Hypertension, as a common disease in modern society, affects about 20% of the population in our country. This is already a considerable proportion, and many people are unaware that they have hypertension. Generally, hypertension patients need to take medication for a long time to control their blood pressure. Based on this situation, many hypertension patients fall into misconceptions about the treatment of hypertension, which makes them restless every day and is not conducive to the treatment of hypertension.
Misconception 1
In our daily life, some people discover that they have high blood pressure during a physical examination and become very nervous, thinking that they have developed hypertension.
Analysis and explanation:
Strictly speaking, there are many reasons that can cause hypertension. Therefore, hypertension is only a symptom and cannot be considered as an independent disease. Due to different causes and pathologies, the treatment principles are also different. Regardless of the type of hypertension, only active blood pressure control can prevent the occurrence of cardiovascular and renal diseases. For secondary hypertension, it is often difficult to control blood pressure with pure drug therapy, and the cause should be identified and removed. Therefore, when encountering patients with hypertension in clinical practice, other diseases that may cause hypertension must be ruled out before diagnosing hypertension.
Misconception 2
Hypertension is very stubborn and difficult to cure. It is an incurable disease, which makes patients lose confidence in treatment.
Analysis and explanation:
In a sense, hypertension is indeed very stubborn and difficult to cure. It is an incurable disease. Based on this understanding, the vast majority of patients with hypertension need to take medication for life, and they cannot stop taking the medication casually after their blood pressure has returned to normal. However, from another perspective, the treatment of hypertension lies in blood pressure control and prevention of complications. The main purpose of treating patients with hypertension is to maximize the reduction of their cardiovascular mortality and disability risk. In conclusion, as long as blood pressure is strictly controlled and maintained below the ideal level, hypertension is not an incurable disease.
Misconception 3
Hypertensive patients will have attacks when they get excited, does this mean that if I have hypertension, I am doomed to be "deferred"?
Analysis and explanation:
A large amount of evidence shows that hypertensive patients can live longer with appropriate treatment in daily life, while paying attention to mental and emotional regulation, diet and daily routine. This fully demonstrates that having hypertension does not necessarily mean a shorter lifespan.
Misconception 4
The blood pressure of the same person is always the same, so there is no need to measure it in the morning and evening.
Analysis and explanation:
The blood pressure of a normal person fluctuates throughout the day, with nighttime blood pressure being 10% lower than daytime blood pressure. Generally, the lowest blood pressure occurs from midnight to 3 a.m. (commonly known as "spoon-shaped change"), and then gradually increases, reaching its peak from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Some hypertensive patients experience a significant increase in blood pressure when they wake up in the morning, forming a morning blood pressure peak. This phenomenon is usually significantly associated with cardiovascular events. Cardiovascular diseases associated with morning blood pressure peaks include unstable angina, myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiac sudden death. Currently, a large amount of research data can prove that the peak incidence of these cardiovascular events is at around 6-7 a.m. and 10 a.m., so hypertensive patients with morning blood pressure peaks should take a long-acting antihypertensive medication the night before.
Nocturnal hypertension refers to patients whose blood pressure remains high at night ("spoon-shaped" disappears). It is different from morning hypertension and does not show the characteristic of a decrease in blood pressure at night and an increase in blood pressure after waking up in the morning. For patients with nocturnal hypertension, their blood pressure averages during the period from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. are slightly lower than during the day, by less than 10%, or their average systolic blood pressure is higher than 17 kPa (125 mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure is higher than 10 kPa (75 mmHg).
From this, it can be seen that a person's blood pressure does not remain constant throughout the day. Blood pressure fluctuations during specific time periods can even be life-threatening. Therefore, blood pressure monitoring throughout the day should be conducted at different time intervals.
It has been proven that hypertension is not terrible. What is terrible is the psychological misconceptions of patients. Don't try to predict your own fate. Just go with the flow, listen to the doctor's advice, take antihypertensive medication on time, pay attention to self-care in daily life, relax, and don't put too much pressure on yourself. Hypertension is not a problem for us.
