₦airaland Forum

Hypertension is a major public health concern in our country Nigeria. It currently affects almost one in three Nigerian adults. Despite the high prevalence of this non communicable silent killer, there's low awareness as most Nigerians seem to think that “ignorance is bliss” when it comes to health concerns. Most seem to think “you wouldn't find what you didn't look for”, sorry not sorry to tell you that, that's none of hypertension concern. Hypertension can come whether or not you were looking for it (checking your blood pressure regularly).


What exactly is hypertension, it's the presence of abnormally high blood pressure. It's a lifelong condition where the force of blood against your artery walls is persistently elevated. The general consensus as at today is a BP ≥ 140/90mmHg. It's often tagged “The Silent Killer” because it presents with minimal to no symptoms when starting out until it results in complications that present with symptoms. Presence of symptoms in an hypertensive patient may suggest complications. Common symptoms that may be seen include poor sleep, headache, blurring of vision and awareness of one's heart beat. These symptoms are warning signs and you need to visit a doctor when you notice them.

One question newly diagnosed hypertensive and even the majority of the public is usually interested in is, “what's the cause of this condition”. The cause of the majority (about 90%) of the cases of hypertension is unknown. But for about 5-10% of hypertension, family history, medical conditions like diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, thyroid or parathyroid disease as well as drugs like contraceptives, chronic steroid use can predispose an individual to the development of hypertension.


The only way to know if you have the disease is to check your blood pressure regularly. It's a manageable disease but it has no cure. You will need to be on antihypertensives lifelong but you would never need to worry about complications like stroke, kidney damage, heart failure and many others because hypertension complications affect all the organs in the body. However if you're regular on your routine antihypertensives and your blood pressure is well controlled, the complications are far from you.


Lifestyle changes like minimal salt intake and eating more fruits and vegetables, exercising regularly, prioritizing sleep, staying away from alcohol and smoking will also help in the prevention and management of hypertension.


Check your blood pressure regularly. Do this at least once in two weeks if you can.


DrUmmu for World Hypertension Day 2026.

It's no longer news that an average individual should sleep for about 8 hours to achieve and maintain optimal health. Yet some people sleep for that 8 hours and sometimes even more but still wake up feeling tired. If you're sleeping for a good number of hours and you don't wake up the next morning feeling refreshed, energised and like you can climb Olumo rock up and down 10 times then you're doing something wrong. There are many factors that influence the quality of your sleep at night and the major ones to be worried about include:

Sleep Environment: Are you the type that don't put on your bulb to sleep, you should start putting it off. Not only will it save cost it will also improve the quality of your sleep. If you're the type that can't sleep in the dark you can get one of those night time lights. Besides light, the temperature of your bedroom is also important. Your room shouldn't be too warm nor be too cold, everything should be in moderation. Don't forget to invest in your life by investing in a quality bed.

Diet: What you consume close to your bedtime affects your quality of sleep and it results in you waking up tired even after sleeping for over 8 hours. This is to say that, you shouldn't serve yourself 5 wraps of Eba and Efo riro by 9pm when your bedtime is 10pm. Heavy meals like that affect your sleep. Consuming excess caffeine stimulates your body system making it difficult to achieve or maintain a good night rest. And to those that drink alcohol because “it makes them sleep”. It makes you sleep but you should also know that it increases frequency of breaks in between sleep and this would ultimately result in poor night sleep.

Underlying medical conditions: Sleep disorders like obstructive sleep apnea, medical conditions such as thyroid imbalances and even mental health disorders can also affect ones night sleep and leave you waking up feeling tired. Most of the times these underlying conditions have associated symptoms and this is a pointer that it's time to visit your doctor.

Enjoy a quality night sleep, you deserve it.