"Many severe Covid 19 courses would be avoidable": Heart specialist explains what you have to pay attention to
Created: 04/11/2022 11:06 am
By: Juliane Gutmann
Blood pressure plays an important role in terms of the risk of becoming seriously ill with corona.
© Josep Rovirosa/Imago
Severe corona courses can be fatal.
A simple measure helps to prevent the rare serious complications.
Are you young, fit and vaccinated against Corona?
These three factors reduce the risk of a fatal Covid-19 course enormously.
However, pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or cardiovascular diseases increase with age.
Both are among the main risk factors of a complicated corona course.
High blood pressure is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases in Germany.
According to the Techniker Krankenkasse, around 20 to 30 million Germans are affected,
with the number of unreported cases being high
.
Because many do not know anything about their abnormally high blood pressure values.
These are considered slightly elevated if the readings are between 140-159/90-99 mmHg.
At higher values, one speaks of moderately elevated (160-179/100-109 mmHg) to severe high blood pressure (more than 180/more than 110 mmHg), inform the internists on the Internet.
Don't know how your blood pressure is?
You can buy measuring devices for self-use (promotional link) in any pharmacy, drugstore or online.
You can also have your blood pressure measured free
of charge in pharmacies and doctor's surgeries .
Corona vaccination survey
Lower high blood pressure and thus prevent severe corona courses
The positive thing about high blood pressure: It is very easy to treat
.
Slightly elevated values can already be reduced thanks to lifestyle changes.
In the case of high blood pressure that has existed for a long time, the doctor treating you will prescribe medication.
Treatment is important because high blood pressure can lead to hardening of the arteries, which in turn is the main cause of heart attacks and strokes.
But normal values of around 120 to 80 mmHg have another positive effect:
the risk of severe corona courses decreases
.
This applies in particular to people without a Covid 19 vaccination, as the German Heart Foundation informs.
"Through
consistent treatment
of previous illnesses, for example lowering blood pressure in hypertension patients, many severe Covid-19 courses could be avoided," quotes the foundation heart specialist Prof. Heribert Schunkert, deputy chairman of the German Heart Foundation and medical director of the German Heart Center Munich (DHM). .
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Corona: Around 26 percent of those who are seriously ill have high blood pressure
As part of a study by Tufts University in the USA, it became clear to what extent high blood pressure triggers the risk of severe corona courses.
According to a press release by the German Heart Foundation, the analysis of more than 900,000 hospital treatments for corona patients showed that 64 percent of the Covid 19 cases requiring treatment were related to previous illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart failure.
According to the scientists at the Heart Foundation,
26.2 percent of the severe courses can be attributed to high blood pressure alone .
(jg)
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