First Aid Warehouse Celebrates the World Hypertension Day

On Sunday 17th May 2009, many countries across the globe will see in the fourth World Hypertension Day which aims to increase awareness of the dangers of hypertension and to promote healthy lifestyle changes.

The main driving force behind World Hypertension Day is the World Hypertension League (WHL), which is a federation of leagues, societies, and other national bodies devoted to the promotion of the detection, control and prevention of arterial hypertension in populations. The WHL is a division of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH), and is in official relations with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The theme of the 2009 awareness day is "Salt and High Blood Pressure: Two silent killers". The main purpose of the day is to highlight four main points which are; High blood pressure is the biggest single cause of death worldwide through strokes, heart attacks and kidney diseases; Salt is the major factor putting up blood pressure; Reducing salt intake reduces blood pressure across the population; If salt intake was reduced by half it would save approximately 2.5 million people a year dying unnecessarily of strokes, heart attacks and chronic kidney diseases worldwide.[1]

High blood pressure has been called a "global epidemic" by professionals and has also been dubbed as one of the largest causes of death in the UK. Hypertension along with some other non-communicable diseases in particular cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease now pose a greater risk to public health than communicable diseases. Chronic diseases such as high blood pressure already account for 72% of the total global burden of disease in people over 30 an this is expected to increase by 17% over the next decade.

In the UK alone, there are approximately16 million known sufferers of high blood pressure which equates to one in thee of the adult population. High blood pressure can be treated, and even prevented, by making simple lifestyle changes such as exercising more regularly and eating a healthier diet - especially lowering salt intake, cutting back on alcohol consumption and by stopping smoking. Medicines are also available that can help to lower and control blood pressure and clinical tests have proven that taking garlic supplements can have a very positive effect, similar to that of prescription drugs.

For those aware that they suffer from hypertension (huge numbers of people simply do not know that they have the condition which is why it has been dubbed ‘the silent killer'), most will know how important it is to monitor their blood pressure levels. Certainly if they are on prescribed medication, then they will have their blood pressure checked at regular intervals by their GP or Nurse but more and more people are choosing to monitor their blood pressure at home.
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[1] World Hypertension Day Invitation Letter 12/2008

First Aid Kits ,
Blood Pressure Monitors