World Hypertension Day 2019: Know about High Blood Pressure | KDAH Blog

What is hypertension?

Hypertension is the medical term for high blood pressure. This means that the blood applies too much force against the walls of the blood vessels. Medical guidelines define hypertension as blood pressure higher than 130 over 80 millimetres of mercury (mmHg).

Important facts about high blood pressure:

• High blood pressure may be linked to a higher risk of dementia.
• Young people can have high blood pressure, too.
• 1 in 5 adults are unaware of their high blood pressure.
• Women face pregnancy complications due to high blood pressure.

Risk factors

A number of risk factors increase the chances of having hypertension.

• Age: Hypertension is more common in people aged over 60 years.
• Ethnicity: Some ethnic groups are more prone to hypertension.
• Size and weight: Being overweight or obese is a key risk factor.
• Alcohol and tobacco use: Consuming large amounts of alcohol regularly can increase a person’s blood pressure, as can smoking tobacco.
• Existing health conditions: Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and high cholesterol levels can lead to hypertension, especially as people get older.
• Hereditary factors: A family history of high blood pressure and poorly managed stress can also contribute.

Signs

Blood pressure can be measured by a sphygmomanometer, or blood pressure monitor. Having high blood pressure for a short time can be a normal response to many situations like stress or intense exercise. For this reason, a diagnosis of hypertension normally requires several readings that show high blood pressure over time.

Symptoms

A person with hypertension may not notice any symptoms, and it is often called the “silent killer.” Regularly checking your blood pressure is vital, as there will usually be no symptoms to make you aware of the condition.

It is maintained that high blood pressure causes sweating, anxiety, sleeping problems, and blushing. If blood pressure reaches the level of a hypertensive crisis, a person may experience headaches and nosebleeds.

Complications

Hypertension and heart disease are global health concerns. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that the growth of the processed food industry has impacted the amount of salt in diets worldwide, and that this plays a role in hypertension.

Long-term hypertension can cause complications through atherosclerosis, where the formation of plaque results in the narrowing of blood vessels. This makes hypertension worse, as the heart must pump harder to deliver blood to the body.

Hypertension-related atherosclerosis can lead to:

• Heart failure and heart attacks.
• An aneurysm, or an abnormal bulge in the wall of an artery that can burst, causing severe bleeding and, in some cases, death.
• Kidney failure.
• Stroke.
• Amputation.
• Hypertensive retinopathies in the eye, which can lead to blindness.

Hypertension in India:

According to data from the National Health Profile (NHP) 2018, more people were diagnosed with hypertension than diabetes in India in 2017. The prevalence of hypertension among 18-25 years-old was higher than that estimated by the World Health Organization and in fact than any other country in the world.

Prevent Hypertension:

Your age, along with a family history of hypertension and ethnicity are among the hypertension risk factors that are out of your control. To avoid a hypertension diagnosis, make these healthy lifestyle choices:

1. Maintain a healthy weight. When it comes to hypertension prevention, your weight is crucial. Obesity increases your chances of getting hypertension.
2. Eat a balanced diet. Consider following the DASH diet which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The DASH diet emphasizes vegetables, fruits and low-fat dairy foods — and moderate amounts of whole grains, fish, poultry and nuts which are rich in potassium, calcium and magnesium.
3. Cut back on salt. For many people, eating a low-sodium diet can help keep blood pressure normal. The higher the sodium intake, the higher the blood pressure.
4. Exercise regularly. Get moving to prevent hypertension. Physical activity is crucial. The more exercise you get, the better, but even a little bit can help control blood pressure. Moderate exercise for about 30 minutes three times a week is a good start.
5. Limit alcohol. Drinking too much alcohol can lead to high blood pressure. For women, that means no more than one drink a day, and for men, no more than two.
6. Monitor your blood pressure. Make sure that you have your blood pressure measured regularly, either at your doctor’s office or at home.
7. Avoid stress. Learn to manage your stress better to help control your blood pressure control.
8. Smoking can raise blood pressure. Giving up smoking reduces the risk of hypertension, heart conditions, and other health issues.

Take a look at your lifestyle habits and decide where you can make changes to help prevent hypertension. Adopting these lifestyle changes can help prevent high blood pressure if your blood pressure is currently under control or lead to lower blood pressure if your numbers are already elevated.

Consult doctors at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital to manage Hypertension better. Please find below website link for more details:

https://www.kokilabenhospital.com/departments/clinicaldepartments/internalmedicine/hypertension.html

Tips to Eat & Stay Healthy in Summer | KDAH Blog

We are in mid-summer and the temperature seems to be rising rapidly. How are you coping with the peak summer days? Are the scorching sun and humid days leaving you frustrated? Indian summer can be harsh in many parts of India. The harsh climate can drain you of your energy, making you prone to infections, vomiting, nausea, prickly heat and low blood pressure. However, it is essential to tweak your diet as per the weather. Follow these simple steps to keep yourself hydrated and healthy in summer.

Here are a few tips to stay healthy this summer:

• Hydrate yourself as much as possible. Staying hydrated is very crucial during summer as it ensures that your body keeps functioning normally. As the heat goes up, it results in excessive sweating, which also reduces energy levels and electrolytes from your body.
• Avoid caffeinated or carbonated beverages, alcoholic beverages, and those high in sugar. All these drinks contain preservatives, colours and sugars. They are acidic in nature and act as diuretics. They cause loss of fluids through urine and body gets dehydrated.
• Summertime tends to reduce one’s appetite because of excessive heat. But it is important for you to eat regularly because your body requires the nutrients to fight the heat and keep you healthy. Follow a light diet which is easy to digest, include summer veggies like squash, bottle gourd, cucumber, ivy gourd, etc.
• Avoid cut and peeled roadside fruits, raw vegetables and meat which are pre-exposed to flies and other dirt.
• Always drink clean boiled drinking water to avoid water-borne diseases.
• Severe sweating in summer causes electrolyte imbalance because sodium is flushed out of the system. Drink lemon juice, coconut water, buttermilk and fresh fruit juices to replenish the fluids that are lost in sweat.
• Avoid eating fatty, greasy food like vadas, samosas, chips, bhajias, farsans, etc.

Eat right for summer:

Are you choosing the right foods, juices, fruits and vegetables for summer?
Here are a few summers must-haves:

• Lauki or bottle gourd – This is extremely popular for weight loss. It’s rich in calcium, magnesium, Vitamin A, C and folate. The superhero vegetable works well on high blood pressure, keeps the heart healthy and is considered an excellent blood purifier.
• Salad leaves – Amaranth leaves, rocket leaves, basil and other summer herbs should be tossed in a salad bowl and topped off with a yoghurt dressing to make a great summer salad. They create a powerhouse of nutrition and are light too.
• Aam Panna -Two glasses of aam pana can help with digestion, constipation and chronic stomach problems like Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Make it at home to ensure the use of recommended quantities of sugar and salt.
• Mint water with lemon – One glass of strained mint water with two drops of lemon works wonders. It acts as a liver cleanser, boosts your metabolism and helps those with a low appetite.
• Barley Water – Have two glasses a day and in case you find it bland, add a drop of lemon or honey for taste. Since barley water is rich in fiber, it prevents constipation and also helps in controlling your appetite.
• Watermelon – Watermelon is approximately 90 per cent water, so it’s undoubtedly the best way to keep yourself hydrated. It helps with digestion and keeps the stomach cool.
• Oranges – Oranges are considered beneficial in avoiding muscle cramps. Availability of Potassium in this citrus fruit helps in refilling the lost potassium through sweat.
• Papaya – The sweet and fleshy Papaya, rich presence of enzymes like chymopapain and papain, is widely demanded in summers as it helps in the proper digestion of proteins.
• Mango – The king of fruits, Mango, must be included in the diet during summers as it is rich in the content of selenium and iron.
• Pineapple – Pineapples are good to be included in the summer diet as they contain Bromelian enzyme that helps in the digestion of fats and proteins.

Stay healthy and safe this summer by choosing the right diet plan. Do you have any questions for your summer diet? Consult our Department of Nutrition Therapy for more details.

How to select the best hospital for your treatment

When the reality of your illness dawns and you know you need to make a decision soon, it is essential that you understand everything that is needed to select a hospital for treatment. It’s definitely not the nearest or the most economical, but you wish to select the best hospital in your city for your treatment.

Here are a few tips to select the best hospital for your treatment:

The range of services or specialty

While selecting a hospital for ailments, it is essential that you check out all the services provided by the hospital. There are a few hospitals that are multispecialty and some that specialize in only a single type of treatments.

Patient satisfaction

It’s very important to understand the patient outcomes and patient reviews. The best way to understand whether the hospital is the best is to read reviews of patients who have already been treated there. You can look at the websites for testimonials and reviews or you can look at some of the most common review sites. What people say – whether positive or negative, gives you an idea of the place you will trust your treatment with.

Amenities

It’s essential that you check the facilities provided. The hospital should be well equipped with everything that is required for either treatment or surgery etc. Check out whether they have enough resources to conduct tests and enough supporting equipment too. Multispecialty hospitals with all the necessary amenities are better equipped in case of complications during treatment. Further specialty hospitals have all the latest technology equipment that is required for the treatment of the particular ailment they are specialized in.

Administration

It’s not only the top doctors that make a good hospital. The administration and the staff that is running the place on a day to day basis is also important. Sufficient administrative staff means that you will not have to wait for long to get simple things done.

Availability of support staff

Support staff like nurses and lab assistants is an essential and indispensable part of a hospital. If the hospital is short on support staff, it decreases the efficiency with which they work. No matter how skilled a doctor or surgeon is, the team they work with matters too. So, even if not up front, it is essential that you do your homework and check out the support staff in the hospital too.

Doctors on board

Some hospitals have doctors’ full time and some hospitals have doctors on a consultation basis. The availability of doctors does matter in such cases. If you are selecting a hospital for the purpose of critical treatments, make sure that you select the best hospital with full-time doctors on board. It makes a difference when something critical comes up.

So, it’s essential that you understand a few things and do a little research before you select the best hospital for your treatment.

Be Aware about Stroke Symptoms and Live healthier Life | KDAH Blog

A stroke occurs when a part of the brain loses its blood supply and stops working. This causes the part of the body that the injured brain controls to stop working. A stroke also is called a cerebrovascular accident, CVA, or “brain attack.”

The types of strokes include:

• Ischemic stroke (part of the brain loses blood flow)
• Hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding occurs within the brain)

The transient ischemic attack, TIA, or mini-stroke -The stroke symptoms resolve within minutes but may take up to 24 hours on their own without treatment. This is a warning sign that a stroke may occur in the near future.

From the onset of symptoms, there is only a 3 to 4 1/2 hour window to use clot-busting drugs (thrombolytics) to try to restore blood supply to the affected part of the brain. Stroke is diagnosed by the patient’s symptoms, history, and blood and imaging tests. The prognosis and recovery for a person that has suffered a stroke depend upon the location of the injury to the brain.

Remember FAST if you think someone might be having a stroke:

• Face drooping
• Arm weakness
• Speech difficulty
• Time to call emergency

A stroke is a medical emergency because strokes can lead to death or permanent disability. There are opportunities to treat ischemic strokes but that treatment needs to be started in the first few hours after the signs of a stroke begin. The patient, family, or bystanders, should call emergency medical services immediately if they suspect a stroke.

Risk factors of stroke:

Overall, the most common risk factors for stroke are:

• High blood pressure.
• High cholesterol.
• Smoking.
• Diabetes.
• Family history.
• Age.

Heart conditions like atrial fibrillation, patent foramen ovale, and heart valve disease can also be the potential cause of stroke.

Stroke Symptoms and Signs:

The symptoms of a stroke vary depending upon the area of the brain affected by a lack of oxygen. All strokes involve symptoms that relate to impairment of nerve function. The symptoms typically arise suddenly and most commonly occur on one side of the body. Symptoms and signs of stroke can include:

• Acute change in a level of consciousness or confusion.
• Acute onset of weakness or paralysis of half or part of the body
• Numbness of one half or part of the body
• Partial vision loss.
• Tingling or weakness.
• A headache, nausea, and vomiting.
• Double vision.
• Difficulty speaking or understanding speech.
• A difficulty with balance and vertigo.

Here are some Stroke Myths and facts:-

Prevent stroke attacks:

You can fight stroke on many fronts. Here are a few changes in your daily lifestyle to help prevent strokes:

• Know and control your blood pressure.
• Don’t smoke; stop if you do.
• Lose weight if needed.
• Become more active.
• Identify and manage atrial fibrillation.
• Be aggressive about treating a transient ischemic attack (TIA, or mini-stroke).
• Treat circulatory problems like peripheral artery disease, sickle cell disease, or severe anemia.
• Know and control your blood sugar and cholesterol.
• If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation.
• Adopt a healthy diet low in sodium and rich in potassium.
• Know the warning signs of stroke and respond immediately.

Is someone around you having a stroke attack? Call our Emergency department on 91-22-3091-9191. Act fast and contact our Stroke clinic immediately. Please find below link for more details:

https://www.kokilabenhospital.com/departments/clinicsatkh/strokeclinic.html

Tuberculosis & its 2 Types – KDAH Blog

Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious disease that is caused by bacteria and it spreads through the air from person to person. While it is preventable and curable, it can be fatal if it is not treated properly. According to the 2017 Global TB Report released by WHO, India continues to have the highest cases of Tuberculosis in the world. When a person infected with lung TB coughs, sneezes or spits, he/she propels TB germs into the air. One only needs to inhale a few of these germs to become infected. The most common symptoms of TB are night sweats, fever, cough, weight loss, fatigue and loss of appetite.

There are two types of Tuberculosis – Latent TB and Active TB. Let’s find out more about these two types!

1) Latent TB

2) Active TB

One in 10 people who are infected with TB develop active TB at some point in their lives. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, 8 million people develop active TB each year. Kokilaben Hospital’s Pulmonary Medicine department helps diagnose and treat various respiratory diseases including TB. We have a state-of-the-art Pulmonary Function Testing Lab for comprehensive lung function testing.

There is also something known as drug-resistant TB which means that the bacteria in your body won’t be affected by certain drugs. When this happens, you will have to use the second line of drugs that are not only costlier, but also cause more side-effects. The easiest way to prevent TB is by stopping the spread of the bacteria from one person to another.

Kokilaben Hospital is an India based top multispeciality healthcare centre in Andheri West – Mumbai, which provides complete treatments and surgeries for all kinds of diseases.