Unhealthy habits affect blood pressure

About one billion people in the world suffer from hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, according to World Health Organization. The theme of this year's World Health Day on April 7th is high blood pressure.

WHO is calling for greater efforts to prevent and control the disease. CCTV reporter Shi Wenjing takes a look at the situation in China and how the disease is related to our daily habits.

Is your blood pressure normal? There's a one in five chance that you have high blood pressure.

In the last 10 years the proportion of people with high blood pressure in China has almost doubled - from 10% to over 18% of the population.

A key contributing factor is an unhealthy lifestyle.

Yang Shuixiang, Director, Cardiology Dept., Shijitan Hospital, SAID, "High blood pressure is closely related to lifestyle. Many people nowadays are so busy they neglect to follow a healthy daily routine. Irregular schedules and chronic stress contribute to the disease. More importantly, it's closely related to our diet."

The new guidelines issued by the WHO say adults should consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium, or 5 grams of salt per day.

To give you a better idea of this, common dishes such as eggplant in garlic sauce have 2,000 milligrams of sodium. Ma Po Tofu contains 2,300 milligrams. Another popular cuisine Kung Pao Chicken contains 2,600 mg of sodium.

So what's the problem with this?

Yang Shuixiang, Director, Cardiology Dept., Shijitan Hospital, said, "The sodium levels in Chinese food can prove problematic. A person with a high sodium level could be at risk of raising blood pressure which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, or kidney disease."

Doctors say high blood pressure can be controlled with modifications in lifestyle. Apart from eating healthily by minimizing daily salt intake, increasing physical exercise and limiting alcohol consumption and smoking can also help reduce the risk of disease.