Tomomi Umeda AEC 150 Compare & Contrast revised November 16, 2013 High Blood Pressure in the

e U.S. and Japan

A number of American and Japanese people are suffering from high blood pressure and killed by diseases related to hypertension. High blood pressure is a common disease in the world and the majority of people do not perceive it as a somber problem because it is not associated with death. However, what you should pay more attention to is the diseases caused by hypertension because the complications from high blood pressure can incur death. There are similarities and differences about high blood pressure between the U.S. and Japan considering the causes, consequences, and treatments. First of all, the factors of high blood pressure are quite similar between the U.S. and Japan because their unhealthy diet affects their blood. In America, people frequently eat fast food and fatty and salty snacks. Japanese people also tend to eat out, have instant noodles, and purchase food at convenience stores instead of cooking. Taking in too much sodium and fat is one of the causes of hypertension both in America and Japan. In addition, how much they exercise is related to the health of blood. Americans seldom exercise in their daily life because they all have their own car and use their car everywhere they go. In Japan, people do not exercise because they have well-organized train systems. The high level transportation system leads to a deficiency of exercise. Moreover, high blood pressure results in very serious diseases. Baudin states High blood pressure (BP) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, kidney failure, and stroke. (2005, p.4) According to World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 55 million people

died worldwide in 2011, and 11.2 % of them were killed by heart disease and the second cause of death which accounted for 10.6 % was stroke. (2013, pp1, 3) In fact, heart disease and stroke are the primary factors of death both in the U.S. and Japan. High blood pressure has a great effect on these diseases. However, the patients are not aware of the seriousness of high blood pressure until they are affected by a cardiovascular disease or an apoplectic stroke because they believe hypertension is not related to death. High blood pressure should be considered a high risk disease that leads to death. On the other hand, the treatments of hypertension are different between the U.S. and Japan. American patients have less chance to receive medical care than Japanese because it costs a lot of money because it is more complicated to acquire insurance. Therefore, they are not aware of their illness and they do not take appropriate medicine. However, Japanese patients have a medical examination regularly, and try to reduce blood pressure by medicine, because Japanese people can receive medical treatment which they can obtain more easily than Americans. In addition, Americans do not worry about their own health, while Japanese take care of themselves and they are willing to eat healthy food. Comparing the U.S. and Japan, the causes of high blood pressure and the consequences are similar. However, the treatments are different. Japanese people can find medicine more easily than Americans and Japanese have the will to be healthy. I believe the U.S. government has to change the medical treatment system by supporting insurance and Americans have to think about their unhealthy practices.

References Baudin, B. (2005). Angiotensin II receptor polymorphisms and hypertension. In Rai, M. K., Paton, J., Kasparov, S. & Katovich, M. J. (Eds.), Cardiovascular genomics. Totowa: Humana Press.

World Health Organization. (2013). The top 10 causes of death. Retrieved October 25, 2013, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index.html