Hypertonic illness is usually called a chronic disease, the main manifestation of which is a syndrome increasing blood pressure, which has no causal relationship with the presence of pathological processes in the body. Arterial hypertension begins to form in children's and is particularly active in adolescence. Therefore, to measure blood pressure, children should start at the age of three. Studies of physicians indicate the presence of hypertension in 8-18% of adolescents, depending on age.
Increase in blood pressure in a child up to six years is more likely to contribute to congenital diseases of the kidneys, lungs, heart defects, kidney and adrenal tumors. Already at the age of seven, if there are no listed diseases, specialists may suspect the presence of autonomic dystonia in hypertensive type or high blood pressure.
IMPORTANT! Measuring AD at home, you can get a reliable result only if the size of the cuff corresponds to the circumference of his shoulder.
The origins of the problem
It is known that there is often a "family predisposition" to arterial hypertension. Its development can cause even an early transition of the baby to artificial feeding. Because of the excess protein in cow's milk, the kidneys of the child can not function normally, metabolic stress occurs, resulting in a predisposition to excessive body weight, obesity, diabetes. The lack of polyunsaturated fatty acids in cow's milk leads to a violation of the maturation of the nervous system, which contributes to the formation of high blood pressure. Sodium in the composition of cow's milk is 4 times more than in the breast milk, which contributes to the development of neurocirculatory dystonia during puberty.
The level of blood pressure can be strongly influenced by the nervous system, which allows attributing hypertension to psychosomatic diseases. This may be related to the child's personal characteristics, with increased anxiety, depression, excessive excitability, self-doubt, and fear of punishment. At the initial stages of arterial hypertension in children and adolescents revealed signs of increased activity of the autonomic nervous system. This can contribute to fatigue, if the regime of work and rest is disrupted, with the over-saturation of the school curriculum, with prolonged work at the computer. Have a negative effect on the functioning of the nervous system have nicotine and alcohol.
If parents know the causes of high blood pressure in adolescents, they will be able to determine if their child is in a "risk group". All children need to measure blood pressure once a year, and those who have problems with it every quarter. This procedure can be carried out in the walls of the pre-hospital office of any children's polyclinic. Obligatory control of blood pressure is necessary if the state of health of a teenager worsens: there will be headaches, dizziness, nausea, edema in the face, shin.
It is never necessary to ignore the newly discovered increase in blood pressure in a child! It is necessary to write down on the leaflet for the week in the mornings and evenings what the blood pressure and heart rate are. Traced pediatrician should analyze the results. Currently, there are devices that allow for continuous measurement of blood pressure during the day and record indicators on an electronic carrier. You can also identify factors that cause fluctuations in blood pressure during the day.
What will be the diagnosis?
In childhood, pediatricians do not seek to immediately diagnose "arterial hypertension." This is a serious chronic disease, which requires follow-up and may interfere with vocational training in some specialties. Therefore, when the blood pressure is raised, the child is first diagnosed with "autonomic dysfunction in the hypertensive type." Then a comprehensive examination is appointed to exclude diseases of the internal organs, accompanied by an increase in blood pressure.
Not in all cases, vegetative dysfunction in the hypertensive type subsequently develops into arterial hypertension. There is an algorithm for predicting arterial hypertension in families with hereditary complications, and criteria have been identified that allow the child to be classified as a risk group.
What to do when the diagnosis is made?
Increased blood pressure in adolescents is a signal for parents to change their lifestyle. What does it mean?
- 1. It is important to pay attention to the weight of the child - his compliance with age and sex will be appreciated by a pediatrician. With excessive body weight, you must make every effort to lose weight.
- The organization of a mode of work and rest is necessary. If the child is not easily trained, this is an excuse to think: is it necessary for him to attend a gymnasium, is it not better to go to a regular school; whether it is necessary to additionally engage in foreign languages with a tutor, etc.
- It is necessary to correct the psychoemotional state of the child. It is necessary to create a friendly atmosphere in the family, to lead a healthy lifestyle. The child must learn to respond adequately to difficult life situations. By the way, each children's polyclinic today can offer the help of a psychologist or psychotherapist, to whom one can turn for help.
- Proper nutrition: exclude products that are exciting on the nervous system (strong tea, coffee, rich broths, highly aerated, alcoholic beverages). It is important to limit table salt: food is better to nedosalivat, do not buy into the house chips, salted nuts, olives. In the diet of a child, you must often include foods rich in potassium (raisins, dried apricots, prunes, potatoes, walnuts, oatmeal and wheat cereals) and magnesium (fresh herbs, carrots, dogrose, figs, beans, dates). It is advisable to limit liquid intake to 1-1.5 liters per day.
IMPORTANT! Any additional exercises should cause the child positive emotions, rather than stress and longing. If the child says to friends: "I can not go to the pool, I do not have time to play football", it is necessary to revise its training loads and reduce them.
Children need to spend daily on the street for at least 2 hours, useful walks before bed, as well as sleep with an open window. In addition to morning exercises, time should be enough for physical education 2-3 times a week for 30-60 minutes. It is better to give preference to riding a bicycle, skating, skiing, playing tennis. Also good are volleyball, badminton, swimming, aerobics. But such sports as weightlifting and wrestling for a teenager prone to hypertension are extremely undesirable.
It is very important to isolate the TV and computer from children - they can spend no more than an hour a day in front of the screen. Also it is undesirable to allow to play computer games connected with a violent display of emotions or monotonous.
Herbs, massage, baths ...
There are a number of non-pharmacological methods for the treatment of hypertension that help in the early stages of the ailment to return the adolescent blood pressure figures to the norm:
- massage of the cervical-collar spine;
- aromatherapy;
- baths: carbonic, coniferous (50 g of coniferous extract per 100 liters of water), chloride (10 g of table salt per 10 liters of water), with broths of mint, sage, oregano;
- different souls - contrast, circular, underwater shower-massage;
- physiotherapeutic treatment;
- use of medicinal herbs and dues.
If necessary, the doctor will prescribe drugs that have a calming effect on the nervous system (novopassit, magvit, tincture of motherwort, hawthorn). If the listed means do not normalize blood pressure, prescribe medications that reduce blood pressure. They are selected by the doctor individually for each patient. Parents and young patients will require perseverance and exact adherence to all physician instructions. Do not be afraid of long-term use of drugs - their side effects are much less significant than the formidable complications of hypertension.