By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

Two medical experts, Professor Nnamdi Onyire and Dr. Chinekwu Anyaoku, have described hypertension as “a silent killer” while stating the causes of it, and how it can be managed. They spoke on the occasion of the World Hypertension Day on May 17, 2026. The theme of this year’s World Hypertension Day was “Controlling Hypertension Together”.

In his own comments, Prof. Nnamdi Onyire of the Faculty of Clinical Medicine, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ebonyi State, explained that a person is said to have hypertension when the force of blood pushing against his or her blood vessels stays high for a long while during the beating of his or her heart.

He gave further elucidation on the disease.

“Doctors say you have high blood pressure if it is consistently 140/90 mmHg or higher. And the top number is when your heart beats, the bottom number is when it rests,” Onyire said.

The professor of medicine further advised people to check their blood pressure so as to ascertain if they have hypertension.

“To know if you have hypertension, you should check your blood pressure at health centres, pharmacies, or during community health outreaches.

“It is quick, painless, and free in many places. You can get the machine and do it by yourself at home.

“If you are forty, and above, check, at least, once a year. And if you have a family history of hypertension, check more often,” Onyire said.

Another medical practitioner, Dr. Chinekwu Anyaoku, who is a consultant family physician at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, said that hypertension has primary and secondary causes.

“The Primary cause of hypertension is not known. But people with old age develop it. It is not absolute, though.

“And under secondary cause of hypertension, diabetes or kidney problem can cause it.

“More so, obesity, hereditary factor, and excessive consumption of alcohol and salt can predispose one to become afflicted with hypertension,” Anyaoku said.

He, also, said that treatment for hypertension can be done through pharmacological means or non-pharmacological means.

“Pharmacological way of treating hypertension entails ingestion of anti-hypertensive drugs.

“But non-pharmacological method of treating it involves a sufferer’s kicking of the habit of drinking alcohol, reducing large intake of salt, and engaging in physical exercises,” Anyaoku said.

Again, Prof. Onyire narrated how his mother, Elder Ogbueshi Lily Onyire (Nwobosi), who was diagnosed with hypertension at the age of fifty years, lived to the grand old age of ninety-two years before kicking the bucket.

He attributed her mother's longevity to her strict adherence to doctors’ medical advice, which stipulated that she should take her drugs, regularly.

•Chiedu is of the Anambra State Ministry of Information