The Nigerian Hypertension Society (NHS) has advised Nigerians to avoid excessive salt consumption as it is strongly linked to development of hypertension and poor management of the terminal health condition.
The NHS, in a statement jointly signed by Ayodele Omotoso and Kolawole Wahab, president and secretary general, respectively, to commemorate this year’s World Hypertension Day, equally admonished Nigerians to eat healthy diets with daily consumption of more fruits and vegetables.
It said: “Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure is the number one cause of preventable deaths worldwide. It is described as a condition in which there is sustained elevation of blood pressure above a threshold of 140 mmHg systolic and 90 mmHg diastolic in an adult. Unfortunately,
“Hypertension only announces its presence in most people after the development of complications like stroke, heart failure, heart attack or kidney failure. The social and economic toll of these complications on the immediate families and the nation at large are enormous.”
The society said its ultimate goal was to encourage citizens of all countries to prevent and control this silent killer.
The theme of this year’s event is “Measure your blood pressure accurately, control it, live longer”. This theme is a call to the need to increase hypertension awareness, accurately measure blood pressure, detect and control hypertension in order to prevent premature death.
The society said “the proportion of Nigerians with hypertension is high, while awareness, treatment, and control rates are low despite the availability of potent drugs. In a screening conducted by the Nigerian Hypertension Society in 2018, hypertension was present in one-thirds of the population with only half of these aware of being hypertensive, while only 18 percent of all hypertension patients had their blood pressure controlled.
