Hypertension (high blood pressure or BP) is a silent killer, Dr Ewura Adjoa Ahimah Nunoo of the 37 Military Hospital, Accra, has fermently cautioned, urging regular screening, lifestyle modification and adherence to doctor’s advice.

“It is life-threatening,” she noted bluntly.

“Because it doesn’t show any symptoms, you may not even know you have it. So there are people who are walking around with 200 to 240/150 blood pressure and are not even aware.” 

The Public Health Physician Specialist and Health Advocate said this was the case “because they are not checking or screening [regularly]”.

She encouraged the public to take advantage of outreach programmes organised by NGOs and churches, underlining that occasionally visiting pharmacies to have one’s BP checked was a healthy habit, too.

“People are presenting later than they should,” she bemoaned.

Dr Ahimah Nunoo remarked that when people came to the hospital when it was almost too late and they were put on medication, they were adamant to comply, fearing unpleasant side effects. 

“When we put them on BP drugs, the men especially complain about issues with erectile dysfunction, and won’t take the medication at all,” she cited.

A multiple award-winning health advocate, she underlined that hypertension, per her 2022 research, was curiously affecting more people who “were quite young, 35 to 49 years”.

She put it all down to “lifestyle habits,” which were big on binging and not moderation.

Dr Ewura Adjoa Ahimah Nunoo spoke exclusively to Class News' Prince Benjamin (PB) on the sidelines of the second edition of the annual Scientific Conference, where she had presented a research paper on the prevalence of hypertension in the La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly (LaDMA), Accra, Greater Accra Region.

About 26 public and private facilities in LaDMA provided data on hypertension, which she used as “secondary data,” she explained, for her 2022 study, which showed a 27% prevalence, with "higher numbers for the females as compared to the males".

"Out of 5,242 new cases diagnosed [in LaDMA], the women had 54.5%," she explained.

Causes 

Dr Ahimah Nunoo identified detrimental “lifestyle habits” making young people susceptible to hypertension.

“Now the men and women are drinking excessively. You go to the pubs and they’re smoking their cigarettes and their shisha. They are not exercising as regularly as they should. They are not eating healthily, they are eating their junk food. Less fruits, less vegetables,” she observed.

“They are not sleeping well. They are working 9-5, the stress is a lot. You can be in traffic for an hour to two hours because you work too far from home and all that.” 

Personal and Political Responsibility 

The 2022 Global Women Leadership Summit & Honours Medical Media Personality of the Year emphasised the place of personal responsibility, demonstrated by periodic screening, and “knowing what your numbers are when it comes to blood pressure and cholesterol”.

She said this would aid in identifying danger moments, so one could regulate their activities tactifully, so as to save and improve the quality of their life.

She considered the impact of poor infrastructure on public health, also.

The doctor observed that local roads were “so narrow,” and appealed to government to ensure the construction of “better roads” to “ease traffic congestion” and in turn control its consequent stresses. 

She urged better traffic regulation, especially when traffic lights broke down, and human intervention was necessary. The road rush and rage when this was absent, she intimated, were not healthy mentally or physiologically.

An enhance healthcare system, she added, was also necessary, “not just for those in the urban, and peri-urban areas, but for those in the rural areas, you know; those small districts and villages which haven’t even seen a blood pressure machine before”.

| 120/80 is the widely accepted healthy reading for blood pressure 

Dr Ewura Adjoa Ahimah Nunoo is committed to seeing a healthy people who, like herself, advocate healthy living, recognising a nation at its foundation is made of individuals who must be and function at their best.