Recently the Indian Heart Study (IHS) revealed that the average heart rate of Indians is 80 beats per minute which are higher than the desired heart rate of 72. Apart from this they also disclosed that people from other countries have lower blood pressure in evening and higher in the morning while in the case of Indians, it’s the opposite.

The study was done for almost 9 months on 18,918 people including both men and women from 355 cities in 15 states. It was carried out by 19 doctors to rethink about the timing of prescribing anti-hypertension drug dosage.

“The study has provided us with insights on the prevalence of white-coat hypertension, masked hypertension, and resting heart rates pertinent to the Indian population,” said Prof Dr. Soumitra Kumar, Head of the Department of Cardiology of city-based Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences and Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan and a co-ordinator for IHS.

Masked-hypertension is a state when an individual’s blood pressure comes normal at the doctor but, higher at home. White-coat hypertension is a condition in which people exhibit a blood pressure level above the normal range in a clinical setting only.

In West Bengal, 22.50 percent of the respondents were white-coat hypertensive, while 17.30 percent were found to have masked hypertension.

White-coat hypertensives, who are misdiagnosed and put on anti-hypertension drugs have to take unnecessary medication while a masked hypertensive may go undiagnosed running the risk of complications of the heart, the kidneys, and the brain, leading to premature mortality, the study said.

There is a close link between high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases, which are on the rise in our country. We need to take right measures to cut down on the risks by monitoring our blood pressure,” Dr Kumar said.

The study was conducted on the people who were not on any anti-hypertension drug.