Hypertension is a worldwide chronic disease, China has, the United States also has, Japan also has, the world has hypertension, the harm of hypertension lies in the damage it causes target organs, such as cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, heart failure, myocardial infarction, kidney failure and so on. Through the comparison of the risk of stroke in hypertensive patients in various countries, it is found that the risk of stroke in hypertensive patients in our country is significantly higher than that of American countries. What is the rationale for this? How can this be changed? Let's take a look.
The so-called hypertension refers to the increase in blood pressure, beyond a certain range, there are certain diagnostic standards, in the past the United States diagnostic standards and China's diagnostic standards are the same, are 140/90 mm Hg, of course, in the past few years the United States lowered the hypertension standard to 130/80 mm Hg. In terms of controlling blood pressure standards, the rate of blood pressure control in our country is relatively low, and many people do not even know that they have high blood pressure, until they have a stroke, they find that they have high blood pressure. Of course, there are many people who find that they have high blood pressure, but they take medicine irregularly, or they use drugs improperly and their blood pressure is not well controlled. Because the pressure control is not up to standard, the probability of complications is relatively high.
In fact, today's popular science article, but also to tell you another very important reason. It is the high proportion of patients with type H hypertension in our country, which is the reason for the increase in the incidence of stroke. What the? What type of hypertension should I classify? That's right! The same is a hypertensive patient, there are some hypertensive patients, he also has an increase in the level of homocysteine in the blood, we call this part of the hypertension patients H hypertension. A hypertensive patient with this problem is more likely to have a stroke. Homocysteine is an intermediate product of the body's amino acid metabolism, and under normal circumstances, it will continue to be decomposed and metabolized. In general, the level of homocysteine in the blood of a normal person is less than 10 micrograms per liter. If it is higher than 10 micromoles per liter, then it is considered elevated. According to research statistics, about 75% of our hypertensive patients in China have elevated homocysteine levels, which is much higher than that in the United States.
Why do we have higher homocysteine levels than in the United States? In fact, the metabolism of homocysteine depends on genetic factors on the one hand, that is, genes determine. On the other hand, homocysteine needs the assistance of folic acid in the process of metabolism. Folic acid many people have heard of, there are some patients with anemia who need folic acid supplementation, and pregnant women need folic acid supplementation, that is to prevent fetal malformations. Folic acid is actually a vitamin, in our usual food, such as fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, liver these foods, contain more folic acid. However, due to the variety of eating habits of our people, vegetables must be cooked and eaten, and folic acid will lose some when cooked at high temperatures. In addition, Americans add folic acid to the flour they use, which is equivalent to supplementing. Therefore, the proportion of folic acid deficiency in the American population is much lower than ours.
So how do we supplement folic acid? For patients with hypertension, it is actually necessary to do a homocysteine test, if the detection of homocysteine levels is higher than 10 micromoles per liter, then folic acid supplementation should be considered at this time, of course, there are generally two ways to supplement folic acid, one is through dietary supplementation, and the second is supplemented by folic acid tablets. Dietary supplements are the fresh fruits, legumes, etc. just mentioned, but studies suggest that it is difficult to achieve sufficient amounts only through dietary supplementation. Therefore, for patients with homocysteine levels exceeding 10 micromoles per liter, folic acid tablet supplementation is generally recommended. The recommended dosage for daily use is 0.8 mg. And after taking it for a period of time, we should recheck the homocysteine level to see if it has come down, and if it has not, we have to think of other ways.
To sum up, one of the complications of hypertension is stroke, the same hypertensive patients, if there is a homocysteine level increased, the risk of stroke is increased, therefore, it is recommended that this type of H type hypertension patients supplement folic acid.
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