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Vashi2Panvel.Com: Navi Mumbai: August 31: The health problems in today’s scenario are not only restricted to elderly people. The problems, which were earlier, considered ‘Disease of the elderly” are now also affecting the kids. Children under 14 years of age are now facing problems like high blood pressure. According to reports from World Health Organisation, one among ten kids has been reported as a patient of some kind of hypertension, major or minor. The doctors are trying to find causes for these problems and also working on devising solutions.

The kids who have been reported as patients are mostly prematurely born. “The premature kids are quite susceptible to these kind of diseases as they are born when they were still not fully prepared,” says Dr.R.Kotak, a private practitioner in Panvel. “The root cause of the problem is associated with kidney or heart, as the heart is the one, which pumps blood in the body and if there is any defect or problem in heart it may influence the body in many ways resulting into various linked diseases like Hypertension and low blood pressure,” he explicates. “While the kidney is responsible for removing excess salts from our body, which in turn becomes the cause of rising blood pressure,” he adds. However, he also agrees that the lifestyle followed in today’s culture can also be considered as one of the major reason of people declared patients at such an early age.

Children as young as 7-yr-olds are the patients of this disease. “My child has been facing this problem since he was eight years old, he had problem whenever he used to eat anything more salty and spicy,” says Sandeep Kumar, a Panvel resident who works with Ispat Industries. “It is very sad to see that your own child is not able to have the food of his choice,” he adds sadly. According to the medical studies by various health organizations, the children are often sufferers due to hereditary factors in the family. On asking if it is linked with the extra burden of studies they are facing nowadays, the doctors are unsure about the link but do not rebuff them completely. “Though the disease is purely based on internal problems but we cannot fully deny any external factors acting towards its rise,” expresses Dr.Dhanashree Devnarkar, Apollo Clinics, Vashi..

The measures for prevention and medication of such kind of problem are not medicines usually as the doctors feel it is better to use some exercises as treatment options rather than using medicines. “With kids as patients of such diseases, medicines are never considered as a good option because they are habit forming along with many side effects,” she opines. “Some simple breathing exercises are a good alternative if followed regularly,” she adds.

Also, these simple breathing exercises have often proved quite beneficial for the kids. “My 12-yr-old girl was facing a minor high B.P. problem which we discovered an year back, on taking her to some local physician we were advised to do some regular exercises which are helping her to regain strength and patience,” expresses Madan Singh, a Kharghar resident working in Mazgaon Dockyard.

Smriti Mishra