Free Republic

Scientists have discovered a promising new therapy for resistant high blood pressure, leading to a 15-point drop in systolic levels. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a potential new treatment for individuals with uncontrolled or treatment-resistant hypertension, a condition commonly referred to as high blood pressure. The investigational drug, lorundrostat, showed encouraging results in a recent clinical trial. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study found that participants who received lorundrostat experienced an average 15-point reduction in systolic blood pressure, the upper number in a blood pressure reading, compared to...

A research team has investigated structural changes in kidneys of patients with hypertension and type 2 diabetes. The results show high blood pressure can lead to abnormalities in the podocytes, specialized cells in the renal filter, even without other pre-existing conditions such as diabetes. The results underline the importance of early detection and consistent treatment of high blood pressure in order to prevent kidney damage. To arrive at results, the research team analyzed kidney tissue from a total of 99 patients. The investigation was conducted on unaffected renal tissue samples from tumor nephrectomies (performed between 2013 and 2018), a surgical...

High blood pressure (hypertension) causes thickening of the blood vessels and hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis). A study has shown that a similar phenomenon occurs in the lungs. High blood pressure hardens the bronchi and increases airway resistance, impairing respiratory capacity. "Our analysis showed that subjects who practiced regular physical activities appeared to be partially protected against hardening of the bronchi," Rodolfo de Paula Vieira. Prior research showed that lung function is closely linked to the ability of the lungs to expand and revert to their previous state (elastance and resistance), and that this was most altered in older patients...

New research shows that a treatment plan based on a novel combination of low doses of three anti-hypertensive drugs in a single pill—known as GMRx2—was superior to a high-quality standard care treatment plan at lowering blood pressure in patients with uncontrolled hypertension. Results of the 'deliVERy of Optimal blood pressure coNtrol in afrICA (VERONICA)-Nigeria' trial, were presented today. The GMRx2 treatment plan involved a once daily pill containing telmisartan, amlodipine and indapamide at a quarter, half or standard doses. The standard care treatment plan began with monotherapy, followed by dual and triple combination therapy, and was typical of hypertension guidelines...

Doctors recommend making fruits and vegetables a foundational part of the treatment of patients with hypertension. Diets high in fruits and vegetables are found to lower blood pressure, reduce cardiovascular risk, and improve kidney health due to their base-producing effects. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables reduces blood pressure and is the recommended first-line treatment for primary hypertension. Nevertheless, this diet is under-prescribed, and when prescribed is under-implemented despite supportive epidemiological data. The DASH diet and others generally high in fruits and vegetables are associated with lower blood pressure, lower risk...

People with higher intakes of calcium and zinc before pregnancy appear to have a significantly lower risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), according to research. Liping Lu, M.D., Ph.D. and colleagues used data from 7,737 pregnant women without chronic hypertension participating in the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-To-Be to assess the association between preconceptional calcium intake (three months before pregnancy) and odds of HDP. There was a modest inverse association between energy density-adjusted calcium intake and HDP when adjusting for sociodemographic, lifestyle, clinical, and other dietary factors. The odds of HDP were 21 percent lower for participants in...

Blood vessels in the lungs aren't like the others in the body. This difference becomes clear in pulmonary hypertension, in which only the lungs' blood vessels stiffen progressively, leading to chronic lung disease, heart failure and death. The underlying reasons for this organ-specific vessel stiffening remained a mystery until Stephen Chan and colleagues made a surprising discovery about these blood vessel cells in patients with pulmonary hypertension—they're hungry. They found that hypertensive pulmonary blood vessel cells have a voracious appetite for two amino acids, glutamine and serine, and—as happens with any unbalanced diet—there are consequences. This metabolism of glutamine and...

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...