bloodpressure

Here’s a peek at the latest news from Science Daily Science Daily (press release):

Feb. 9, 2005 - A first-of-its-kind application of a novel statistical method of analysis to African Americans has identified regions on chromosomes 6 and 21 that likely harbor genes contributing to high blood pressure in that group. In a fresh approach to the problem, the researchers applied a genome-wide scan that compared how often genetic variations occur in people of African or European descent to how often they occur in African Americans. In this case we looked for excess ancestry from the African population, because it has a higher frequency of genes contributing to high blood pressure.” Compared to African Americans without high blood pressure, African Americans with high blood pressure were more likely to have a distribution of markers-in the identified genomic regions-resembling that of the African (ancestral) group. The excess African ancestry among people with high blood pressure enabled the researchers to find two locations, one on chromosome 6 and one on chromosome 21, that stood out with the strongest association to high blood pressure in African Americans. Data used in the study came from the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s Family Blood Pressure Program and the International Collaborative Study on Hypertension in Blacks.

Here’s a peek at the latest news from FOX News:

A consumer group has filed suit against the Food and Drug Administration ( search ) for failing to make good on a 20-year-old promise to consider regulating salt in the food supply. The CSPI says that packaged food nutrition labels have failed to reduce Americans’ sodium intake to recommended levels, and that cutting the nation’s sodium intake could substantially reduce the incidence of health problems associated with high blood pressure. Jacobson contends that packaged food labeling required by law since 1994 has helped Americans moderate their sodium intake, but that food companies and restaurants continue to have high salt levels that make it difficult for most Americans to meet recommendations. According to the report, processed foods and restaurant foods contribute almost 80 percent of sodium to the diet. Robert Earl, senior director for nutrition policy at the Food Products Association, a lobbying group for the processed food industry, says in an interview that his industry has gradually cut sodium levels over time, even in traditionally high-salt foods such as pretzels and potato chips. Jacobson said that “not a single” FDA scientist is dedicated to reviewing sodium levels in the U.S. food supply, despite the mineral’s probable contribution to heart disease and strokes.

You should check out Science Daily Science Daily (press release):

Some high blood pressure medicines may help protect older adults from declines in memory and other cognitive function, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, reported today at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society in Seattle. Some ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors are known as centrally acting because they can cross the blood brain barrier, a specialized system of tiny blood vessels that protects the brain from harmful substances in the blood stream. For each year that participants were exposed to ACE inhibitors that cross the blood brain barrier, the decline in test results was 50 percent lower than the decline in people taking other kinds of high blood pressure pills. They evaluated whether exposure to ACE inhibitors in general — and to the centrally active versus non-centrally active drugs — was related to dementia and cognitive decline. Having hypertension, or high blood pressure, reduces blood flow in the brains of adults with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study.

More information from Forbes:

Among men in both age groups, those with the lowest HDL levels had the highest blood pressure levels, whether they were nondrinkers, moderate drinkers, or heavy drinkers. But researchers at the Hyogo College of Medicine found that young drinkers with low HDL levels were no more likely to have high blood pressure than young nondrinkers with similar HDL levels.

From New York Times.

The panel, convened to consider ways the drugs’ effects on the heart could be investigated, made its recommendation on Feb. 9 based on a Food and Drug Administration analysis of more than 300 people who died while they were taking stimulant medications. Doctors who treat adults and children with stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall say the risk is remote, given that an estimated 2.5 million children and 1.5 million adults are taking the medications, and a handful of them will die suddenly each year, whether taking drugs or not. Such problems are often not diagnosed before drug treatment begins, but a good pediatrician who is aware a child is being considered for stimulant treatment will often pick up a soft heart murmur that might reflect an abnormality, said Dr. Steven Nissen, chief of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic and a panel member. Stimulants usually prompt slight increases in heart rate and raise blood pressure, and even these changes can increase the risk of heart problems in someone who is vulnerable, Dr. Nissen said. Dr. Wilens of Massachusetts General has just completed a study of 13 men and women, ages 20 to 55, being treated for high blood pressure who were also taking Adderall, a strong stimulant.

More news from CNN:

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson says sales of ephedra will be banned. Federal officials announced Tuesday a move to ban products containing ephedra, a controversial dietary supplement found in various substances claiming to help weight loss, increase energy or enhance athletic performance. Ephedra consists of about 5 (percent) to 7 percent of supplements’ sales as far as dietary supplements, but it has about 45 (percent) to 47 percent of the adverse incident reports (coming) in against it. including doctors from Harvard Medical School, who had examined ephedra and concluded — the industry concluded that ephedra was safe, that the number of people affected are a tiny minority compared to the millions of people consuming billions of pills over time. And we have had many incidents, adverse incidents come in, over 16,000 that were submitted by the companies that sell ephedra, indicating that there are some problems with it. Ephedra has sales of about 7 percent of the food supplements but over 45 percent of the adverse incident reports, which indicates that there’s a lot of public out there that have had something wrong with them after taking the medicine or the pill, and therefore, decided that they should write in or make a report. And we’re hoping that the store owners will not sell it, and we’re hoping the companies will take the ephedra back and make reimbursements to the companies that have currently purchased it. THOMPSON: Well, we’re hoping that, you know, the fact that we announced it today, prior to the new year, that companies will act in a good, corporate spirit and will make the reimbursements to the small companies and grocery stores that are selling it and take it off the shelves. And we don’t want the consuming public to go out there and feel that they’re going to get short-term weight loss by taking ephedra.

Here’s an in depth look: Science Daily Science Daily (press release):

In an era of increasing death and illness from heart and blood vessel disease — which also can impair kidney function — Mayo Clinic researchers have designed two promising new cardiovascular treatment approaches. Addressing kidney blood vessel disease in addition to heart vessel disease is an increasingly important clinical focus for therapies as kidney failure becomes epidemic in the 21st century, and diseases of both heart and kidney link the health of the two organ systems. In tackling heart disease, Mayo Clinic researchers considered the heart from a different perspective — not merely a mechanical pump, as it is traditionally regarded, but as a hormone-secreting endocrine organ. Mayo Clinic researchers created a hybrid molecule they describe as safe and efficient — called a chimera — that may provide the basis for a new treatment which could be infused into a patient to treat both heart and kidney impairment in the setting of acute heart failure. Older Americans with high blood pressure and moderate to severe chronic kidney disease have a greater chance of developing heart disease than people with normal kidney function. Scientists have found that lowering blood pressure protects stroke victims with chronic kidney disease from further strokes or heart attacks.

Go take a look at the latest from Science Daily Science Daily (press release):

Enzymes that make the gas nitric oxide (NO) not only protect the heart from damage due to high blood pressure or a heart attack, but also promote heart failure through overgrowth and enlargement of the muscle tissue, say animal researchers at Johns Hopkins. Nitric oxide’s extensive portfolio of natural effects includes the ability to expand coronary arteries, which improves blood flow, and to help regulate the strength of the heart’s contraction, notes cardiologist David Kass, M.D., a specialist in enlarged hearts, or hypertrophy, and a professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute. In the first experiment, mice without NOS3 better compensated for the damaging stress of hypertrophy, showing less muscle growth, and fibrosis (scar tissue) and better heart function than mice with the enzyme. Normal mice with the gene for NOS3 could not adapt to the stress, leading the researchers to conclude that the enzymes had lost their protective value to the heart during hypertrophy. The researchers plan further experiments to evaluate the therapeutic effects of BH4 in hypertrophy and how it, together with NOS3, compensates for the damage that leads to heart failure. Inflammations that occur after a heart attack can be a severe complication that further damages the heart.

From Times Online.

Viagra works by inhibiting an enzyme, PDE-5, that prevents the expansion of arteries, so, if pre- eclampsia is the result of the failure of the arteries to expand in pregnancy, starving the womb of blood and increasing blood pressure, Viagra may provide a treatment. The diameters of the arteries on the treated animals did not quite match that in normal rats, but it was significantly larger than in those with high blood pressure, suggesting that Viagra may have increased blood flow to the uterus and placenta. This meant that it might avoid some of the complications of giving drugs to reduce blood pressure, which can reduce the vital supplies of blood to the womb and put the baby at risk.

Washington Post has an interesting article:

Correction to This Article An April 18 Health item incorrectly summarized the findings of a study on the effects of blood pressure drugs on dementia in the elderly. It should have said that men in the study with untreated high blood pressure showed greater cognitive decline than did men with normal blood pressure or hypertension that had been treated for at least five years. THIS STUDY analyzed medical data on 1,294 men participating in a long-term study on aging. The longer the men had taken medication to lower their blood pressure, the less likely they were to have developed dementia. Among those without dementia, all men showed some cognitive decline, but the decline was greater for those with normal blood pressure or hypertension that had been treated for at least five years than it was for men with untreated high blood pressure.

Science Daily Science Daily (press release) writes:

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that sildenafil citrate (Viagra), a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) in millions of men, effectively treats enlarged hearts in mice, stopping further muscle growth from occurring and reversing existing growth, including the cellular and functional damage it created. “A larger-than-normal heart is a serious medical condition, known as hypertrophy, and is a common feature of heart failure that can be fatal,” says study senior author and cardiologist David Kass, M.D., a professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute. It is also the first study to reveal that the enzyme pathway blocked by sildenafil (PDE5A), never before known to play a significant role in the heart, is active when the heart is exposed to pressure stress and hypertrophied. The treated mice also had smaller hearts and improved heart function, whereas the untreated hearts were dilated with weakened function. Improvements were seen in more than 10 measures of heart function, including heart relaxation, cardiac output and heart contractility, which increased by nearly 40 percent. Overall, the results provide a better understanding of the biological pathways involved in hypertrophy and heart dilation, leading contributors to heart failure. According to the latest statistics from the American Heart Association, in 2002, 65 million Americans have high blood pressure (defined as systolic pressure of 140 millimeters of mercury or greater, and/or a diastolic pressure of 90 millimeters of mercury or greater, taking antihypertensive medication or being told at least twice by a physician or other health professional that they have high blood pressure).

Go take a look at the latest from BBC News:

Drugs used to treat high blood pressure could also reduce the risk of bone fractures, research has shown. They found that taking beta-blockers together with thiazide diuretics, which protect against bone loss, was linked to a reduced risk of fracture of 29%. A spokeswoman for the National Osteoporosis Society said: “This new research is particularly interesting as many older people maybe both on beta blockers and at risk of osteoporosis and therefore fracturing a bone.

Read more at mlive.com:

Medical journalist Robert Kowalski has a slew of research-backed ideas to help lower blood pressure levels, and that can help head off heart and kidney disease, stroke and retinopathy. Kowalski explains his view of how it’s done in his book, “The Blood Pressure Cure: 8 Weeks to Lower Blood Pressure Without Prescription Drugs” (John Wiley & Sons Inc.). “Those people currently taking medications for their blood pressure can start those healthier behaviors, but monitor their blood pressure with their physician to see if their medication should be adjusted.” Taking a deep breath and holding it three to four times a day can help lower blood pressure over time. Nitric oxide relaxes the lining of the heart’s arteries, providing a better blood flow through the heart and reducing blood pressure. Research shows consuming 100 grams of dark chocolate per day has brought down systolic blood pressure by 11.9 milligrams and reduced diastolic pressure by 8.5 milligrams. Systolic pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading. It represents the maximum pressure in the arteries when the heart beats and pushes blood through the body. Kowalski concedes eating chocolate is not a realistic way to control blood pressure. Exercising 30 minutes daily also packs a powerful punch in lowering blood pressure levels, Holland Hospital’s Armstrong said, adding the key is finding a physical activity people enjoy so it becomes a sustainable habit. Kowalski knows personally the devastation high blood pressure can cause. “I just turned 65 this past Halloween,” said Kowalski, whose blood pressure averages a healthy 111/68.

From Washington Post.

The American Medical Association (AMA) is turning up the heat on the food and restaurant industry to serve products with less sodium. Last week, the AMA’s House of Delegates passed a resolution calling for a 50 percent reduction in sodium content of processed foods, fast foods and restaurant meals over the next 10 years. Blood pressure increases are also fueled by inactivity, obesity, alcohol consumption and sodium intake. (Pepperoni and sausage boost sodium higher.) “And remember, these are the daily maximums, not what you should aim for,” notes Edward Roccella, director of the National High Blood Pressure Education Program at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “Many doctors have recommended to hypertensive patients to cut down on sodium and not use salt in cooking or at the table,” says Stephen Havas, vice president of science, quality and public health for the AMA and a co-author of the resolution on sodium.

Here’s a peek at the latest news from Science Daily Science Daily (press release):

As if creaking joints and hardening of the arteries weren’t bad enough, a research team from the University of Delaware and the Christiana Care Health System in Newark has now confirmed that even our veins stiffen as we age. Yet the veins contain approximately 70 percent of your body’s total blood volume when you are at rest, and the flexibility of these blood vessels is a major factor in how much blood gets returned to your heart during the vital fluid’s journey through your circulatory system. The veins are equipped with valves to prevent any backflow of blood caused by gravity as blood is returned to the heart from the lower extremities. The walls of the veins are made of collagen and elastin, two proteins that give the tube-like blood vessels flexibility and help them to maintain your blood pressure. To find the answer, the researchers monitored the blood flow through each participant’s veins in different scenarios that might constrict the veins, such as having one foot immersed in cold water, or while squeezing a handgrip. “Thus, we think that the stiffening of our veins as we age is probably due to structural changes, such as a thickening of the vein walls,” Farquhar said. In the second phase of the UD study, now under way, the research team wants to find out if the veins of people with high pressure are stiffer than the veins of people with normal blood pressure. With the assistance of doctoral students Megan Wenner (on gurney) and Erin Delaney, cardiovascular physiologist William Farquhar demonstrates his research to determine vein stiffness at a recent open house at the Human Performance Lab in the UD College of Health Sciences.

More information from FOX News:

Blood pressure is the force of the blood pushing against the walls of your arteries, which are the blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart to all parts of your body. Oddly enough, a normal blood pressure reading may actually signal hypertension during pregnancy. Because all the natural hormones your body pumps out during pregnancy end up dilating your blood vessels, which should produce a blood pressure at the low end of the normal range. Excessively high blood pressure during pregnancy can cause many problems. Hypertension is a particularly worrisome issue during pregnancy because it can constrict the blood vessels in the uterus, which supply the fetus with the necessary oxygen and nutrients. During pregnancy, your body delivers glucose to the baby through the placenta, a temporary organ that also provides the baby with oxygen and serves to pass out the baby’s waste. Trouble is, the natural hormones of pregnancy, which are designed to break down your fat cells into glucose, may create more glucose in your system than your body can adequately metabolize. Pregnancy affects the blood glucose levels in all women, so at 28 weeks you’re going to be screened for diabetes. Diabetes is a very common problem in pregnancy and some women who are nearly diabetic when they get pregnant will go right over the edge and experience this glucose intolerance, and the inability to process all the glucose in their system. The problem with diabetes in pregnancy is that it often leads to the birth of large babies, because the excess glucose goes to the baby directly. The aim, whether by diet or medication, is to bring down your blood sugar to a level that will hopefully not interfere with your pregnancy. So more and more these days the definition of preterm labor has to do with how early in the pregnancy it occurs relative to the health of the baby. In other cases, women who have no infection may have a relatively weak uterus, or their cervix just doesn’t have the integrity to hold the pregnancy as the baby gets bigger, thus allowing the cervix to open up early on.

The latest scoop from Time Magazine Time.

At least 65 million Americans–a third of all adults over 18–are thought to suffer from hypertension (the technical term for persistent high blood pressure), up from 50 million just 10 years ago. Only about a third of all patients in treatment for high blood pressure have their numbers under control. Dr. Keith Ferdinand treats patients in a community health clinic in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New Orleans and has lately been shocked to see more and more young patients coming in with elevated pressure. Almost absurdly easy to detect–a few painless seconds with a pressure cuff does it–hypertension is comparatively simple to treat with weight loss, lifestyle changes and a little medication.

More news from U.S. News:

Researchers from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and several hospitals looked at whether levels of aldosterone within a normal range can cause high blood pressure, too. What the researchers wanted to know: Does the level of aldosterone in your blood influence your risk of developing high blood pressure? In that time, over a third of the participants’ blood pressure had increased markedly, and 250 had developed hypertension (high blood pressure).

The latest scoop from Science Daily Science Daily (press release).

Workers in salt factories, who inhale large amounts of salt particles, are at risk of high blood pressure due to the increased salt intake. The present study, conducted by Kripa Haldiya and colleagues from the Desert Medicine Research Centre in Jodhpur, India, provides new data suggesting that inhaling large amounts of salt particles has the same effect as consuming a salty diet and increases blood pressure considerably, thus putting workers in salt factories around the world at risk of high blood pressure. They divided the workers in two groups: one group worked close to the salt milling plant and was directly involved in crushing, grinding, milling and packing salt;

Here’s an in depth look: New York Times:

Eldridge Lee, a real estate broker and adjunct college professor in Fairburn, Ga., found out that he had Type 2 diabetes more than a decade ago. Like Mr. Lee, many of the nation’s 17 million diabetics — and even their doctors — miss the connection between high blood pressure and diabetes. A survey last year by the American Diabetes Association, a nonprofit organization in Alexandria, Va., found that 68 percent of diabetes patients were not aware of their increased risk of heart disease and stroke. The diabetes association estimates that 60 percent of people with diabetes also have hypertension, defined as blood pressure greater than 130/80.

Just read an article from BBC News:

Customers and staff at three Wiltshire leisure centres are being offered the chance to have their blood pressure checked free of charge. “Our instructors are happy to advise customers on the benefits of physical activity and the role it plays in reducing high blood pressure or reducing the risk of developing high blood pressure,” she added.

Telegraph.co.uk has an interesting article:

The rustic cocoa drunk on the islands has extremely high flavanol content, much higher than in conventional cocoa, and typical of the levels found in dark and bitter chocolate. As a consequence of flavanols acting on an enzyme called nitric oxide synthase, the cocoa is thought to dilate blood vessels, improving kidney function and lowering blood pressure. To test the link between nitric oxide and cocoa, Prof Hollenberg fed volunteers cocoa with either a high amount or low amount of flavanols and found responses consistent with the nitric oxide playing a role.

Updated news from New York Times.

Dr. Bonita Falkner of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, the chairwoman of the government panel that produced a report outlining the guidelines, said that in the past, doctors felt that there had to be some other illness, like kidney disease, behind a high blood pressure reading in children. Under the new guidelines, presented last Thursday at a meeting of the American Society of Hypertension in Manhattan, pediatricians should routinely evaluate children with high blood pressure for risk factors like elevated cholesterol or early signs of diabetes, as is done for hypertensive adults.

More news from CBS News:

Researchers tallied the results of 25 studies on the effects of dietary fiber on blood pressure and found that a high-fiber diet was associated with a significant reduction in blood pressure levels among people with high blood pressure or hypertension. Researchers say their findings represent the first comprehensive report of the effect of increasing dietary fiber on blood pressure and warrant additional studies in larger groups of people on the long-term effects of dietary fiber on blood pressure. Overall, the results showed that adding fiber to the diet was associated with a significant reduction in both systolic (the bottom number in a blood pressure reading) and diastolic (the top number) blood pressure in people with high blood pressure.

Just read an article from BBC News:

Nearly one in four people with high blood pressure are at risk of a stroke because the condition has not been diagnosed, a charity says. Blood pressure tests carried out by the Stroke Association showed 26% of people in East Anglia and the Home Counties with high blood pressure had not realised they had the condition. Andrew Lansley, shadow health secretary and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Stroke, said: “People lead busy lives but getting your blood pressure checked, either by your GP or at a Stroke Association/RIBI testing day near you is quick, simple and could change your life for the better.

Read more at CNN:

Women who have high blood pressure and are pregnant or considering pregnancy have a serious new warning when it comes to blood pressure medication. A common class of blood pressure medications known as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors may increase the risk of birth defects if taken during the first three months of pregnancy, suggests a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the study, the risk of major birth defects in children whose mothers took ACE inhibitors during the first trimester was nearly three times higher than in children whose mothers didn’t take blood pressure medication.