Atypical feature
Scientists analyzed the health of 20 thousand people aged 40 to 75 years. It turned out that one in eight had hypertension, which the patient was not even aware of – even if he regularly went to see a general practitioner.
As you know, if you do not treat hypertension and do not maintain the level of pressure with drugs prescribed by a doctor, there is a risk of developing dangerous diseases – stroke, heart attack, heart failure, dementia.
– The level of pressure during the day changes cyclically – normally it decreases at night, and after waking up it rises, – explained the author of the study, Professor Lionel Tarasenko. — But there is inverted bucket effect – it is typical for the elderly, heart patients, patients with diabetes and kidney disease. Their blood pressure rises at night and then drops when they wake up. That is, people during the day, the pressure can be normal and, unfortunately, they will remain completely confident that they are healthy – even with regular visits to the doctor and measuring indicators at home.
The study showed that one in eight participants had normal blood pressure during the day, but “went off scale” at night – and one in three patients with an “inverted bucket” was diagnosed with a cardiovascular disease.
“Measuring blood pressure at night can detect a patient with undiagnosed hypertension,” the Oxford scientists conclude. “It will reduce mortality and the rate of cardiovascular disease. It is important that physicians recommend 24/7 blood pressure monitoring to people at risk.