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UNITED KINGDOM - High-stress lifestyles fuelled by alcohol and fast food and leaving no time for exercise are boosting the incidence of high blood pressure and threaten a global epidemic of heart disease, says a new report.
Known as the "silent killer" because it is symptomless but deadly, high blood pressure can damage major organs and lead to heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and dementia.
It already affects one in four adults globally - about one billion people - and causes an estimated seven million deaths from cardiovascular disease a year.
That is set to increase by 60 per cent over the next 20 years if nothing is done, the report by three international health experts says.
Launched at the European Parliament in Brussels, the report "High blood pressure and health policy" calls for better education, improved healthcare and greater efforts to persuade people to change their lifestyle.
The authors hope the statistics will prompt a new campaign to tackle hypertension through a switch to healthier, less hectic lifestyles.
Previous studies have shown that people who suffer from chronic stress at work are more likely to develop high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. The Whitehall studies, which followed 10,000 civil servants beginning in the 1980s, found those who most often reported "job strain" had a higher incidence of the conditions.
Researchers at University College, London, reported in the British Medical Journal last year that their findings provided evidence for the "biological plausibility of the link" with stress.
Earlier results from the Whitehall studies suggested the best way of combating stress was to climb the ranks. Researchers found the lower a man's status the more likely he was to die young and that the more control a person had over their work the less stress they suffered.
Panos Kanavos, a health economist at the London School of Economics and one of the authors of the new report, said: "For individuals, changing your lifestyle is key. Obesity, high salt intake and lack of exercise are all contributory factors and these are made worse by stress. This is not a problem confined to middle age - it starts in the 20s and 30s."
The number of deaths from heart disease has halved in the past 30 years thanks to better treatment and the drop in smoking. But the report warns that these gains could "stagnate or reverse" without increased efforts to change lifestyle and improve treatment.
"Just because deaths have fallen sharply does not mean they may not rise again," Dr Kanavos said.
The biggest problem, according to the report, is the failure of those diagnosed with high blood pressure to stick to their treatment.
"This is a major issue," Dr Kanavos said. "Around 50 per cent of patients drop out of treatment within the first six months. The problem is that you do not feel bad with high blood pressure ... But in three, five or seven years you could develop heart disease and have a heart attack."
Jan Ostergen of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, another of the report's authors, said tackling the causes of high blood pressure demanded immediate action.
"European public health officials are only now beginning to realise that we need to do a better job at reducing cardiovascular health risks and that controlling high blood pressure is a key means for doing this.
"Uncontrolled high blood pressure is a public health dilemma that requires an urgent global and national response."
- INDEPENDENT
