We can protect kidneys by always checking blood pressure

What you need to know:

  • Where I work, every two patients out of 10 come with high blood pressure! To me, this appears to be more worrisome than it has ever been before.

High blood pressure is increasingly becoming a common phenomenon amongst Tanzanians. We, medics, tend to refer to it as hypertension.

Where I work, every two patients out of 10 come with high blood pressure! To me, this appears to be more worrisome than it has ever been before.

However, this happens at a time when Tanzanians have to contend with another problem—misconceptions.

One, being the wrong belief that once a person with hypertension has used medications for a short while, the problem stops completely.

Quite often, I get patients telling me that when their blood pressure went high, they took tablets and it got better, meaning the symptoms of high blood pressure such as headache, lightheadedness or palpitations— all disappeared.

So, unfortunately, such patients have ended up discontinuing their course of treatment—not knowing that when they stop the medications, the problem recurs and may go ahead to damage organs such as the kidneys and brain.

Facts people must know

What people have to know is that hypertension is a condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries (blood vessels) is persistently elevated.

Most times, the condition does not cause symptoms, and that is one of the reasons why many people are not aware of that they have it.

Each time I think about this topic, I recall a scenario where one of the patients came and asked me, “Daktari mbona pressure yangu iko juu? Na mimi siumwi? Meaning: “Doc, why is my blood pressure high while I am not even sick?”

As I mentioned before, high blood pressure can be asymptomatic, and what I usually tell my patients is to make sure they monitor their blood pressure regularly, eat healthy and avoid all risky behaviours, which can lead to high blood pressure.

The other bad thing is, by the time the patients develop symptoms, they may have developed complications.

Times have changed

In the past, there was a belief that high blood pressure was a problem of the elderly and often obese people. But, research is increasingly proving this wrong.

In recent years, it is becoming more and more evident that hypertension can occur in all age groups. During a recent medical camp conducted at Mnazi mmoja grounds in Dar es Salaam, where over 14,000 people were screened and 23 per cent of them were found to have high blood pressure.

And, most of them had no idea about their condition. Now that’s where the major complications arise. A person with a long standing history of hypertension is at risk of developing kidney disease. That’s in addition to other complications such as stroke.

The kidney disease may eventually culminate into failure. In other words, uncontrolled high blood pressure slowly kills the kidneys and other organs.

I work for a centre where patients with kidney failure undergo dialysis (blood purification process) and what is more concerning is that with time, we are seeing young adults coming with kidney diseases.

More than 90 per cent of hypertension is primary, which means the high blood pressure due to nonspecific lifestyle and genetic factors. But, we have noted a trend where the condition can be attributed to excessive salt in the diet, obesity, and harmful use of alcohol and cigarette consumption.

So what happens to the kidneys when someone has uncontrolled high blood pressure?

Your kidneys are a pair of regulatory organs located on either side of your back. Their main function is to act as a filter system that removes waste products and excess fluid from the body.

Once the blood pressure is uncontrolled for a long period of time (people do not know they have high blood pressure or when people don’t adhere to medications), kidney’s tiny blood vessels are harmed. In the process the vessels are unable to receive oxygen and kidney loses its ability to filter blood; this in turn causes buildup of harmful substance in the body.

The above cycle leads to eventual death of both kidneys and patient eventually, this patient will need dialysis three times a week for rest of their life in order to survive or a kidney transplant. Dialysis and kidney transplant are all very expensive to do.

As a wise person said, prevention is better than cure.

Tanzanians in general are at high risk of getting hypertension due to our sedentary lifestyles and poor diet, with recent rise of kidney diseases, I highly urge this young generation to be more vigilant with what you eat, exercise and keep your body healthy.

So, keep an eye on your heart. There exist a small number of high blood pressure cases that are caused by another medical condition that was present first.

Examples include pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH), certain heart defects, and kidney disorders. But, most often, if the condition causing the high blood pressure can be resolved, the individual’s blood pressure will normalise as well.

So, get to know your readings today and take action!

Dr Essajee is a medical officer at the emergency medicine department of Regency Medical Centre.