High blood pressure or hypertension is one the sneakiest diseases in the world today. Some studies show that this disease causes one of eight deaths in the world.

According to a survey published by The Economist from the notable scientific magazine Lancet, Croatia is among the countries with the highest number of high blood pressure patients.

Dr Nediljko Pivac, a cardiologist from Split, commented that in Croatia men aged 40 to 50 years suffer from hypertension. When it comes to Croatian women, when they enter the period of menopause, the risk of suffering from high blood pressure increases, thus, women aged 65 years and older suffer from disease more than Croatian men.

‘’Around 47,5 percent of all deaths in Croatia are caused by cardiovascular diseases’’, said Dr Pivac.

According to the latest survey, the highest number of hypertension cases was recorded in Slavonia, followed by Dalmatia, which was quite unexpected given the fact that Dalmatian cuisine is one of the healthiest in the world. It seems that more and more people are buckling under the pressure of the fast lifestyle of today.

‘’A silent killer’’ as is usually attributed to hypertension, affects between 16 and 37 percent of the population globally. In 2010 hypertension was believed to have been a factor in 18 percent of all deaths (9,4 million globally).