On the evening of December 24, the temperature dropped sharply and Wuhan ushered in the first snow of this year. Many patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases were "brought down" by this round of rapid cooling, and the cardiology departments of many hospitals were full. Zhou Ning, a young member of the branch of internal medicine of the Chinese Medical Association and deputy chief physician of the Department of Cardiology of Tongji Hospital, pointed out that hypertension is the "root of all evil" causing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. If self-management is not paid attention to, Long term hypertension will lead to atherosclerosis, damage important organs such as heart, brain and kidney, lead to serious diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke and renal failure, and even endanger life. Hypertension is essentially a "lifestyle disease" The fifth "health talk" activity was held in Zhuoer bookstore. "Among the 330 million cardiovascular and cerebrovascular patients in China, 290 million are patients with hypertension." Professor Zhou Ning's opening data surprised the audience: "is the proportion of patients with hypertension so large?" "Hypertension is essentially a lifestyle disease. Bad living habits such as high salt diet, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise and fast pace of life are the culprits." Zhou Ning told you that thirty years ago, patients with hypertension were rarely seen in the ward, but with the development of economy and the aggravation of aging, the Chinese lifestyle has undergone earth shaking changes. Patients with hypertension are increasing year by year and showing a younger trend. The difference in the number of sick groups in the South and north of Zhouning was further explained. "China has been in the north for many years. The prevalence of hypertension is higher than that in the south. To a large extent, it is due to the different living habits of the north and the south." Zhou Ning explained that, first of all, northerners eat more salt; Secondly, the cold climate in the north is easy to induce hypertension, and the overweight and obese people in the north are also higher, which leads to a higher incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in the north of China. "Hubei is now carrying out the" 323 "campaign, which refers to the abbreviation of a series of diseases affecting people's health in our province, among which" 2 "refers to two basic diseases of hypertension and diabetes. Zhou Ning said that the reason why hypertension is regarded as an important direction of the "323" campaign is mainly from three considerations: first, the top three causes of death, second, the high prevalence rate and large amount of diagnosis and treatment, and third, the heavy social burden of the disease. Hypertension is the "root of all evil" of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases Hypertension refers to systolic blood pressure ≥ 140mmHg and / or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90mmHg without antihypertensive drugs. Zhou Ning said that people's life span largely depends on the health of blood vessels, and whether blood vessels are healthy is closely related to hypertension. This is because hypertension is one of the main factors causing atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a complex chronic inflammatory process, which is related to many pathological processes, such as arterial intimal damage, cholesterol deposition, megakaryocyte aggregation and phagocytosis, and can occur in the large and middle arteries of the whole body. When the blood pressure is too high, the impact of blood flow on the vascular wall will damage the vascular intima and lead to the damage of vascular endothelial cells. LDL in the blood will accumulate and deposit on the blood vessel wall, thus starting atherosclerosis. The emergence of atherosclerosis reduces vascular elasticity, increases vascular resistance and damages the blood supply of target organs. Over time, it will damage important organs such as heart, brain and kidney, and lead to stroke, myocardial infarction and renal failure. Therefore, hypertension is also known as "silent killing hand" and the "source of all evil" of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. "It's like a hole in the sheepfold. If you don't mend it, it's too late for you to mend it when the sheep run away. The same is true for high blood pressure." Zhou Ning used the metaphor of "mending after a sheep has died" to describe the harm of turning a blind eye to hypertension. No symptoms don't mean no hypertension Zhou Ning mentioned that the prevention and control of hypertension is facing a very serious problem, and the awareness rate, treatment rate and compliance rate are very low. He did an on-the-spot investigation. "If any of you know your blood pressure, please raise your hand." As a result, no one raised their hands at the scene. Zhou Ning was not surprised by the findings. He said that nearly half of the patients with hypertension did not know they had hypertension, and less than half of the people who knew they had hypertension took drugs. This is because hypertension is often asymptomatic. If there is headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, even chest pain, chest tightness and blurred vision, it means that there have been complications of hypertension. Zhou Ning also listed other misunderstandings in hypertension cognition. For example: "I'm young, I won't have high blood pressure", "I don't have any symptoms, I won't have high blood pressure", "when people are old, their blood pressure is naturally higher than that of young people, so there is no need to deliberately control their blood pressure". "Young people are not exempt from hypertension. Hypertension in the elderly is not a natural phenomenon, but also a risk factor." Zhou Ning reminded that many people think that they don't have too many symptoms to care about, or they just don't pay attention to some palpitations, headaches and dizziness. They don't find that the original blood pressure is so high until they check the blood pressure because of cerebral hemorrhage and coronary heart disease. At this time, they often have to pay a heavy price. Pay attention to family self-test of blood pressure "Hypertension is not terrible. What's terrible is the complications of hypertension caused by neglect." Zhou Ning said that in middle age, in troubled times, young and middle-aged people over the age of 40, especially those with a family history of hypertension, should frequently measure blood pressure, have regular physical examination, and regularly review the abnormalities found. Zhou Ning recommends the use of electronic sphygmomanometer for home self-determination of blood pressure, which is not only convenient, but also can improve the awareness rate and diagnostic accuracy of hypertension, and can comprehensively reflect the blood pressure level in living conditions, so as to distinguish occult hypertension and refractory hypertension. The correct way to measure blood pressure is to sit after a quiet rest for 5-10 minutes. It is best to choose an upper arm sphygmomanometer. When measuring, put your elbow on the table at the same level as your heart. Keep quiet during blood pressure measurement and keep your upper arm as still as possible. The normal blood pressure range is 90-140 / 60-90mmhg. When blood pressure is measured three times on different days without antihypertensive drugs, systolic blood pressure ≥ 140mmHg and / or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90mmHg, it is necessary to consider the diagnosis of hypertension. Zhou Ning reminded families to pay attention to the "three noes" when measuring their blood pressure, that is, they don't have to deliberately get up to measure their blood pressure at night, the times of pressure measurement every day should not be too frequent, and don't care too much about the level of blood pressure every time. Those who say that one medicine can cure are liars Due to the wide range of people with hypertension, there are many "panacea" on the market, known as "one needle cure" and "one medicine cure". Zhou Ning reminded that at present, there is no drug, injection, instrument and health care product in the world that can cure essential hypertension. All under the banner of "cure" are liars. "Improving lifestyle and taking medicine are the 'two carriages' for the treatment of hypertension. But many people can't take medicine every day." Zhou Ning revealed a data that only more than 10% of the drug users can effectively control blood pressure. The reason is that the drug is too random, increase or decrease by themselves, and stop if you want. "The ultimate goal of antihypertensive treatment is to reduce the incidence of hypertensive complications." Zhou Ning said that patients with hypertension generally need lifelong treatment. If they stop or reduce the drug by themselves, their blood pressure will return to the pre-treatment level sooner or later. "Antihypertensive drugs are not addictive, just like when winter comes, we have to wear thick clothes. The reason why we can't take off thick clothes is not because the clothes are addictive or dependent, but just because the weather is cold. Therefore, the reason why we can't stop antihypertensive drugs is not because the drugs are addictive, but just because hypertension is difficult to cure. So our common enemy People are high blood pressure, not antihypertensive drugs. Keep in mind that antihypertensive drugs are to help us overcome hypertension. Antihypertensive drugs are our friends and hypertension is our enemy. " So, can't you stop taking medicine for life? In response to the audience's questions, Zhou Ning said that it depends on the situation. There are also patients in the clinic, because their blood pressure is controlled stably for a long time through weight loss, improving diet and mental state, and gradually reduced under the guidance of doctors until they stop taking antihypertensive drugs. Lifestyle is the basis of controlling hypertension, the most important of which is a reasonable diet. Zhou Ning gave a general principle: keep the balance between calorie intake and consumption, ingest enough nutrients to meet the body's needs, eat more foods with low salt, low fat and rich cellulose, eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, quit smoking and limit alcohol. In addition, we should achieve psychological balance and participate in various forms of physical exercise, especially aerobic exercise, in order to maintain a normal weight. (outlook new era)