Nigeria is less active than it use to be in the past
I've met more than 20 people who fit the criteria for Hypertension and are younger than 40 years.
Some of them want to fight against it as much as they can. while others have resolved to take medication for the rest of their lives.
I would never accept that. I would fight it knowing what I know. It all goes downhill from there. 1 drug in your thirties makes you a likely candidate for the next set of drugs in your 40s the next in your 50s and the next in your 60s.
I wouldn't allow myself to be so easily medicalized. I would fight because I think life is worth fighting for.
The above line is what I feel like I am saying every time I have to place a young man (mostly) or a young woman on antihypertensive.
I see Amlodipine as a wheelchair for those whose blood vessels will never be able to reduce the strength of contraction of their hearts.
Imagine if doctors prescribed Amlodipine like a crutche.
If hypertension caused any ambulatory problems we would have had a family member go pick up your crutches.
Then we would have to teach you how to use it because walking with a pair of crutches seems easy to those who have never had to use them before...
Also, every time you left your house everyone would know that you had to use crutches to walk.
It is a more psychologically impactful series of events than putting a pill in your palm and throwing it in your mouth.
Which would you prefer? 1 year on crutches with full recovery or the rest of your life taking a pill?
I've taken a pill for a month and I have had to limp for a week. I can tell you, I'd much rather limp in pain for a year than have to take pills for the rest of my life especially when I know that there is a path away from the pills.
I come from a privileged position to know what I know as a medical doctor but I also get the sense that people either don't want to know or like to live in ignorance.
Every flood has its warning and to different degrees, people would like to live in their ignorant bliss. Take for example the below-sea-level Bayelsa people who are ravaged by flood every year and to a different extent are sunk into the water yet people (and the people by the people) fail to take action each year from a state down to an individual level.
I was going to call this subtitle the modern problem but, it's not really a problem as much as it is a trade-off. We have given away the nourishment that comes from tending to the soil for the mass production at the push of a button.
To say that the tractors and the massive machines that perform all this work do so at the push of a button is an exaggeration. But look ahead it might even be a prediction of the future and its will continue to be a trade-off.
As technology becomes more and more sophisticated and we move toward AI the next level of technological advancement would be perception. Such advancements would require more humans to maintain...putting more asschecks to chair in a never-ending sedentary existence.
The solution remains the same and will remain the same. There is no replacement for physical activity-especially voluntary physical activity.
The War within
I've thought about conditions that would require people to be less active and unable to perform exercise. One that keeps replaying in my mind is a condition like a war where there is no food, no water and you are struggling to live moment to moment. It would be madness to see a person start doing jumping jacks under those conditions.
There is also the understanding that everyone is fighting a battle that others no nothing about. A psychological war where your thoughts and actions are being heavily influenced by external factors a biological one where you are fighting for good health and peace within your body or a social war where someone (or some people) are doing their best to destroy you.
But for the majority of every war, it will always be:
Survival of the fittest
Get out there do your thing, don't let anybody stop you, even if the person trying to stop you is you!!
It is no doubt that a lot of people are becoming less unhappy, and this is increasing yearly. I have met people who are hypertensive at their late 20s and early 30s. It is gradually becoming an endemic condition.
But everyone can do something about it and everyone should
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