HYPERTENSION: AN AYURVEDIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Hypertension (HTN) is a major public health issue worldwide, because of its high prevalence and concomitant increase in the risk of disease. In the contemporary situation Hypertension is the most critical disease in the world. If we focus on the present situation then we can see that due to rapid globalization we are facing Hypertension. Due to rapid modernization, people are leading more stressful lives. As a result, hypertension is one of the wide- spread disorders which came across in practice. Ab. India is labelled as the global capital of hypertension. Nowa- days, not only lifestyle disorders are becoming more common, but they are also affecting younger populations. Hence, the population at risk shifts from 40+ to maybe 30+ or even younger. Hypertension results from a variety of reasons like stress, obesity, genetic factors, overuse of the salts in the diet and ageing etc. As we all know, Hy- pertension is called a silent killer because it rarely exhibits symptoms before it damages the heart, brain or kidney. Though a lot of potent antihypertensive drugs are available today in modern medicine, none of them is free from untoward effects. The principal focus of Ayurveda is on maintaining good health and adopting a healthy way of life. In Ayurveda, there is no description of such a single disease that can resemble hypertension. As per Ayurve- dic principles, in case of an unknown disease, the physician should try to understand the nature of the disease through Dosha, Dushya and Samprapti; then should initiate the treatment. So, it becomes our prime concern to understand hypertension thoroughly with an Ayurvedic perspective. Hypertension (HTN or HT), also known as High blood pressure or arterial hypertension, is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. Hypertension is one of the major causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortalityworldwide. It is a global health problem affecting people of different ethnicity and ages around the world. It is an asymptomatic medical condition in which systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated beyond the normal value. Keywords: High Blood Pressure, Lifestyle disorders, Silent killer.