Over 40% of M’sians have hypertension

Star: KOTA BARU: For every patient in the country diagnosed as having hypertension, two others are not detected because the condition has no symptoms.
In most cases, they only realise they have the chronic ailment after suffering a stroke or a heart attack, said the Malaysian Society of Hypertension.
Describing it as a silent killer, society vice-president Dr Azani Mohamed Daud lamented that by the time the person suffers a stroke or heart attack, it could be too late to treat the ailment.
“At times, it is already fatal,” he added in his address at the national-level World Hypertension Day event at the Sultan Ismail Petra Jubilee Perak Hall here.
The Tengku Mahkota of Kelantan, Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra, opened the one-day programme.
Dr Azani, the resident cardiologist at the Gleneagles Intan Medical centre, said since sufferers do not display symptoms, it was best for everyone aged 30 and above to check if they have it.
Hypertension is usually associated with an increase in blood pressure, brought on by a combination of risk factors from smoking, stress, obesity and lack of exercise.
The society estimates that over 41% of the country’s 26 million population have hypertension.
Dr Azani said there was an increasingly worrying trend of people below 30 linked to hypertension.
“As it is chronic, with no cure currently available, the best medical measures are to control its effects and prevention.
“It is a difficult ailment as there is an increasing level of affliction based on stress which cannot be measured.
“What is stressful for you may not be for me,” he added.