Hypertensive Disease - Disease of the Century
Historical document, translated for reference. It reflects medical knowledge of the 1920s–30s and is not medical advice.
Summary
This 1930s Soviet article describes hypertensive disease as a chronic condition requiring lifelong daily treatment to prevent serious complications like stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure. It emphasizes the importance of regular blood pressure monitoring and medical supervision rather than relying on folk remedies.
Encyclopedia article (1928–1936)
With elevated pressure, the head hurts, the heart rhythm becomes irregular, but a huge portion of patients have no subjective sensations, and hypertensive disease confronts them only with the fact of severe complications: stroke, infarction, hemorrhage into the fundus of the eye, and kidney insufficiency. Therefore, every person should monitor their pressure to avoid serious complications and begin treatment in a timely manner.
Hypertensive disease is a chronic illness and does not lend itself to treatment with short courses of medication (like pneumonia or ulcer disease), but requires daily, lifelong treatment.
This is how patients with hypertensive disease are treated throughout the world, and by this means they avoid complications and continue to maintain a quality, working life.
Medications that can keep elevated pressure within normal limits (120/70 – 140/80) can only be prescribed by a doctor, taking into account all the peculiarities of the disease's course. Therefore, a neighbor or acquaintance cannot be an advisor in choosing medications.
The number of complications and frequency of crises particularly increase during the summer period, when air temperature rises and solar activity increases, which affects the Earth's geomagnetic field.
People who suffer from elevated pressure should measure their pressure 2 times during the day and not take 'days off' from taking medications, as it is precisely during these periods that fatal complications arise.
Analyzing the morbidity in the district for the first half of this year, we conclude that patients who regularly and continuously take hypotensive medications do not have hypertensive crises, do not require hospitalization. In this group of people, no stroke or myocardial infarction has been registered. Since complications of hypertensive disease lead to a high level of disability and mortality, this problem has acquired state significance.
Do not delay in treating hypertensive disease, one should not rely on folk methods, but rather turn to your district doctor, get a prescription for the selected medications, and hurry to the pharmacy, so that the silent killer – hypertension – does not get ahead of you.
Related articles
Mentioned in
Cite this page
“Hypertensive Disease - Disease of the Century.” Soviet Medical Encyclopedia. English translation of Bolshaya Meditsinskaya Entsiklopediya, 1st ed. (Moscow, 1928–1936), ed. N. A. Semashko. https://sovietmedicalencyclopedia.pages.dev/article/hypertensive-disease-disease-of-the-century/