“The world has an extremely high prevalence of high blood pressure, since one in three adults has this health problem,” warned cardiologist Adolfo Chávez Mendoza, coordinator of #EnHTAPrescribeHábitosPreventivos, a symposium held yesterday by the Group of Experts in High Blood Pressure in Mexico, at the Fiesta Americana hotel.

Speaking regarding the country, Yucatan in particular has a problem that is slightly above average. “This is because we have eating habits that are high in fat, with some situations that have to do with the region, which is not just regarding diet but regarding how much we eat and a sedentary lifestyle,” he explained.

In this regard, he advised that instead of eating three panuchos, “we should eat two or instead of eight cheese balls we might eat one or two.”

The problem “sometimes is not necessarily what we eat, but the quality and quantity, especially this second factor.”

She said that this way of eating is instilled in us from childhood. “We all have to have different habits.”

For the expert, “the goal is not to reduce death, everyone will die, what we want is to reduce early mortality, which means dying before the age of 70 from cardiovascular diseases or having complications such as heart failure, myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular disease or kidney disease.”

Chávez Mendoza called on people to take care of their health from childhood, for example, instead of drinking soda, it is better to drink water. “It is very important that parents teach these habits to their children.”

Treatment

Pharmacological treatment is important in patients with high blood pressure, but there are other important aspects that we cannot underestimate, particularly exercise, sleep, attitude and changes in the way we do things.

“Everything has an impact on high blood pressure. That is, if we are people who spend all our time sitting, our attitude tends to be more depressed, we have less interest in doing more things and it becomes a vicious circle in which we will eventually gain weight, we will stop going to our appointments and our blood pressure will be higher,” he warned.

“As we change this, our attitude will improve, we will have energy for physical activity, our sleep will improve and we will see good results.”

All the advice shared by cardiologist Adolfo Chávez Mendoza is aimed at preventing hypertension.— CLAUDIA SIERRA MEDINA

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Activity

The symposium titled #EnHTA PrescribePreventiveHábitos was held yesterday in a hotel in the city within the framework of the First Ibero-American Meeting and Fifth National Forum on Arterial Hypertension, in which experts from all parts of the country participated.

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