Mahatma Gandhi was hypertensive, BP records out soon

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 12

Everyone knows about Mahatma Gandhi’s experiments with the truth, but little do people know that he was hypertensive.

The Ministry of Health will now publish the blood pressure details of Gandhi as part its efforts to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of The Father of the Nation.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) chief, who is also Secretary, Health Research, Dr Balram Bhargava said: “The ICMR has decided to produce a special issue on the Mahatma to mark his 150th birth anniversary. The issue will focus on the interventions Gandhi had on malaria, filaria, cholera and leprosy. It will also have a research piece on Gandhi’s history as a hypertensive. The idea in publishing his BP records is to tell everyone that hypertension is an old disease and now perfectly manageable.”

Gandhi’s blood pressure details will be published in two months in ICMR’s in-house journal.

“These records are available with the Gandhi Museum and anyone can access these. At the time when Gandhiji had high BP, there was hardly any medicine to treat it. The available medicines were toxic. Our effort will be to bring the focus on hypertension and help people take to low-salt diet to fight the disease.” Dr Bhargava said.

Special anniv booklet 

• Move is part of government’s effort to produce a special booklet commemorating Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary
• The booklet will feature Mahatma’s interventions on leprosy, cholera, filarial and malaria and a piece on his history as a hypertensive