Tame salt habit to avoid hypertension: Experts

Experts at a seminar yesterday urged people not to take over 5 gram of salt per day in order to get rid of high blood pressure as nearly 21 percent of adults aged above 25 are suffering from hypertension in the country.
They said daily salt intake is 10-11 gram in urban areas of Bangladesh and the excessive salt intake increases risk of high blood pressure in the country, reports UNB.
To mark the World Hypertension Day 2016, the Hypertension Committee of the National Heart Foundation (NHF) and the Non Communicable Disease Control Programme of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) jointly arranged the seminar at the NHF Hospital and Research Institute auditorium in the capital. The day was observed across the world with the theme ‘Know Your Blood Pressure’. Addressing the seminar, National Professor Brig (retd) Abdul Malik, Founder and President of the Heart Foundation, said awareness is needed to know about blood pressure as there is prevalence of hypertension in every family in Bangladesh.
“If we can detect it at early stage, we can prevent hypertension and save thus us from danger,” he said terming the hypertension a silent killer. Prof Malik urged the physicians to suggest patients measured their blood pressure.
DGHS Additional Director Prof AHM Enayet Hossain said there are available drugs for hypertension in the government hospitals, but many physicians prescribe expensive drugs instead of free ones.
He urged the doctors to prescribe the free government drugs or cheap drugs for the poor patients.
Prof Sohel Reza Choudhury of the Heart Foundation, in his keynote paper, said complications from hypertension account for 9.4 million deaths worldwide every year and more than 1 in 5 adults worldwide have raised blood pressure - a condition that causes around half of all deaths from stroke and heart disease, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Tame salt habit to avoid hypertension: Experts

Experts at a seminar yesterday urged people not to take over 5 gram of salt per day in order to get rid of high blood pressure as nearly 21 percent of adults aged above 25 are suffering from hypertension in the country. They said daily salt intake is 10-11 gram in urban areas of Bangladesh and the excessive salt intake increases risk of high blood pressure in the country, reports UNB. To mark the World Hypertension Day 2016, the Hypertension Committee of the National Heart Foundation (NHF) and the Non Communicable Disease Control Programme of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) jointly arranged the seminar at the NHF Hospital and Research Institute auditorium in the capital. The day was observed across the world with the theme Know Your Blood Pressure. Addressing the seminar, National Professor Brig (retd) Abdul Malik, Founder and President of the Heart Foundation, said awareness is needed to know about blood pressure as there is prevalence of hypertension in every family in Bangladesh. If we can detect it at early stage, we can prevent hypertension and save thus us from danger, he said terming the hypertension a silent killer. Prof Malik urged the physicians to suggest patients measured their blood pressure. DGHS Additional Director Prof AHM Enayet Hossain said there are available drugs for hypertension in the government hospitals, but many physicians prescribe expensive drugs instead of free ones. He urged the doctors to prescribe the free government drugs or cheap drugs for the poor patients. Prof Sohel Reza Choudhury of the Heart Foundation, in his keynote paper, said complications from hypertension account for 9.4 million deaths worldwide every year and more than 1 in 5 adults worldwide have raised blood pressure - a condition that causes around half of all deaths from stroke and heart disease, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).