicals in the body, the hormones in the body, some of them are the catecholamine like adrenalin,(fight and fear) with the already stitch arteries that are not yielding to the rhythmic expansions and collapse, they will now chip into hypertension easily.
“For some people, there is a hormone known as cortisol, it mobilizes glucose, which can also increase blood pressure in its own mechanism and that’s also an element of stress leading to hypertensive state,” he said.
Isuajah however pointed out that stress is not a causal factor to hypertension, noting that the body is built to efficiently withstand stress.
“However, that is not to say that in other causes of hypertension, stress should be termed number one. Every human being passes through stress, the body is built to adapt efficiently to stress,” he asserted.
Mrs. Fumilayo Ademola, a hypertensive 47 years old secondary school teacher with four children, shared with NewsNGR how her blood pressure has been on the rise recently, noting that is as result of added stress on her in her quest to make ends meet.
“Recently I resorted to take up some private teachings aside my main job, struggling to meet up with the family needs has been a big toll on my health,
“But what do I do, when the salary is not helping matters now? she rhetorically asked. My husband is just a security guard,” she added.
Isuajah, when asked about the connection between financial stress and hypertension, explained that financial stress on its own mechanism fuels hypertension and other health issues.
“Finance is the controller of emotion. Emotional stress is recognized as the most common cause of cancer. The same cancer fuels hypertension.
“From my own experience as a doctor, and having been in a cancer treatment and diagnosis for a while, for most of the people with leukemia, lymphoma, I noticed that most of them have one marital issue or the other, especially among divorcees,” he said.
He also pointed out that stress triggers so many other health issues.
“Stress triggers many other health issues. Tasking your body more than it can take, you are tasking the system, the system is made up of tissue, tissues are made up of cells, and you are tasking the cells.
So tasking them excessively will make the cells not function effectively.
“Just like the eyes, those who face screen always are stressing the cells of the eyes causing issues to the eyes. When you stress your ears with loud voice, it will bring issues to the ears.
“It also causes infertility in men. When you are under stress, the body is busy building cortisol, with all the resources it has, it will no longer have enough for testosterone, the hormone that controls male and female sexual activities. A much stressed man will not perform well in bed, leading to infertility and other things.
Sometimes, just asking a man to rest will restore his sexual activities. These are tissues of the body that have been affected by stress. Good sleep is an adequate measure. Sleep, good feeding and adequate rest is what we advise clients to do,” He explained.
He further explained that, “During stress still, the body uses its energy molecule (glucose, fatty acid,) to generate energy in a rapid manner. When that is happening, there is an extra generation of radicals in the body, such that they will attack cells in the body to cause ageic. That’s why people with so much stress ages faster.
“When people are stressed, the hormone cortisol will lead to stress ulcer, that’s why the highest point of ulcer is in the stomach.”
Isuajah, however, advised citizens to always choose needs over wants, saying that, “They should know that there is difference between nutrition and satisfaction, expectation and fulfillment. If you need protein, crayfish, egg, chicken and cow will give you protein. Your expectation will be a cow, but what you can fulfill is crayfish, go for the one you can fulfill.”
He added that, “some stress we pass through is an unnecessary bench mark set by the political class. In the sense that if you don’t have a house with stainless rail, you will not be satisfied until you have one. However, there could be local steals produced in Nigeria that will serve the same purpose at a cheaper rate.
“Misplacement of priority should be avoided. Go for the needs rather than the wants, as we continue to navigate our national history and see if we can overcome it.”