Modern lifestyle threatens epidemic of heart diseases

Brussels: The stress of everyday life is threatening a global epidemic of cardiovascular disease, a report by international health experts has warned.

High blood pressure is a "silent condition" which is "grossly underestimated" by patients, their families, medics and politicians, according to the study unveiled at the European Parliament in Brussels.

The move towards "Westernised" lifestyles - associated with high-fat diets, long working hours and lack of exercise - is partly to blame. But by 2025 almost two thirds of the world's adults could have high blood pressure. The report, High Blood Pressure and Health Policy: Where We Are and Where We Need to Go Next, said a quarter of the world's adults, or one billion people, were afflicted. In Britain, more than a third of adults are estimated to suffer from hypertension.

Already, 7.1 million sufferers are dying each year because of hypertension, the report claims. It is a growing problem in Brazil, China, India, Russia, Turkey and the Central European states.

Medical advances in treating heart disease are being undermined by the stresses of everyday life, the report warned.

Curbing salt intake

One of the report's authors, Dr Panos Kanavos of the London School of Economics, said: "High blood pressure is a condition where incidence increases with age, but this does not mean it is a problem that only affects old people."

Smoking, high-salt and high-fat diets, excessive alcohol intake and obesity are the "lifestyle factors" to blame. "If high blood pressure was an infectious disease, we would mobilise against it as militantly as if it was avian influenza or Aids," the report said.

A possible remedy could be reducing salt intake, and researchers reported that consuming less salt can not only lower blood pressure, but may reduce the risk of heart disease overall.

They found that people with high blood pressure who reduced their sodium intake by 25 to 35 per cent lowered their risk of total cardiovascular disease by 25 per cent. And this lower risk lasted for 10 to 15 years.

- With additional inputs from Reuters