A Professor of Psychology at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Prof. Adesanya Oluwatelure, has said between 20 and 25 per cent of the Nigerian population suffer from hypertension.
A statement by the university’s spokesperson, Mr. Sola Imoru, on Wednesday, explained that Oluwatelure stated this while delivering the sixth Inaugural Lecture of the institution on Tuesday.
The expert however noted that “it is generally believed that the incidence of hypertension is higher than this.”
Speaking on the topic, ‘Psychology and the Search for a Healthier Heart’ Oluwatelure also stated that “heart or cardovascular diseases mostly result in death than other causes of death combined.”
He said, “The World Health Organisation submits that chronic diseases are responsible for 63 per cent of all deaths in the world, with cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of deaths.”
Contrary to claims in some quarters that hypertension is peculiar to the western industrialised communities, Oluwatelure said the life-threatening disease is now found everywhere in the world.
He classified hypertension into benign type, which he described as high blood pressure that “does not present any known danger or threat to the life of the patient”.
He also identified the malignant type, which “is a disorder characterised by sudden and rapidly increased and exceptionally high blood pressure”.
SOURCE: Punch
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