DESPITE being on medication, high-blood pressure sufferers still face high risks of having strokes, heart attacks and kidney problems.
First, traditional blood pressure drugs are not effective enough - they rapidly lose effectiveness as early as four hours after they are taken.
Second, it is also a non-compliance problem, say many doctors.
Many patients are not consistent in taking their medicine, so their blood pressure levels are still higher than normal for a large part of the day.
Professor Emeritus Hans Brunner, an international researcher from Switzerland, said at a forum here last month that less than 10 per cent of patients in Europe had their blood pressure levels "normalised".
Cardiologist Baldev Singh told my paper that studies specific to Singapore report that only about 40 per cent of sufferers here have their conditions under control.
He said: "It can be difficult for people to remember to take medicine two to three times a day. And, in our Asian context,people do get alarmed that they are taking too much medicine." His patients generally have complex heart conditions and pop between 12 to 15 pills every morning.
Dr Titus Lau, a specialist in hypertension and kidney disease at the National University Hospital, said some people see consuming more pills as harmful to health.
He said: "Many local patients are also under the impression that taking medication in the long term is harmful rather than helpful, and medication for high blood pressure usually is long-term."
As high blood pressure typically does not exhibit symptoms in most patients, it is even riskier for sufferers who think the condition will not harm them.
