The Silent Killer

When a mild stroke hit my mother, Jennifer,—a 39 year old house wife that time on one peaceful night on February 23 year 2013 —that’s when things start to get really serious for me along with my family, my awareness to this illness is at an all time high.

Hypertension, most commonly known as High blood, is a long term medical condition which occurs when your blood pressure increases to unhealthy levels. A person’s blood measurement defines the amount of blood that passes through the blood vessels and the intensity of the resistance the blood meets while the heart is pumping. When arteries are narrow it increases resistance and the narrower they get the higher your blood pressure will be.

So What Causes Hypertension?

Hypertension has two classifications, the primary/ essential high blood pressure and the secondary high blood pressure.

Primary high blood pressure is caused by unhealthy lifestyle or hereditary factors. Smoking, alcohol abuse, too much sodium or salt in the diet and excess body weight are some of the lifestyle factors that causes hypertension.

On the other hand, secondary high blood pressure is caused by certain relative illnesses such as chronic kidney disease, narrowing of the kidney arteries, an endocrine disorder, sleep apnea or —in my mother’s case—pregnancy. It occurs in 8 to 10% of pregnancies, and unfortunately mom was one of those people. She got hypertension during her pregnancy with my youngest sister and since then, everything changed.

As an 8 year old girl that time, I did not have the faintest idea what it meant to have such a condition. I remember, her days in the hospital when she’s about to go into labor. The nurses would inject her with magnesium to prevent mineral deficiency and the rising of her blood pressure. It was terrifying to see my mother get injected with needles on both shoulders and her upper thigh.

However, years later something much more terrifying had come upon our family.

THE NIGHT THE SILENT KILLER ATTACKED.

One night, at the wee hours of the morning of February 23^rd 2013, my dad woke us –my sisters and I– and told us that mom needed to be taken to the hospital. Worried, I went down to their room and was horrified of the sight of my mom curled up on the bathroom floor so still and unmoving. Everything was a blur when we got to the hospital and mom was sent to the ER while we waited on the cold steel benches, dreading what’s to come. After hours of anxiously waiting, mom was out of danger and was sent to a private room where her doctor would meet us with her test results.

Dr. Greg, as I remembered, came in the room that evening with mom’s diagnosis. He told us that mom suffered from a mild stroke. He showed us a CT scan of mom’s brain beside a normal brain. He pointed a section of the CT scan where it’s whiter than the normal one and explained that, the whiter portion that he pointed was a small nerve in mom’s brain that ruptured that caused partial immobility and numbness on her body and temporary dysphasia. The doctor said the mild stroke was triggered by her very high hypertension. He gave my mother medication to reduce blood pressure by relaxing her blood vessels, like Angiotensin-2 receptor blockers or ARBs specifically losartan. He also, suggested my mother to cut down salt intake, drink less coffee, and go on a diet, preferably the DASH diet.

Of course, my sisters and I were not exempted from the reminders, Dr. Greg jokingly scolded us saying,” Maybe you kids give your mother too much stress that she got a very high blood.” This maybe a bit of a joke but, there is truth in his words too. Stress can cause high blood and mom id very temperamental so it’s really necessary for us to try and not cause trouble for our parents and trigger mom’s high blood.

SO WHAT DID I LEARN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE?

Being the eldest, I want to try and make everybody happy and well. My father is a seaman and is always away, so most of the time it’s just my mom, me and my sisters. It came to a realization that I need to be more responsible for the sake of my family and that I need to be more considerate of other people and their feelings, so as not to cause stress and worry for others. I also learned to live more healthily, like being conscious of my own food intake or being more aware of the contents of the food that I eat. This incident really changed my perception in life and how to deal with –not just with other people – but also with myself. It really stats with other people’s experiences.

A CHALLENGE TO THE READERS….

According to the World Health Organization, about 1.3 billion people have hypertension and is considered a major cause for premature death. This illness is pretty much everywhere that some people would think that it’s a normal occurrence, especially for older people. NO. It’s not.

It’s not normal and it’s a total misconception that only older people can beget it. Young adults, teenagers, children and even babies can have high blood pressure. The causes of hypertension can be the same for young people; too much salt, obesity, stress, lack of exercise or pre-mature birth are some of the examples. If people, won’t change their diet and lifestyle, a very high risk of developing hypertension or other diseases may occur. It is all about how you live and take care of yourself. Don’t wait for an incident like mine for you to start changing your lifestyle.

The tension of high blood is everywhere. Start a change. Start with yourself. Don’t Hype the Tension but Raise Prevention!

Want to know more about hypertension? Watch this video.