Hypertension at age 35

Mr. Minh, 35 years old, has smoked for nearly 20 years, sleeps about 6 hours a day, now has headaches, hot flushes, and was diagnosed with high blood pressure.

Mr. Minh is 1.72 m tall, weighs 72 kg, slightly overweight, but his waist is 100 cm (normal men are under 90 cm) and belongs to the abdominal obesity group. Dr. Le Anh Tuan, Department of Cardiology, Tam Anh Cau Giay General Clinic, said the patient’s blood pressure was 161/102 mmHg in the right arm and 151/97 mmHg in the left arm (while normal blood pressure in adults is below 120/80 mmHg). Mr. Minh has stage two hypertension, significantly higher than the recommended threshold.

Because the disease appears early at age 35, the doctor ordered additional tests to assess cardiovascular risk. Echocardiogram results did not record left ventricular hypertrophy or myocardial damage, indicating that the disease was detected at an early stage.

According to Dr. Tuan, hypertension in young people may be related to a combination of many lifestyle and metabolic factors. Among them, smoking is a risk factor for increased blood pressure. Because smoking can damage the endothelium of blood vessels, promoting atherosclerosis. Prolonged lack of sleep disrupts the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and hormones that regulate blood pressure. Overweight and belly fat are signs of visceral fat, which increases the risk of metabolic disorders and hypertension.

If not controlled promptly, prolonged hypertension can cause damage to the heart, brain, kidneys and blood vessels. Over time, patients face the risk of myocardial hypertrophy, heart failure, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, stroke or chronic kidney failure.

Mr. Minh was advised to change his lifestyle, quit smoking, increase exercise, follow a healthy diet, lose weight, improve sleep and treat low blood pressure according to appropriate regimens. After a week, blood pressure dropped to 118/70 mmHg, headaches no longer appeared. Two weeks later, blood pressure remained at 120/76 mmHg, the patient’s health was stable.

Hypertension is a chronic disease, so Mr. Minh still needs to maintain treatment and have regular check-ups. If the patient arbitrarily stops the medication, it can cause blood pressure to silently increase again, increasing the risk of complications.

According to Dr. Tuan, many people think that hypertension only occurs in middle-aged and elderly people. However, in reality, many cases of the disease at age 30-40 are related to lifestyle factors. According to recommendations from cardiovascular associations, adults diagnosed with hypertension before age 40 should have a screening test for secondary hypertension. Causes of secondary hypertension include sleep apnea syndrome, primary hyperaldosteronism, kidney disease, pheochromocytoma, excessive alcohol consumption, aortic stenosis…

Dr. Tuan recommends that people with cardiovascular risk factors should periodically measure their blood pressure, even if they feel healthy. In particular, young people with the above symptoms, especially when accompanied by smoking, overweight, belly fat, little sleep or prolonged snoring, need to see a doctor soon.