Thursday, June 20, 2013

Stroke, Prevention is Better than Cure

Many may not be aware of the stroke risk or the factors leading to stroke.

Doctors have described these people as the walking time bomb. Just like a time bomb, it can explode anytime.

Risk Factors for Stroke are well established and include:

1.  high blood pressure (hypertension)
2. high cholesterol,
3. diabetes
4. irregular heart beats
5. Obesity
6. Smoking
7. Family History
8. Drinking

The recent survey shows that 46% of the Malaysian Adult above 30 suffer from hypertension and without proper management, making them 6 times more likely to suffer stroke. With another common disease, diabetes, a person is 4 times more likely to suffer stroke.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Hypertension - Malaysian Invisible Enemy

Hyper tension is a silence disease. About 32% of the Malaysian are suffering for the invisible disease and many of whom may not even aware of the impending problem.

Many of the population are unaware of the condition  until the day they have the heart attack or stroke. The statistics from the national health and morbidity survey shows frightening data:

- 42.6% of malaysian adult aged above 30 have hypertension.
- 64% of these people did not know that they have the problem.
- Of the diagnosed, 88% was treated and out the treated only 26% had achieved the targetd pressure of below 140/90 mmhg.

The worrying data is, about half of the Malaysian are walking with high blood pressure and 2/3 of them dont even know about it.

Understanding Blood Pressure. 
Our heart is like a pump. The pressure is measure at 2 level,
- the systolic pressure - when the heart contract to give the maximum pressure.
- the diastolic pressure - when the heart relaxs during diastole.