under PRESSURE
A study by Wits scientists shows South Africa has the highest prevalence of hypertension, or high blood pressure (BP), in southern Africa. An alarming one in three of us is living with it – and it’s on the rise, says nephrologist Professor Brian Rayner, director of the Hypertension Clinic at the University of Cape Town. ‘In a sense we’re facing a national health emergency, but because the links between high BP and heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, dementia and death are indirect, public awareness is poor.’
Essentially, we need enough pressure in our arteries for blood to flow from our heart to the different parts of our body. It’s normal for this to fluctuate, but when it’s persistently too high, putting too much pressure on vessel walls, it can cause hardening and thickening of our arteries (atherosclerosis), which can lead to heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure, blindness
