‘10% adult population in Nigeria live with coronary heart disease’

Kingsley Akinroye a cardiovascular health physician and executive director of Nigeria Heart Foundation tells BusinessDay’s Anthonia Obokoh why coronaryheart diseases are on the rise in Nigeria and how to prevent it, excerpts

What is heart failure; heart attack, and cardiac arrest?

Cardiovascular diseases are diseases of the heart and blood vessels; the heart itself is the biggest blood vessel in the body, so diseases of blood vessels both small and big are called cardiovascular diseases. The most prominent heart disease we have is hypertension and that has to do with the pressure generated from the heart and how abnormal it is, and that is what will call hypertension.

Heart failure, the heart is a pump and being a pump, it generates pressure and the pressure it generates circulates blood all over the body, but when the pump fails, then it is not able to perform its functions of distributing blood all over the body and the cause of this delay the heart can slow down and can show signs of wanting to fail and then the signs which these functions are not known and interpreted by individuals and when the heart is wanting to fail, the functions are not going to be there. , the basic function of bathing, climbing stairs or doing house job, and eventually if such is not taking care of, the heart itself can fail and that is when we define it as heart failure

Heart attack is a situation which your heart itself being a blood vessel needs blood, oxygen, nutrients and when to get this supply of oxygen and blood ,though it pumps out blood and also takes in blood and blood vessels also supplies to the heart. When the circulation to the heart is also compromised and not enough, either they are blocked or narrowed down. This can lead to a situation where the supply is not there and that is why it is called heart attack, meaning that the blood vessels are not getting enough supply to the heart.

Cardiac arrest is a situation when the heart is not able to perform its functions and this occurs when the heart suddenly stops and all the functions such as pumping its blood out and regulating the rate of the heart will cease immediately. This is what is referred to as heart/cardiac arrest.

But having said this, cardiac arrest could occur, but could be reversible, if there is an opportunity to recall back, because the heart does not know when it will stop functioning. Even then, it does not stop immediately as there can still be some circulations and activities going on. This can be brought back when you have individuals that have the knowledge or trained people who can do certain function to bring the heart back.

How prevalent is heart disease among Nigerians?

Heart diseases are getting more prevalent in Nigeria, the number one heart disease in adult population is hypertension and hypertension is defined when the blood pressure is high, higher than what is supposed to be for the normal adult. An adult will be defined as someone who is above the age of eighteen years and normal blood pressure is not less than 140/90. When the blood pressure of an individual is consistently above 140/90,  that is diagnosed as hypertension in adult.

The number of people with hypertension in the population in Nigeria is increasing year in year out. We have the population of about 20-30 per cent of the Nigeria population having hypertension and the figure keeps increasing every day, depending on the part of the country.

Hypertension is the most common and prevalent heart diseases in Nigeria, but there are also diseases of the blood vessels like dysfunctions and coronary heart disease that are also getting more prevalent.

Coronary disease leads the blood vessel of the heart to get attacked by the disease; they are either narrow or blocked and it is getting common in the population of Nigeria.

The percentage of population of the citizens with coronary heart disease is increasing. It was about 5-6 per cent, but it has increased to 10 per cent of the adult population of Nigeria.

What are the contributing factors?

The risk factors that make you develop coronary heart diseases are the lifestyle, unhealthy diet, high level of salt intake, smoking, and lack of exercises and these lead to high rate of cholesterol. The higher the cholesterol, the likelihood to develop coronary heart disease.

What can Nigerians do to reduce the incidence of heart disease?

The key word in tackling long term diseases or chronic disease is prevention, so the more the population is aware, the better equipped the citizens are at preventing the disease. This is because it is what they can do for themselves basically, in addition to what the government and corporate organizations can equally do.

So countries that are well prepared, have their population well prepared and informed about their lifestyles, the laws. This is because people are responsible for their health. But, in Nigeria, we are not prepared for all these policies and regulations. However, the Nigerian heart foundation, in partnership with government, has been working towards ensuring awareness and taking some preventive measures. Also, researchers, international organizations have been making some frantic efforts at ensuring that  Nigeria is back as leading the crusade.

Health has gone beyond hospitals globally ,there is much outside the hospital than within the hospital that is why we talk about population and the Nigerian Heart Foundation and, government other organisations have to come together to address these areas.

Health needs to be focused on the primary health centre, schools, work places and organisations; because these are the areas we have the larger population of Nigerians who need to be taken care of.  A lot needs to be done in Nigeria, in continuous preparation, evaluation, updating and training of personnel. We really need to compete with the world and have to be there.

What is the cost of treating a heart disease Nigeria?

Health is more than treating, the cost of treatment has skyrocketed and drugs are quite expensive and other unseen generated cost. The earning capacity of people may not even them the opportunity to get the right treatment.

Well Nigeria have a few heart surgery that can  be carry out in the country, which was has not been done before and it is so exorbitant and those that can afford it travel out of the country for the surgery. Maintenance of heart disease is very expensive and exorbitant that can cost half a million in a year.

What have been the trends of heart diseases in Nigeria?

There are trends  of heart diseases in Nigeria and it is increasing and we broke it up into the most commonest which is hypertension, blood vessel coronary disease , heart muscle disease and also some that are peculiar in the segments of the population in children, pregnant women and the elderly which we should have policy and ways to address them. Some heart diseases are acquired, while some are born with them.

The Heart Foundation is more concerned about the health of the population in the area of heart diseases. The area that is more important and the whole world those not know about the black people, for example the effects of nutrition on the heart. As far as we are concerned with policy regulations, there are still a lot to be done as well as being more competitive with the scientific world in research.

Nigeria still needs landmarks summit to look at the important facts and as well as the need to relate with the world. We must invest in research, train the research scientist, and equip them, as there can never be any progress without them. Nigerian governments should invest more in research

Nigeria needs more awareness on heart diseases. This is because, less than 10 per cent of the population is informed and this is very low.

Anthonia Obokoh