Showing posts with label hypertension. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hypertension. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 October 2013

Hypertension

Hypertension (HTN) or high blood pressure, sometimes called arterial hypertension, is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated. This requires the heart to work harder than normal to circulate blood through the blood vessels.

Blood pressure is summarised by two measurements, systolic and diastolic, which depend on whether the heart muscle is contracting (systole) or relaxed between beats (diastole) and equate to a maximum and minimum pressure, respectively. Normal blood pressure at rest is within the range of 100-140mmHg systolic (top reading) and 60-90mmHg diastolic (bottom reading). High blood pressure is said to be present if it is persistently at or above 140/90 mmHg.

Hypertension is classified as either primary (essential) hypertension or secondary hypertension; about 90–95% of cases are categorized as "primary hypertension" which means high blood pressure with no obvious underlying medical cause. The remaining 5–10% of cases (secondary hypertension) are caused by other conditions that affect the kidneys, arteries, heart or endocrine system.

Hypertension is a major risk factor for stroke, myocardial infarction (heart attacks), heart failure, aneurysms of the arteries (e.g. aortic aneurysm), peripheral arterial disease and is a cause of chronic kidney disease. Even moderate elevation of arterial blood pressure is associated with a shortened life expectancy.

Dietary and lifestyle changes can improve blood pressure control and decrease the risk of associated health complications, although drug treatment is often necessary in people for whom lifestyle changes are not enough or not effective.

Case 1

Age: 55 years
Gender: Female
Weight: 75kg
Height: 153cm
BMI: 32kg/m2 (obese)
BP: 153/104 mmHg
Pulse: 102 bpm

BP: 153/104mmHg and Pulse 102/min
Anti-hypertensive drug: Twynsta 80mg/10mg Telmisartan/Amlodipine

Case 2 (after 2 weeks)

Age: 55 years
Gender: Female
Weight: 73.0kg
Height: 153cm
BMI: 31kg/m2 (obese)
BP: 123/80 mmHg
Pulse: 79 bpm


External links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertension
http://healthintotality.blogspot.com/2013/03/hypertension-in-young-adults.html

Monday, 18 February 2013

Impotence

Impotence only happens in men. Impotence is mati pucuk, where the male cannot attain penile erection. The recent trend of rising impotence among Malay men indicates a rising trend of diabetes among Malay men. What has impotence got to do with diabetes in Malay men?

The Malays take hempedu bumi for overcoming diabetes. Hempedu bumi has been around and has been used by the Malays since time immemorial. The adverse effect of prolonged use of hempedu bumi is destruction of nerves, which also is a complication of diabetes. Of course we cannot detect the damaging effects of hempedu bumi in females but certainly we can detect the effect in males. It is not known if hempedu bumi worsens eyesight in diabetics.

So we now have a good question to ask Malay men who complain of impotence. We can ask "Have you been taking hempedu bumi?" If patients answer "Yes", then we have a right to request them to stop taking hempedu bumi and see if that will help.

There are many other causes of impotence in Malay males. Hypertension runs high among Malay males. Why?

So we can now check for 2 things in Malay males with impotence - consumption of hempedu bumi and presence of hypertension.


Reference:
Traditional Malay Medicinal Plants
http://books.google.com.my/books?id=UQIfGMUtCO4C&source=gbs_similarbooks

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Pusat Rawatan Islam Al-Hidayah

Dear students,

I did not have time to teach you in detail on the topic of Islamic Medicine - Quranic Medicine & Prophetic Medicine. I'm still searching. There are websites that touch on these topics.

Here is information on Quranic Medicine.
http://www.alhidayah-medic.com/prosedur-rawatan/Page-4-1.html

If you visit the page, you will see many conditions listed. There are basically 6 categories of conditions that they treat: pediatric, terminal, fertility, mental/psychological disturbances, addiction, and medical problems.

Pediatric cases include:
Down Syndrome, nephrotic syndrome, cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, hyperactive, and late brain development.

Terminal conditions include:
Cancers, systemic Lupus erythematosus (SLE), AIDS and HIV.

Fertility problems include:
Fibroid, ovarian cyst, endometriosis, and low sperm count.

Mental/Psychological conditions include:
Conditons resulting from sihir jin, syaitan and iblis, saka, santau, rasuk, susuk, and depression.

Addiction cases include:
Drug addiction, gambling, and alcoholism.

Other cases include:
Diabetes, hypertension, heart problems, gallstones, renal/kidney problems, epilepsy, rheumatism, hepatitis and neurological problems.

My comments:

DIABETES is kencing manis. There is presently no 100% cure known for diabetes nor can the condition be reversed 100% nor does it go away for good. But the condition can be controlled in many ways, for which patients perceived themselves as "cured" or even "cured for good". Death from diabetes is inevitable in the long run but patients die from complications of diabetes, not diabetes itself (i.e., not diabetes per se). Control measures include dietary restrictions, especially carbohydrate intake - there is a need to reduce the amount of rice taken - major source of carbohydrate in our Malaysian diet. The type of rice used and the way the rice is cooked also matter. The usual rice that we take (beras Siam #1 or any of the Malaysian rice variety) is rich in carbohydrate. The rice can be cooked in the usual manner but half way through cooking, the rice water needs to be drained (discarded) and fresh boiled water can be added. The rice is left to cook. This will remove starch from the rice and give a bland taste to the rice (nasi rasa payau). When cooked in this way, the patient can still consume the rice and body weight is easier to control. Another way is to switch to Beras Basmati (or beras wangi). This is an Indian rice variety and is grown in India where the soil is rich in calcium. The rice contains little starch. The patient can eat this rice but because this calcium-rich rice is tasteless, patients tend to eat very little rice. This rice has a plus point - it takes away hunger, i.e., patients only need to eat a little Basmati rice and this will make them feel full for a long time, so patients tend to lose weight rather than gain weight. The Indians eat this rice and can work all day long without additional food between meals.

HYPERTENSION needs proper attention. We eat rice with other accompanying dishes (lauk). Rice is unsalted but the accompanying dishes are what give us a lot of problems. We don't seem to be able to control our salt intake. Salt is usually added to our dishes during cooking, so we have to get the cooks/chefs to control how much salt they add to our food while cooking. But because a lot of the food we eat today are buffet style, they need to last longer than normal, for extended eating times. As such cooks/chefs add more salt to food than necessary so food last longer especially for buffets. There are too other appetizers and condiments are which are salty - ikan bilis, ikan masin, sambal belacan, etc. There are also salted eggs and salted vegetables. It will be better to control intake of these foods in order to avoid hypertension or to help control hypertension. The other source of hypertension is STRESS - exam stress (for students), love stress (for couples), work stress (for working adults), old-age stress (for elderly) and other stress of various sorts.

HEART problems can be an underlying disease and undetectable for a long time (chronic process). When it does show clinical symptoms (what the doctors can detect and therefore investigate), it is too late and often it is irreversible. Surgery is the next best alternative. So prevention is better than cure. Prevention covers 3 aspects - food, exercise and attitude (mood). Good healthy clean nutritious food is best. Constant exercise or movements are good for the muscles and bones. Having a positive attitude and being happy is the best cure for all human problems relating to the heart. Of course a dead heart (a deceased person) can't wake up! The opposite of being happy is being depressed. So try to adjust life to be more on the happy side and enjoy life, but within limits (not beyond limits). You can jump or bounce high, but you still need to keep your feet on the ground. Life has rules - stick to the rules in life. You break the rules, you suffer the consequences. You have yourself to blame for whatever goes wrong with your body, including heart problems. So live safely, healthily and be happy - to guard your own heart. Don't create unnecessary heartache and get heart problems. Heart attack (myocardial infarction or MI) can be avoided. Heart problems are created after all.

GALLSTONES are worth studying. Dietary change is a key means to overcoming gallstones. There are now 3 cures known for gallstones:
(i) Surgical removal of the gallbladder (cholescystectomy) - this procedure costs RM3,000.00
(ii) Take olive oil for 3 days until the gallstones dissolve - cheap; olive oil is RM25 per bottle.
(iii) Quranic Medicine - cheap; RM10 per appointment
External link:
http://www.healthline.com/health/gallstones#Overview1

Prof Faridah
25 October 2011
12 October 2014