Long ago, the First Emperor of Qin searched for an elixir of immortality, but was ultimately unable to find it. Even today, there is no miracle drug for immortality, but in terms of extending the human lifespan, the closest thing to what the First Emperor of Qin was looking for may be a drug for high blood pressure.
It has been known since ancient times that blood pressure gradually rises as people age. This naturally rising high blood pressure is called "essential hypertension," while high blood pressure caused by kidney or liver diseases is called "secondary hypertension." No matter how advanced medicine has become today, we still don't really understand the cause of essential hypertension or why blood pressure rises as we age. However, it has long been known that people with high blood pressure (more specifically, blood pressure over 140/90) die early. It was often said that nobles in Kyoto lived long lives because their food was bland, as limiting salt intake makes it harder for blood pressure to rise. Death due to high blood pressure is mostly caused by vascular disorders such as stroke or myocardial infarction.
When I was in medical school, we did an interesting experiment on salt. Have you ever gulped down 1 liter (1000cc) of tap water in one go? Imagine the size of a 1 liter plastic bottle. Can humans really drink that much water at once? We decided that the loser of rock-paper-scissors among us would be the test subject and gulp down 1 liter of water in one go. We then observed what would happen. What would happen? The test subject would have to pee within 5 minutes and go to the toilet. The urine produced there was collected in a beaker and the amount was measured. At first, the test subject went to the toilet every 5 minutes, but the intervals gradually became longer, and after 2 hours, he or she no longer went to the toilet. The final amount of urine produced was 1000cc. Since the amount of water drunk at the beginning was 1000cc, the calculations worked out.
Next, I drank 1000cc of 0.9% saline solution, which is called physiological saline solution because it has the same concentration as blood. What do you think would happen? Not only did I not feel the need to pee, but I waited for an hour or two and still did not urinate a single drop. I was terrified as to where the 1000cc of physiological saline solution had gone. This saline solution enters the body and raises blood pressure. That's why, before hypertension medicine was developed, it was said that it was important to limit salt intake. Now that various hypertension medicines are available, the advice to limit salt intake is not as strict as it used to be.
As I mentioned before, it has been known for a long time that high blood pressure is bad because it leads to premature death. So, if we lower the blood pressure of high blood pressure patients, will they live longer? Or will lowering blood pressure still lead to premature death? This has been a major debate in the medical community.
To begin with, it took a long time for a good drug to lower blood pressure to be developed. When a blood pressure drug was finally developed, the medical community conducted human experiments to settle the debate. Many high blood pressure patients were gathered and divided into two groups of the same age and sex. One group was given blood pressure drugs and the other group was given a placebo with no active ingredients, and the experiment was stopped after about three years. The group that did not take blood pressure drugs had a frighteningly large number of deaths, so the experiment was stopped for humanitarian reasons. This experiment proved that treating high blood pressure can dramatically prevent premature death. We must not forget that behind the treatment of blood pressure, there were many victims.
Since ancient times, many people in the Tohoku region of Japan have suffered from strokes, and it was believed that people from Tohoku were genetically prone to strokes at a certain age, and that this was their fate.
However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (now the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare), medical associations, and others actively conducted educational activities and launched a campaign to "go to the hospital and get your blood pressure checked." As a result of thoroughly informing people that strokes can be prevented by properly controlling blood pressure, the incidence of strokes in the Tohoku region improved dramatically.
High blood pressure medication and possibly cholesterol medication, both of which can help us live longer if used properly. When people with high cholesterol take cholesterol medication, the mortality rate decreases, but the effect is not as dramatic as when people with high blood pressure receive treatment for high blood pressure. Also, when cholesterol medication and high blood pressure medication are used together, the effect is synergistic. If we were to name something close to the elixir of immortality sought by the First Emperor of Qin, it would be cholesterol medication, high blood pressure medication, and aspirin. We will save aspirin for another time, but it is also known to contribute to longevity.
If you have high blood pressure, why not consult your nearest medical facility to receive the benefits of high blood pressure treatment, which can be called the modern-day elixir of life?

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