The Perfect Patient

To begin, some statistics (one of ‘‘every 10 people’’ suffers from high blood pressure which can make you seven times more likely to have a stroke, four times more likely to have a heart attack and five times more likely to die of congestive heart failure) may alarm you. But that’s the idea, to get you sufficiently alarmed into taking action. Extremely simple action too—just get your blood pressure readings taken over a period of time (because just a few can be misleading) and figure out if you’re suffering from what is affectionately called ‘‘the silent killer disease.’’ Then it’s quite simple to even rid of it, master it, live happily with it.

Like Merchant is doing. This livewire 62-year-old grandma (of six) zips around all day, trains Miss Indias, corporate head honchos in speech, diction, public speaking and personality development. She’s just back from Europe only to go off to New York and Canada to stage her play Rummy Game. ‘‘I have to deal with blood pressure because every single member of my family has it,’’ explains Merchant. ‘‘But since I am alert to it, I lead a perfectly good and normal life and enjoy myself,’’ she concludes with her signature smile.

‘‘There are several causes for high blood pressure,’’ explains Dr Golwalla, ‘‘and a familial history is the most common (as in Sabira’s case) though it could also be idiopathic or without any cause.’’

Dr Golwalla points out that in some rare cases it could also signal underlying disease, but that’s for your doctor to identify, he cautions.

Of course, blood pressure gets aggravated due to a lot of factors ranging from stress to obesity to faulty eating habits. And one needs to eliminate, avoid or control these.

Merchant’s list of hypertension-busters is topped by walking and working out. And when she feels that her pressure is making her uncomfortable, she cuts out pickle, papads, Chinese food (because of ajinomoto) canned and other salted stuff. Dr Golwalla adds, ‘‘Since stress is unavoidable in our lives, we teach our patients the right attitude to stress.’’ He advises these ‘‘non-pharmacological methods’’ of dealing with high blood pressure, but is extremely firm that medication should be given when needed but should be judiciously used as in Merchant’s case. And Merchant is extremely meticulous about taking hers on time, (even when she is jetsetting and crossing time zones). ‘‘You need to see your doctor regularly for adjusting the doses.’’ Her parting piece of advice is, ‘‘Learn to control situations, don’t let them control you.’’

Since one column is not enough for all the useful and practical tips given by Dr Golwalla and Sabira Merchant, watch out for next week’s High Blood Pressure—Uppers and Downers