CHENNAI: Has your child complained about dull or severe head-aches, has frequent nosebleeds and also suffers from breathlessness? Please take the kid to a general physician, as these are symptoms of hypertension or a condition that is commonly referred to as high blood pressure. Yes parents, children too suffer from hypertension.
A study conducted in 2013 by Dr Jasmine Sundar, epidemiology department, Dr MGR Medical University showed that 21% of children between 13 and 17 suffer from hypertension. “I did the study a few years back with a small group of 400 students. The results were alarming. I will be doing a follow up study with a larger sample size,” says Dr Jasmine.
There could be various causes of hypertension. With modernisation and globalisation, our lifestyles have changed drastically. “We are exposed to different kinds of junk food, and all these food items come with a shelf life,” says Dr T Balasubramanian, MGR Medical University. He adds that too much of white food (salt and sugar) is bad for health and urges you to switch to brown sugar, jaggery and palm sugar. “Our forefathers would manage with just two meals a day. The rice we eat today gets digested within 90 minutes. This increases our glucose level, and that’s why we tend to eat several meals a day.”
Talking about the two types of hypertension — essential and secondary, Dr Sivasubramanian, a paediatric cardio thoracic surgeon with MR Hospitals, states that essential hypertension is commonly diagnosed in adults and has no known cause. “It may be the result of multiple variables, such as genetics, metabolic and socio-environmental factors.”
Secondary hypertension (high BP) is a result of several problems like kidney diseases, coarctation (congenital narrowing of a short section of the aorta, the largest artery in the body that begins at the top of the left ventricle, the heart’s muscular pumping chamber), phaeochromocytoma (a tumour of the adrenal gland), and hyperthyroidism that could be the root cause of hypertension.
Obesity is another common reason for hypertension. In a study conducted in 2014, children from 51 schools in Chennai were examined and the results showed high incidence of obesity and associated it with hypertension.
Ragini Srinivasan, a child counsellor recalls an incident where a Class 12 student with hypertension was brought to her for counseling. The nurse had presumed that the cause of the diagnosis was stress and pressure from studies. “During the session, I noticed that the student‘s family was very supportive. The child still felt tired and was complaining of a headache. He was then referred to a general physician. In my follow up sessions, I found that the child was diagnosed with primary hypertension and was on medication. Since the student was overweight, he was asked to follow a healthy lifestyle.”
It is often difficult to digest the fact that a child is suffering from hypertension and this often creates tension and panic among many parents. “Parents generally do not take children for treatment because it is hard for them to believe that a young kid can have a high BP. They are also worried about societal judgements, which in turn will question their parenting skills,” she adds.
Whereas, Raju Joseph a parent, whose 9-year-old son suffers from hypertension, says, “It is very important that we handle such cases sensibly and sensitively. When a kid has high BP, the first thing to do is to take him or her to a pecialist. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing is more important than your kid’s health.”
Symptoms
Severe headache
High levels of anxiety
Shortness of breath
Nosebleed
Treatment
Lifestyle change
Low sodium diet
Regular exercise
Medication is rarely necessary in case of children