Damilola Adeleke was just setting out to work when she realised she could not reach for her shoes. All of a sudden, it seemed like she could not move her hands.
The young accountant was also not able to call for help. Her aunt, who was wondering why she had not yet left the house as usual, eventually found her motionless on the floor. Their family doctor who revived her told them that Damilola had just suffered a stroke.
Stroke, when it occurs in an individual as the word suggests, is like when one has been struck. And this terminal disease used to be associated with elderly people in their 60s and 70s, experts, including neurosurgeons, have raised the alarm that stroke is no more a disease of the aged, as it is killing and disabling young people in their prime.
Physicians’ major fear is that significant populations of the younger generation who may develop stroke in the next 10 years are not aware of it now; while those who have seen symptoms continue to dismiss them in the name of youth.
Doctors attribute the ugly trend to the growing cases of undiagnosed, unmanaged hypertension (also known as high blood pressure) among young people.
Heart specialist, Dr. Jude Duru-Onweni, identifies poor diet and increased intake of junk and processed foods, especially among young people, as one of the factors increasing the population of young persons with hypertension in the country.
According to him, many of the western diets that young and upwardly mobile Nigerians prefer are laden with high concentration of salt, a major substance that increases the risk for hypertension.
Duru-Onweni notes that a major way in which salt (sodium) creeps into the body system is through food.
He says, “The number of young people we see with high blood pressure during screening is alarming and it is because of the western diets. Young people eat more junk. They have adopted the western diet that has high concentrations of salt and they forget that Caucasians and other race can tolerate salt better than Africans can.
“Salt is not just the physical salt that we see. All packaged foods are preserved with a high concentration of salt. Soft drinks are also preserved with salt. In reality, all those ‘slow’ (indicating how fast foods slow down metabolism) foods which people call ‘fast’ foods slowly lead to death because they are laden with salt.
“We are so scared about the coming generation because they eat a lot of fast foods. As scary as it is, we now find hypertension in infants.”
Consultant Neurosurgeon and Stroke specialist, Dr. Biodun Ogungbo, says that factors that allow high blood pressure to thrive are more popular among young people. They include obesity, alcohol consumption, smoking, lack of exercise, poor diet rich in salt and fat, high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels.
He states that stroke, a preventable disease, occurs when there is either too much blood in the brain (wet stroke) or when no blood is going into the brain (dry stroke); and it is usually due to unmanaged and undetected hypertension.
Ogungbo says, “Almost half of patients I see for the first time in clinic for other problems such as back pain, have high blood pressure.
“Hypertension is common in black people. We do not know why. It is therefore common among Nigerians and some statistics say over 40 per cent of adults in Nigeria have hypertension.
“Unfortunately, for some of the reasons I have mentioned before, younger people are becoming hypertensive and suffering the consequences, as many of them suffer stroke and heart failure in their productive years.”
Ogungbo describes stroke as a brain attack that results in loss of speech, paralysis, urinary incontinence, mental disability, physical disability, blindness, loss of body movement and even death in most cases.
He says there is need for urgent awareness among Nigerians about the fact that stroke is a preventable disease if hypertension and diabetes are detected early.
He warns, “Anyone with a pressure consistently above normal has high blood pressure. The cut off is a pressure above 140/90 mmHg. It does not give any warning and usually no one knows if their pressure is high or low until they do a test. By the time you have definite symptoms such as headaches, organs such as the heart, brain and kidneys may have been damaged.”
Ogungbo stresses that the only treatment for stroke is prevention and parents must begin to teach their children about healthy eating and living in their formative years.
He says, “The real prevention must start from childhood. We need to encourage healthy living and healthy eating so they don’t become fat. Fat forms layers in the blood vessels and causes them to become narrow. This increases the work of the heart in pumping blood through the vessels, leading to high blood pressure.”
He counsels people to eat plenty fruits and vegetables, not to smoke, and to avoid alcohol. Those who are overweight are enjoined to lose weight, while regular exercise is also a part of the bargain.
“That 20-minute walk or exercise daily can save your life,” Ogungbo submits.
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