Under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many schools choose online classes to reduce the risk of infection. School children stay at home for a long time, and health problems have attracted social attention, including children’s hypertension. Chen Da, a family medicine specialist, said that the youngest hypertensive patients he had ever encountered were only 7 to 8 years old, and most of them were obese and had kidney disease.
Hypertension has many non-specific symptoms, including dizziness, headache, anorexia, vomiting, etc., which are serious or discovered accidentally during the examination of other diseases, but may also be asymptomatic. Many people have high blood pressure without realizing it, and in children and adolescents, if repeated systolic (upper) or diastolic (lower) degrees are equal to or higher than those of people of the same age, height, and gender. The 95th percentile indicates high blood pressure.
For most children, the top risk factors for high blood pressure are being overweight and obese, with obese children having twice the risk of developing high blood pressure compared to children of a healthy weight. Chen Da quoted a study saying that high blood pressure is a risk factor and aggravating factor for chronic kidney disease. No matter what the cause of high blood pressure is, it will cause a burden on the kidneys, and chronic kidney damage will also aggravate the original kidney disease. Therefore, in the prevention and treatment of kidney disease, Blood pressure monitoring and control is very important. In addition, more and more obese children are at risk of high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease, and even need to have kidney dialysis, which will seriously affect the organs and lead to premature aging.
Once diagnosed with high blood pressure, the doctor will advise the patient to start with establishing a healthy lifestyle and drug treatment, including the principle of “low salt, low sugar, low fat, high fiber” diet, and regular exercise. Some patients with early hypertension can reduce their medication gradually following successfully reducing their blood pressure to normal levels following changing their lifestyle. Parents need to face up to the problem of overweight and obesity in their children as soon as possible. If something is wrong, they should seek medical attention as soon as possible.
The number one risk factor for high blood pressure is being overweight and obese. iStock pictures