World Hypertension Day today

Every year, May 17 is observed as World Hypertension Day. Hypertension is a condition when the force of the blood against the artery walls is more than it should be. This further causes high blood pressure.

To create awareness and make people understand the seriousness of the condition, World Hypertension Day is observed every year, in Bangladesh and also all across the world. This year, the theme of World Hypertension Day is "Measure your blood pressure accurately, control it, live longer."

Health experts say that the disease can be controlled very easily if the lack of coordination between government agencies is curbed, high blood pressure is diagnosed correctly, and the scope for proper service is created at the community clinic level.

According to Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 27.3 per cent of people over 18 years of age in the country are suffering from high blood pressure.

This means more than 3 crore people are suffering from high blood pressure in the country. What's worse, 67 per cent of the people do not know that they are afflicted with the disease.

As this is a chronic disease, the patient has to take medicine for the rest of his life. As a result, medical expenses become a big burden for many, and one-third of people quit taking medicine at some point.

Some of the main causes of Hypertension are poor lifestyle choices, poor dietary choices and a sedentary lifestyle. However, Hypertension, when not addressed in time, can lead to the risk of having heart disease or stroke. 

Often the lack of appropriate knowledge among hypertension patients leads to more seriousness of the condition. World Hypertension Day aims to curb the same.

World Hypertension League is an umbrella of organisations from 85 countries dealing with hypertension societies and leagues. World Hypertension League introduced World Hypertension Day on May 14, in the year 2005. Since 2006, World Hypertension Day has been observed on May 17.

The low awareness of Hypertension among people creates the space for the condition to get more serious. When Hypertension is regularly measured and kept under check, the risk of other chronic illnesses also reduces significantly.

Some of the symptoms of high blood pressure include headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and difficulty in breathing. This day helps in promoting public awareness about hypertension, and seek for treatment methods to overcome it.

World Hypertension Day also helps in creating awareness about the healthy lifestyle choices that we can adopt to avoid hypertension.