Number of Brazilians with high blood pressure problems was a record in 2023, survey shows | National Newspaper

Hypertension diagnosis breaks record in 2023

The number of Brazilians with high blood pressure problems was a record in 2023.

The pressure has been increasing. According to a survey, almost 28% of Brazilians suffer from hypertension.

The study by the National Institute of Cardiology was carried out based on data from the Ministry of Health and reveals the highest percentage of the population with high blood pressure since the beginning of the historical series, in 2006.

Civil servant Neyla Fernandes is 64 years old and discovered that she has had hypertension for five years:

“I had to change my life, change my diet. I smoked, I stopped smoking”, she says.

Hypertension is one of the main risk factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack and stroke.

Imagine that your arteries are like water pipes and blood is the water that flows through them. Blood pressure is the force that water exerts against the walls of pipes. When the pressure is normal, the blood flows smoothly without damaging the walls, but when the pressure is high, the blood flows with great force, putting pressure on the walls of the pipes, which can cause damage.

Hypertensive people may not have serious symptoms. You may just feel a headache or dizziness. That’s why it’s so important to measure your blood pressure regularly.

News reporter: Doctor, how much is my blood pressure now?
Doctor: Your pressure at that moment is 120 by 80 millimeters of mercury, or what the general population calls 12 by 8.
News reporter: Normal?
Doctor: It is considered normal pressure.

People over 60 are more likely to have the diseasebut 2023 was the year with the highest number of young people between 18 and 24 years old with hypertension.

“This is very worrying and is associated with the sedentary lifestyle of young people, who, nowadays, are more sedentary”, highlights epidemiologist Arn Migoski, coordinator of the research.

The treatment for those with hypertension is known.

“A low-salt diet and knowing that salt is something that already exists in food”, advises cardiologist Aurora Issa.

And what relieves the pressure of everyday life also helps with our internal pressure.

“Physical activity, which is a measure that has the potential to reduce blood pressure, often means that the patient does not need to use medication and, in other cases, causes them to use less medication, right?”, explains Aurora.

Seu Glaucico Correia, 71 years old, has been living with hypertension for 20 years.

“If I leave it abandoned, things go downhill very quickly. I want to live at least another 30 years,” he says.