Is life stressful in India? A survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research in alliance with the National Center for Disease Informatics and Research revealed that 28.5% of Indian adults suffer from hypertension. Worse yet, less than a third of these people are aware of it, less than 15% are undergoing treatment and less than 13% have their blood pressure actually under control. It paints an alarming picture of indifference to a condition known as “a silent killer” for cardiovascular risk. Globally, only 15% of people aged 30–79 are estimated to be hypertensive. The share of us Indians is huge.
Stress, the level of which was increased by the COVID pandemic, is significant but is often just a causative factor. An unhealthy diet and a sedentary lifestyle have been implicated in high pressure readings. While every third urban adult is estimated to have high blood pressure, only a quarter of India’s rural residents have it. If this difference seems suspiciously small to troubled urbanites who view rural life as idyllic, then a trend provided by relatively narrow arteries among Indians, in general, may explain the statistics. . Even if it is not so, then we need to take special care of our hearts.