Over 10 million adults have high blood pressure. According to data released by the National Health Insurance Service and the Korean Society of Hypertension, there will be 13.74 million hypertensive patients in the population aged 20 and over in 2021. This is an increase of 6.67 million from 7.08 million in 2007. Professor Kim Kwang-il, director of policy at the Korean Society of Hypertension, said, “The number of patients with hypertension is rapidly increasing due to lifestyle changes and the rapid aging of the population.”
If high blood pressure, which is one in five people, is left untreated, it will lead to terrible results. Organ damage can result in complications. The four major complications experienced by hypertensive patients are coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease.
In 2021, the number of major complications of hypertension (new) is a total of 381,464. By disease, 209,692 patients with coronary artery disease, 178,993 with cerebrovascular disease, 139,369 with heart failure, and 88,887 with chronic kidney disease.
coronary artery disease
It is a disease caused by narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries in the heart. Coronary arteries are arteries that surround the heart and supply blood to the heart. It continuously supplies oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the heart, allowing the heart to beat normally 60 to 100 times per minute.
When the intravascular space of the coronary arteries is narrowed due to high blood pressure, the blood cannot be sufficiently supplied to the heart. This can lead to angina, myocardial infarction, and heart attack. These diseases are collectively referred to as coronary artery disease.
cerebrovascular disease
Due to persistent high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, in which the blood vessels become hard and the inside of the blood vessels narrow, may also occur in the blood vessels of the brain. This leads to cerebrovascular disease, such as stroke. Stroke is divided into two main types. One is cerebral hemorrhage, in which the cerebral blood vessels that have lost elasticity and become hardened burst. The other is a cerebral infarction, in which a blood clot gets stuck in a thickened blood vessel in the brain. It is a fatal disease that leaves severe sequelae even if death or non-death is not dealt with in emergency situations.
heart failure
When the heart muscle thickens due to high blood pressure, diastolic dysfunction, which prevents the heart from stretching well, occurs first. However, over time, the heart loses elasticity and stretches, which can lead to heart failure, which is the last stage of heart disease.
Heart failure is a disease that occurs when the heart does not have the ability to relax or contract properly, which prevents the body from supplying the blood it needs. As a result, symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, and decreased exercise ability occur even when climbing a few stairs. At this time, daily life becomes difficult, and heart transplantation or artificial heart transplantation may be required.
chronic kidney disease
The kidneys filter waste products accumulated in the blood and excrete them in the urine. The amount of salt and water in the body is kept constant through urine excretion. In other words, salt that enters the body is excreted through the kidneys. If the kidneys are damaged due to high pressure on the capillaries of the kidneys due to high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease with poor waste filtration function may occur. In addition, as chronic kidney disease worsens, hypertension becomes more severe. When the kidneys do not function properly and the salt excretion is lowered, blood pressure rises further, creating a vicious cycle. As such, high blood pressure acts as both a cause and a consequence of kidney disease.