Taking BP medicine at bed time will prevent heart attacks, strokes: Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan, advocates separate hypertension clinics in hospitals
Srinagar, May 17: Hypertension is a silent killer and around half of the population in J&K is hypertensive but most of them are unaware about it, Dr Nisar ul Hassan said on Tuesday.
Dr Nisar who is the president of Doctors Association of Kashmir and is also Associate professor of Medicine at GMC Srinagar told news agency that almost every other person in J&K is hypertensive.
He said that a blood pressure lowering pill at bedtime prevents heart attacks and strokes.
According to Dr Nisar, hypertension is the commonest disease in J&K and there is a need to have separate hypertension clinics at tertiary care and district hospitals.
He suggested patients with high blood pressure need to relax for a few minutes to have the correct reading of their BP and it is not possible in general OPD. So, separate hypertension clinics are needed, he added.
Dr Nisar said that it is a myth that everyone suffering from a headache is a hypertensive patient. “But truth is that hypertension is invariably a silent disease and population based screening is vital. There is a need to reach more and more people and screen them so that we can pick up patients early,” he added.
He suggested lifestyle modification and reduction in salt intake in food and eating potassium rich foods.
“Paediatric hypertension is a reality and after three years of age every child must be screened.
Screening at earlier stages would decrease the rate of progression of hypertension from children to adults, and thus reduce the personal and public health burden of hypertension,” he said. (KNO)
