Abstract

HYPERTENSION- THE SILENT KILLER

Akhilesh Kumar Verma*

ABSTRACT

A scientific and technological revolution has occurred over the last three decades. Due to the rapid modernization, people are leading more stressful lives. As a resultant, the hypertension is one of the widespread disorders which came across in practice. About 26.4% of the world adult population in 2000 had hypertension and 29.2% were projected to have this condition by 2025. India is labelled as global capital of hypertension. Nowadays, not only lifestyle disorders are becoming more common, but they are also affecting younger populations. Hence, the population at risk shifts from 40+ to may be 30+ or even younger. Hypertension results from a variety of reasons like stress, obesity, genetic factors, over use of the salts in the diet and ageing. As we all know, hypertension is called a silent killer because it rarely exhibits symptoms before it damages the heart, brain or kidney. Though a lot of potent antihypertensive drugs are available today in modern medicine, but none of them is free from untoward effects. The principal focus of Ayurveda is on maintaining good health and adopting a healthy way of life. In Ayurveda there is no description of such a single disease which can resemble with hypertension. As per Ayurvedic principles, in case of unknown disease, the physician should try to understand the nature of the disease through Dosha, Dushya and Samprapti; then should initiate the treatment. So it becomes our prime concern to understand hypertension thoroughly with Ayurvedic perspective. This research paper is a sincere effort to understand hypertension in terms of Ayurveda, which will be beneficial for treatment as well as preventive purpose.

Keywords: High Blood Pressure, Lifestyle disorders, Raktachapa, Silent killer.