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High blood pressure, or hypertension, remains a global health concern, contributing to 19% of deaths worldwide. In an international review, biologists highlight the pivotal role of dietary fiber in managing hypertension and reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, and call for the inclusion of dietary fiber in clinical guidelines for hypertension. The review sheds light on the often-overlooked importance of dietary fiber in blood pressure management. Said Francine Marques, "Dietary fiber has emerged as a crucial yet underappreciated part of hypertension management." "Our comprehensive analysis emphasizes the evidence supporting the effectiveness of dietary fiber in lowering blood pressure and reducing the...

Millions of people with normal blood pressure may be misclassified as having blood pressure that is too high because of improper positioning when measurements are taken, research suggests. Guidelines call for a patient to be seated in a chair with feet flat on the floor, their back supported and the arm wearing the blood pressure cuff supported at heart level. Doing so helps ensure an accurate reading. But many health care professionals take blood pressure measurements while the patient is seated on an examining table, leaving their legs to dangle and their back and arm unsupported. Being misclassified with high...

Measuring blood pressure while patients are standing rather than sitting may improve the accuracy of readings, researchers report. Their findings could lead to significant improvements in early detection of high blood pressure in healthy adults. UTSW researchers measured the blood pressure of 125 healthy patients ages 18-80 with no history of hypertension, previous use of blood pressure medication, or other comorbidities. The statistical analysis used to assess the overall accuracy of each test in diagnosing hypertension revealed that measuring standing blood pressure either on its own or in addition to sitting blood pressure significantly improved diagnostic accuracy. Researchers used several...

An estimated 40% of the global adult population have high blood pressure, or hypertension, which puts people at risk of cardiovascular disease and other dangerous health conditions. Recent studies suggest that probiotics may offer a protective effect. A study adds two new strains to the list of potential antihypertensive probiotics. In experiments on hypertensive mice, treatment with the two probiotics, Bifidobacterium lactis and Lactobacillus rhamnosus, returned blood pressure to normal levels. Previous studies have connected the rising rates of hypertension worldwide to increasing consumption of sugar. It likely boosts blood pressure through many mechanisms—increased insulin resistance or salt retention, for...

There is an adverse association between calcium channel blocker (CCB) use and glaucoma, according to a study. Alan Kastner, M.D. and colleagues examined the association between systemic CCB use and glaucoma and related traits in a population-based cross-sectional study involving U.K. Biobank participants with complete data for analysis of glaucoma status, intraocular pressure (IOP), and optical coherence tomography-derived inner retinal layer thicknesses. Data were included for 427,480 adults (median age, 58 years), including 33,175 CCB users (7.8 percent). The researchers found that use of CCBs, but not other antihypertensive agents, was associated with increased odds of glaucoma after adjustment for...

A relatively common health problem—constipation—has been shown to be a risk factor for hypertension and cardiovascular events such as stroke in people over 60. The extensive study of over half a million hospital admissions in Victoria suggests that interventions to address constipation may reduce these risks in elderly patients. The study, led by Professors Grant Drummond and Chris Sobey, looked at 541,172 hospitalized patients over 60 years of age. For each constipation admission, one exact age-matched non-constipated admission was randomly selected from all hospitalizations within two weeks to form the control arm of the study. The researchers found that patients...

Purpose The most important variable risk factor for developing glaucoma is intraocular hypertension. Timely lowering of high intraocular pressure (IOP) significantly lowers the likelihood of developing glaucoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the food supplement Mirtogenol® (Mirtoselect® and Pycnogenol®) on IOP and ocular blood flow in a product evaluation study. Methods Thirty-eight asymptomatic subjects with intraocular hypertension were either given Mirtogenol® (20 subjects) or were not treated (18 subjects). The visual acuity, IOP, and ocular blood flow were measured at two, three, and six months. Results After two months of supplementation with Mirtogenol®, the...

Researchers have found that the cause of a common type of high blood pressure originates in a tiny benign nodule, present in one-in-twenty people with hypertension. The nodule produces a hormone, aldosterone, that controls how much salt is in the body. The new discovery is a gene variant in some of these nodules which leads to a vast but intermittent overproduction of the hormone. The variant affects a protein called CADM1 and stops cells in the body from "talking" to each other and saying that it is time to stop making aldosterone. An issue for doctors is the fluctuating release...

Blood pressure is closely monitored in hospitalized patients. Severely high blood pressure can lead to a heart attack, stroke, or damage blood vessels and organs including the heart, brain, kidneys and eyes. However, most hospitalized patients experience transiently elevated blood pressure without signs of organ damage, also referred to as asymptomatic hypertension, which is sometimes treated with blood pressure medications. In a retrospective cohort study, physician-researchers found that receiving intensive antihypertensive treatment as an inpatient was linked with greater risk of adverse events, particularly for patients receiving the medication intravenously as opposed to orally. "In the hospital, blood pressure is...

A new study of elderly patients showed that those who exercised in the evening experienced a greater decrease in blood pressure compared to those who exercised in the morning. The work also revealed the neurovascular mechanisms responsible for these findings. "Elderly patients or those with resistant hypertension or obesity don't always experience as much blood pressure benefit from exercise as other groups," said Leandro Brito, Ph.D. "For these patients, finding a more beneficial time to exercise may reduce their need for medication or help it work better." The study, which was conducted when Brito was a postdoctoral trainee at the...

Pulmonary hypertension, or high blood pressure in the lungs, is a common complication of interstitial lung disease, an array of conditions that cause scarring of the lungs. Without treatment, it can be life-threatening. But currently, the only way to diagnose pulmonary hypertension definitively is through an invasive outpatient procedure called right heart catheterization, which measures pressures inside the heart and lungs using a small device inserted through a neck vein. The study identified which variables were the strongest predictors of pulmonary hypertension. It also found a combination of variables could predict the condition with high accuracy. In its latest study,...

New research shows the chances of higher blood pressure increases exponentially, particularly for overweight middle-aged men, with every hour of sleep they lose or change to their regular nighttime routine. A new study is one of the first large-scale extended studies into the effect of variable sleep patterns on blood pressure. The study involved a global sample covering the equivalent of more than 2 million nights of home sleep data measured from 12,287 adults—88% of them men and, on average, overweight (BMI; 28±6kg/m2)—in their own homes using portable under-mattress sensor monitoring technology and remote blood pressure assessment. On average, each...

Patients with "blinding" headaches known as Idiopathic Intercranial Hypertension (IIH) could be treated with an injectable peptide used for type 2 diabetes, a new trial has found. The study reports on a phase two trial of a drug called exenatide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, as a potential treatment for IIH. The IIH Pressure Trial found that for the seven patients who received regular injections of the drug, currently approved for use in Type 2 Diabetes, led to a drop in pressure in the brain during both short (2.5hrs and 24hrs) and long term (12 weeks) measurements. The trial also saw...

Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (high blood pressure in the arteries that supply the lungs, also called PAH) had approximately double the reduction in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) if they took the PAH medications macitentan (10 mg) and tadalafil (40 mg) together in a single tablet rather than either drug alone, according to research. Macitentan and tadalafil are among several drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of PAH. Guidelines and previous studies suggest that using two or more agents to treat PAH can bring extra benefits. In the portion of the study that compared...

Researchers have found that the drug rilmenidine can extend lifespan and slow aging. The findings show that animals treated with rilmenidine, currently used to treat hypertension, at young and older ages increases lifespan and improves health markers, mimicking the effects of caloric restriction. They also demonstrate that the healthspan and lifespan benefits of rilmenidine treatment in the roundworm C. elegans are mediated by the I1-imidazoline receptor nish-1, identifying this receptor as a potential longevity target. Unlike other drugs previously studied for this purpose by the researchers, the widely-prescribed, oral antihypertensive rilmenidine has potential for future translatability to humans as side-effects...

Researchers found that patients who were assigned to the highest dose of the new medication saw the top blood pressure number drop by a full 20 points. Some patients with high blood pressure can't get it under control with standard medications, but a new study shows an experimental drug is up to the task of treating these tough-to-treat cases. Why do some folks struggle more with managing their high blood pressure than others? When the hypertension is caused by the hormone aldosterone, which is responsible for how much salt the body retains, it is much harder to control, researchers explained....

A global study of more than 28,000 people has provided the strongest evidence to date that lowering blood pressure in later life can cut the risk of dementia. Dr. Ruth Peters said that in the absence of significant breakthroughs, reducing the risk of developing the disease would be a welcome step forward. "Our study suggests that using readily available treatments to lower blood pressure is currently one of our 'best bets' to tackle this insidious disease." Dr. Peters explained that while many trials have looked at the health benefits of lowering blood pressure, not many included dementia outcomes and even...

BLOOD clots are either dangerous or beneficial depending on how and where they form. According to a case study published in the Lancet, a woman almost lost her leg due to a dangerous blood clot after eating the same fruit daily - how much do you eat? =================================================================== Blood clots often form in response to injury. This is the body's way of stemming bleeding. However, blood clots that form in one or more of the deep veins in the body can spell trouble. This is known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). According to a chilling case report published in the...

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a very common condition. Unfortunately, persistent hypertension can cause long-lasting changes in the structure of vascular smooth muscle cells (the cells making up the walls of blood vessels) through a process called "vascular remodeling." If left unchecked, this restructuring can stiffen arterial walls, which lose their ability to adjust their size appropriately. This, in turn, leads to arteriosclerosis and increases the risk of cerebrovascular disease. Why and how hypertension triggers vascular remodeling is not clear. …In neurons, for example, an excitation in the form of calcium ions (Ca2+) entering the cell through calcium channels...

In another recall over cancer-causing impurity levels, Lupin Pharmaceutical has recalled several batches of its Irbesartan tablets and Irbesartan and Hydrochlorothiazide tablets because N-nitrosoirbesartan – a substance that causes cancer - was found in levels above allowable specification limits. The drugmaker received four reports of illness from Irbesartan and zero reports from the Irbesartan and Hydrochlorothiazide medication from the dates of Oct. 8, 2018 to Sept. 20, 2021. However, Lupin said that it has received no reports of illness that appear related to the recall issue but is recalling the medication “out of an abundance of caution.” The company is...