Urban teenagers are being diagnosed with high blood pressure, leading to complications in adulthood. Altering lifestyle could help.
Last year, Gurugram resident Smriti Malhotra, 20, had an accident. At the hospital, when her vital parameters were checked, her blood pressure was found to be high for her age. Her parents were shocked.“‘She is too young,’ we thought. Besides, our family has had no history of the disease. Her maternal grandmother does have high BP, but she’s in her mid-60s now,” says Seema Malhotra, Smriti’s mother, a homemaker. “My daughter always made healthy food choices. This was certainly disturbing.”
Smriti was subjected to a battery of tests, in an attempt to diagnose the cause of the high BP. “It was not easy to get through those months. More than us, it was difficult for Smriti. Her confidence was shaken,” says Seema. All her tests were normal, though. “No explanation could be found, and we were very confused. That is when I figured that my daughter had a lifestyle issue, one that went beyond her eating habits,” she says.
A student of banking and finance at a prestigious university in the United States, Smriti, says her mother, had been under stress for some time. “Good grades, adjusting to life in a new country, working through the nights, everything just added up. Our daughter was just too stressed out,” she says.
Smriti’s case, say experts, is among the rising incidence of high blood pressure in young people, particularly adolescents. Until now considered to be a disease of the adults, high blood pressure is now being diagnosed among adolescents, too.
This story is from the August 27, 2017 edition of THE WEEK.
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This story is from the August 27, 2017 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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