Angela Onwuzoo
As the burden of stroke among young people continues to be an issue of major concern, medical experts have identified hypertension, obesity, and diabetes as major causal factors.
The experts also expressed worries over the rate at which they are also coming down with diseases previously diagnosed in adults like Type 2 diabetes.
According to a 2020 review article published in the Journal of American Heart Association, hypertension among young people is common and affects one in eight between the age of 20 and 40 years.
This is even as experts recommend mandatory screening for people above 18 years.
A Professor of Paediatric Endocrinology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Abiola Oduwole, told Reportr Door Healthwise in an exclusive interview that obese children are now coming down with hypertension.
He also noted that children with obesity now experience the same problem as adults and warned parents to be wary of their children’s lifestyle.
Prof. Oduwole who is also a Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital pointed out that engaging obese children in regular physical activities remains crucial if they must lose weight.
The President of the Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Endocrine in Nigeria, further said that 70 per cent of obesity in children has more to do with nutrition and the environment.
According to him, the remaining 30 per cent has to do with endocrine problems, which is associated with hormone.
“The problem we have now is that more and more incursion of what is happening in the urban areas is moving into the rural areas.
“We are beginning to see overweight children in the rural areas and that was how obesity started in the urban areas. We were seeing more overweight and obese children at a higher level in rural areas.
“Unfortunately, unlike before, we are now beginning to see hypertension in children because they are obese.
Continuing, the endocrinologist said, “Yes, it is happening. And to show that things are changing, you have what is called prediabetes. Prediabetes is a stage before it becomes Type 2 diabetes and we are now beginning to see it in children.
“Before we don’t see Type 2 diabetes in children, if we see diabetes, we say they are Type 1. But now, we are seeing Type 2 diabetes, which occurs in adults as a result of obesity.
“What we are saying is that we are beginning to find comorbidities of obesity and overweight amongst our children. We are beginning to see hypertension, pre-diabetes, high lipid profile, and other things that we didn’t get see in children before.”
He urged parents to stop buying chocolates for their children and to encourage them to get involved in regular physical activities, emphasising that it remained the way to go in the management of obesity both in adults and children
The Executive Director, Nigerian Heart Foundation, Dr. Kingsley Akinroye, during the 2022 World Hypertension Day, said the prevalence of hypertension is estimated to be between 30 and 40 per cent of Nigeria’s over 200 million population, which is in the range of 60 to 80 million.
Akinroye, who is also a consultant cardiologist said, “Almost one in three adults suffer from hypertension, while only one-third of this figure (about 26.7 million Nigerians) are on treatment.
“A survey by the NHF showed that awareness of hypertension is more in the urban than rural areas and more amongst women than men.
“Since the onset of COVID-19 in Nigeria, we have evidence that more people with heart disease have been affected or died from the pandemic than any other illness. Also, we are aware that the cost of treatment with anti-hypertensive drugs has gone up.”
He noted that the ideal blood pressure is 120/80 mmHg, but in Nigeria, normal blood pressure is 140/90 mmHg.
“Any figure higher than 140 mmHg for systolic blood pressure or 90 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure is regarded as hypertension,” he added.
Meanwhile, authors in a recent article published in an online portal, Medical News Today, also blamed obesity, hypertension and diabetes for the rising cases of stroke seen among young adults.
According to them, stroke is a potentially debilitating medical condition that occurs when there is a blocked blood vessel in the brain or it bursts, thereby, hindering blood flow to the brain and leading to brain cell death.
The authors who said strokes were more common in older adults, however, noted that a stroke can develop in a person of any age.
“Younger adults may experience stroke due to obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Other risk factors increase a young adult’s risk of having a stroke”, they said.
The authors listed blocked blood supply, burst blood vessels, viral infections, such as HIV; cardiovascular conditions, such as high cholesterol and cardiomyopathy as other risk factors for having a stroke.
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