Around the world, more than a billion people live with high blood pressure, the single greatest risk factor for death. Yet it often remains unnoticed until tragedy strikes.
Cardiovascular diseases, driven primarily by high blood pressure, now represent a major economic and family crisis in India. Over the period from 2012 to 2030, these diseases are projected to cost the Indian economy an astonishing $2.17 trillion (over ₹18 lakh crore) thanks to lost productivity, health care expenses, and lives lost prematurely.
Despite the fact that effective and affordable treatments for high blood pressure are widely available, only 14% of Indians with hypertension have their blood pressure under control—leaving millions at risk and families bearing the brunt, both emotionally and financially.
India is feeling this crisis more acutely than ever. Once thought of as an older person’s condition, hypertension is now claiming younger lives. We are witnessing a troubling rise in hypertension among youth and even children—a condition once confined largely to older adults.
More and more young patients are coming into our clinics with cardiac issues, and a striking number of these patients have hypertension. We tell ourselves heart disease is for someone else, or another day, until it strikes our homes in an instant. This upcoming World Heart Day offers a moment to reflect, particularly as young lives are being cut short by a disease that is both preventable and controllable.
The numbers tell a sobering story. A statewide screening in Karnataka of 1.23 crore children — from six weeks to 18 years, found 7.2 lakh already living with hypertension. Early onset means decades of higher cardiovascular risk, with strokes, kidney failure, and heart attacks arriving long before they should. The silent creep of this condition threatens to burden the next generation unless we act quickly.
India has not been blind to this challenge. The National Health Mission introduced the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS). In 2017, the India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI) was launched, bringing low-cost medicines, digital tools, and wider screening. The government has also endorsed the “75 by 25” goal: controlling hypertension in 75% of patients by 2025. These are important steps forward. Yet despite progress, control rates remain stubbornly low, and too many lives continue to be lost.
Why? The reasons are many. Nearly half of those with hypertension don’t even know they have it. Many who start treatment drop out due to costs, side effects, or poor follow-up. Indians consume two to three times the World Health Organization (WHO)’s recommended sodium limit, while obesity and sedentary lifestyles are on the rise. Beyond the medical gaps, our diets have shifted from scarcity to toxicity — high sodium, preservatives, adulterated foods, and socially, stress and loneliness are adding invisible pressure.
This means India’s next leap must go beyond diagnosis and pills. We need stronger prevention: lower the age for screening, introduce front-of-pack food labelling, and push for real reductions in the salt hidden in our everyday diets. We need mass awareness campaigns on par with tobacco control or polio eradication. And we must start with children, regular school-based screening, daily physical activity, nutrition education, so that healthy choices become habits early in life.
At the same time, prevention begins at home. I often tell my patients: after eighteen, there are 4 numbers everyone should know, your blood pressure, blood sugar, lipid profile, and hs-CRP, a marker of hidden inflammation.
I still remember a young man who walked into my clinic, a regular smoker, unaware of the danger hypertension posed. Once he understood the risk, he quit smoking that very day. The change wasn’t easy, but within weeks his health markers began to improve. Youth comes with adaptability, and early intervention can rewrite the story before damage is done.
Hypertension may be silent, but our response to it cannot be. India has made a start, but much more is needed: prevention in children, lowering the screening age, building school and college-level awareness, and community engagement that reaches beyond hospital walls.
This upcoming World Heart Day, my message is simple: Know your beat. Get your blood pressure checked. Know your four numbers. Demand healthier food policies. Teach children that heart health matters. Hypertension is preventable and controllable.
This article is authored by Dr Surender Deora, additional professor and head of cardiology, AIIMS Jodhpur.