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| High Blood Pressure: Overview, Causes, Symptoms, Risk factors, Treatment |
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| Report suggests allopurinol may lower blood pressure in teens with hypertension |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| The drug allopurinol, which lowers uric acid levels, appears to reduce blood pressure in adolescents with newly diagnosed hypertension, according to a preliminary report in the August 27 issue of JAMA.
Hypertension is commonly associated with hyperuricemia (elevated blood level of uric acid, a by-product of normal chemical processes in the body and found in the urine and blood). Early research suggested uric acid had a causal role in hypertension, but an elevation of uric acid in hypertension could be a consequence of several factors, and hyperuricemia is not considered a true risk factor for hypertension, according to background information in the article. Recent studies have challenged this belief, including evidence supporting a causal role of uric acid in hypertension, as indicated from experimental studies in laboratory animals.
Daniel I. Feig, M.D., Ph.D., of the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and colleagues conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled “crossover” trial to determine whether lowering uric acid levels with the drug allopurinol would reduce blood pressure (BP) in hyperuricemic adolescents (age 11-17 years) with newly diagnosed hypertension. Thirty patients were randomly assigned to receive either allopurinol or placebo, twice daily for four weeks. This was followed by a two week “washout” period during which the patients received neither allopurinol nor placebo, after which they received the other therapy (allopurinol or placebo) they had not received earlier, for four more weeks. |
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| Olive leaf extract can help tackle high blood pressure and cholesterol |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| Taking 1000mg of a specific olive leaf extract (EFLA®943) can lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure in patients with mild hypertension (high blood pressure). These findings came from a ‘Twins’ trial, in which different treatments were given to identical twins. By doing this, researchers could increase the power of their data by eliminating some of the uncertainties caused by genetic variations between individual people.
The research is published in the latest edition of Phytotherapy Research.
Hypertension is one of the most common and important disease risk factors imposed by the modern lifestyle. Many people would therefore benefit from finding ways of reducing blood pressure. Experiments in rats had previously indicated that olive leaf extract could be one way of achieving this goal. |
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| OSU study shows exposure to bad air raises blood pressure |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| The air people breathe while walking in the park, working in the garden or shopping downtown may be unhealthy enough to seriously spike their blood pressure, a new study suggests.
Cardiovascular researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center are the first to report a direct link between air pollution and its impact on high blood pressure, or hypertension. If the results from these animal studies hold up, this could be important for human health.
“We now have even more compelling evidence of the strong relationship between air pollution and cardiovascular disease,” said Sanjay Rajagopalan, section director of vascular medicine at Ohio State’s Medical Center and co-author of the study. This builds upon previous research from Rajagopalan’s team published in the journals JAMA, Circulation and Inhalation Toxology. |
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| Dietary fiber may cut preeclampsia risk |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| By increasing the amount of fiber in the diet during early pregnancy, the risk of preeclampsia in later pregnancy falls, according to a report in the American Journal of Hypertension.
The results suggest that a higher amount of dietary fiber achieves this effect, at least in part, by reducing pregnancy-associated elevated blood fats, Dr. Chunfang Qiu, from the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, and colleagues state.
Preeclamspia is a potentially serious condition that occurs in pregnancy characterized by a spike in blood pressure, protein in the urine and an increase risk of having an infant to be born prematurely. |
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| Young adults with prehypertension are more likely to have atherosclerosis later in life |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| Prehypertension during young adulthood is common and is associated with subsequent coronary atherosclerosis, according to a study published in today’s issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed blood pressure measurements of 3,560 adults aged 18 to 30 from seven examinations over the course of 20 years. Nearly 20 percent (635) of the study participants developed prehypertension (systolic blood pressure 120 to 139 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure 80 to 89 mmHg) before the age of 35.
Although these blood pressure levels are below the cutoff for hypertension, the young adults with prehypertension were more likely than those with lower blood pressure to have calcium in their coronary arteries later in life. Coronary calcium is a marker of atherosclerosis and a predictor of future heart attacks and strokes. |
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| Treating blood pressure may help prevent dementia |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| Treating high blood pressure in the very elderly may help reduce their risk of developing dementia, researchers said on Monday.
Blood pressure treatment in the over-80 set has already been shown to reduce risk of heart problems and fatal strokes.
“There may be an additional benefit in terms of prevention of dementia,” said Dr. Ruth Peters of Imperial College London, whose study appears in the journal Lancet Neurology. |
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| A single mechanism for hypertension, insulin resistance and immune suppression |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| Many of the 75 million Americans with essential hypertension also develop diabetes and other complications in addition to their high blood pressure, and researchers have discovered a common molecular mechanism in a strain of rat that explains why such metabolic disorders arise together in mammals.
The bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering also showed that a drug developed for unrelated purposes in humans was effective in counteracting the underlying molecular mechanism in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), a strain predisposed to develop high blood pressure.
In a paper published June 30 in the online version of Hypertension, Frank DeLano, a research scientist at UC San Diego, and Geert Schmid-Schönbein, a professor of bioengineering, describe how they successfully reversed the SHR animals’ symptoms of high blood pressure, a pre-diabetes condition called insulin resistance, and immune suppression. |
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| Men, Especially Blacks, More Likely to Miss Own Hypertension |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| A new study suggests that American men are much more likely than women are to be unaware that they suffer from high blood pressure. African-American men with the condition are at the highest risk, with only one in seven both aware of their illness and able to control it through medication.
“The explanation of the disparity, while not clear, isn’t closely associated with perceived discrimination at the doctor’s office, which is a good thing,” said study lead author Ronald Victor, M.D. “The differences also don’t appear to be associated with lack of knowledge about the disease.”
Instead, other factors appear to be at work. Both whites and African-Americans who think they are in good health are especially likely to fail to treat their high blood pressure or even realize they have it, said Victor, chief of the hypertension division at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. |
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| Hard work while fatigued affects blood pressure |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| Working hard when fatigued may be admired by many Americans, but it is a virtue that could be harmful to one’s health, according to new research by psychologists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The research supports a theory which suggests that exhausted individuals’ cardiovascular systems are forced to work harder when they attempt to complete tasks, such as those encountered on the job or at school.
The research, published in the July issue of the International Journal of Psychophysiology, found that fatigued individuals had larger blood pressure increases than rested individuals under conditions where they viewed success as both possible and worthwhile. Investigators believe the effects were determined by effort on the part of the study participants, said UAB psychologist Rex Wright, Ph.D., who led the study.
When fatigued individuals perceive a task as achievable and worth doing, they increase their effort to make up for their diminished capability due to fatigue, Wright said. As a result, blood pressure tends to rise and remain elevated until the task is completed or individuals stop trying because they think success is impossible or too difficult to be justified. |
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| Home blood pressure monitoring plus Web-based pharmacy care helps improve blood pressure control |
(Fri, 29 Aug 2008)
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| Patients with hypertension who monitored their blood pressure from home and received Web-based pharmacist care showed greater improvement in blood pressure control than patients who received usual care, according to a study in the June 25 issue of JAMA.
Hypertension (high blood pressure) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Almost 1 in 3 U.S. adults has hypertension, defined as a sustained systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) of 140 and 90 mm Hg or higher, respectively. Lowering BP with antihypertensive medications decreases the risk of death and major disability from cardiovascular and kidney disease, but hypertension remains inadequately treated in the majority of affected individuals, according to background information in the article.
Electronic medical records (EMRs) and secure patient Web sites increasingly allow patients to view portions of their medical records, access health care services and communicate with their health care team online. However, little is known about the effectiveness of Web services in the care of chronic conditions. |
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