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Blood pressure is a silent killer

Living healthy is within your reach, all you need to do is take the right steps.

If you come to think of it, living healthy is not as difficult as it may sound. Your simple rule for life should be: Live it simple. Eat simple food, do manual work and steer clear of bad habits like smoking. Living healthy is within your reach, all you need to do is take the right steps.
Recent statistics of people with heart diseases in the UAE, however, shows that most of us have gotten used to a soft life which leads to an alarming number of people getting affected with lifestyle diseases.
"As per recent statistics of the UAE, 1 in 5 are diabetics, 30 per cent are obese and 19-20 per cent have high cholesterol and one in three is a high BP patient, said Dr Anil Kumar, consultant (visiting) cardiologist, at Aster Jubilee Clinic, Bur Dubai.
"Main causes of heart failure are lifestyle diseases are sedentary lifestyle, lack of exercise and bad habits. Sedentry life promotes obesity, high BP, high sugar and high cholesterol. Add to this smoking and this can aggravate conditions or even directly cause blockage and heart attacks or heart failures.
"If you control your blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol; exercise regularly and eat healthy; and do not smoke, your chances of heart disease will become very less."
"Undetected high blood pressure is a silent killer. There will be no symptoms and the person will feel absolutely normal even with a blood pressure of 150/100, till it causes a crisis and damage to a target organ. It can cause heart attacks and heart failure, strokes and sudden paralysis. It can affect the kidneys causing kidney failure which is irreversible," Dr Kumar said.
"A healthy diet is important for a healthy heart. Diet should be rich in fruits and vegetables and less in fats and carbohydrates. Mediterranean diet is known to prevent heart attacks and is rich in vegetables and fruits with ample protein and less carbohydrates. This diet helps to keep cholesterol, sugar and blood pressure low!"
Talking about steps one you can take right now that will pave the way for healthy living tomorrow, according to Dr Kumar.
"Keep your body weight within normal range. You should know your numbers, i.e. blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol. And finally take proper treatment at the correct time is the key preventive step to keep heart diseases at bay."
- saman@khaleejtimes.com