Physical fitness may reduce hypertension risk in people with family history

If your parents have a history of high blood pressure, you can significantly reduce your risk of developing the disease with moderate exercise and increased cardiovascular fitness, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Hypertension.

 

In a study of more than 6,000 people, those who had a parent with high blood pressure but were highly fit had a 34 percent lower risk of developing high blood pressure themselves, compared to those with a low-fitness level who had the same parental history.

 

“Understanding the roles that family history and fitness play in chronic diseases is critically important,” said Robin P. Shook, M.S., study lead author and a doctoral graduate student in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. “The results of this study send a very practical message, which is that even a very realistic, moderate amount of exercise — which we define as brisk walking for 150 minutes per week — can provide a huge health benefit, particularly to people predisposed to hypertension because of their family history.”

 

Previous research indicates that parental history accounts for about 35 percent to 65 percent of the variability in blood pressure among offspring, with varying levels of risk based on which parent developed it and the age of onset.

 

Researchers followed a group of 6,278 predominantly Caucasian adults 20- to 80-years-old for an average 4.7 years. The participants were patients of the Cooper Clinic, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventive medicine, research and education in Dallas. Thirty-three percent of participants reported that a parent had hypertension.

 

When the study began, all participants were healthy, reported no physician diagnosis of hypertension, and achieved an exercise test score of at least 85 percent of their age-predicted maximal heart rate. Researchers determined participants’ cardiorespiratory fitness using a maximal treadmill exercise test.

 

During the study, 1,545 participants reported they had developed hypertension.

Researchers found that:

• Combining those with and without a family history of high blood pressure, high levels of fitness were associated with a 42 percent lower risk of developing hypertension, and moderate levels of fitness with a 26 percent lower risk.
• People with both a low level of fitness and a parent with hypertension had a 70 percent higher risk for developing hypertension compared with highly fit people with no parental history.
• Those with a high level of fitness and a parent with hypertension experienced only a 16 percent higher risk of developing hypertension compared to those who were fit and had no parental history.

“The correlation between fitness levels, parental history and risk are impossible to ignore,” Shook said. “This awareness can serve the clinician and the patient, as they work together to find effective and reasonable ways to avoid the diseases that have affected their family members — in some cases, for generations.”

 

The research findings may not apply to all people because the majority of the study participants were relatively fit, well-educated, middle to upper class white men.

 

The findings support the American Heart Association’s recommendations of moderately intense physical activity, such as brisk walking, for 30 minutes or longer at least five days a week.

 

Co-authors are Duck-chul Lee, Ph.D.; Xumei Sui, M.D., M.P.H.; Vivek Prasad, M.B.B.S.; Steven P. Hooker, Ph.D.; Timothy S. Church, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. and Steven N. Blair, P.E.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

 

The National Institutes of Health and an unrestricted research grant from The Coca-Cola Company funded the study.

Detoxification lowers blood pressure

High blood pressure (hypertension) is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular incidents in Canada. High blood pressure usually takes many years or decades to develop and has many serious long-term consequences. Fortunately, blood pressure can be normalized with lifestyle modifications and natural therapies. Unfortunately, far too many people are placed on blood pressure medication before all the other routes are explored. While it is extremely important to take a comprehensive examination of the causes of a person’s hypertension this article focuses on the use of detoxification as one component of a more comprehensive approach for hypertension.
The Basics of Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is determined by 4 things:

1. How much fluid is in the cardiovascular system – the more fluid in the system the higher the pressure. The basis of diuretic medication and many botanicals is to reduce fluid volume and thus decrease blood pressure.
2. The size and elasticity of the blood vessels – the more rigid and tight the blood vessels are the higher the blood pressure. Medications like ACE inhibitors and supplements like magnesium increase the size and elasticity of blood vessels to decrease blood pressure.
3. How hard the heart is pumping – the harder the heart pumps the higher the pressure. Medications like calcium-channel blockers decrease the force of the heart and thus reduce pressure. This often leads to a host of other side effects and other health issues.
4. Resistance in the cardiovascular system – the more resistance there is in the vascular system the higher the pressure needs to be to deliver nutrients to the tissues and cells. Detoxification is one of the most important ways to decrease resistance in the cardiovascular system.

Detoxification Decreases Resistance
Detoxification helps to decrease and normalize blood pressure by reducing the resistance in the vascular system. There are two major ways detoxification reduces resistance. First of all, detoxification removes toxins from the bloodstream that were making the blood more viscous (thicker) than it needed to be. As the blood becomes less viscous it can be pumped around more efficiently with less force and pressure. To illustrate, picture two glasses filled with pure distilled water. Imagine that you put some gelatin or fiber in one of the glasses and let it settle. Now imagine that you put a straw in both glasses and tried to drink from them. Which would be easier and which would require more force? The thicker the fluid the more force required to move it through a tube (blood vessel).
Secondly, detoxification improves the function of the liver and kidneys and allows blood to move with less force. Picture the liver and kidneys as two filters in a system. The more clogged the filters are the slower fluid moves through them and the higher the back pressure. As the toxins are removed and the filters clear up the fluid begins to move faster, requiring less force, and producing less back pressure. Therefore, as the liver and kidneys respond to the detoxification support the blood pressure decreases.

Lower Your Blood Pressure by Losing Weight

Losing just 5 to 10% of your body weight can make a big difference to your blood pressure if you are overweight.
If you are overweight by more than a few pounds, chances are you have hypertension (or high blood pressure) even if you don’t know it. High blood pressure is pretty much a “symptomless” disease and you usually don’t know you have it until you get a reading done by a doctor or nurse.
It’s important to get regular checks especially if you’re overweight because (left untreated) hypertension affects your heart and your arteries, increasing your risk of heart attack and stroke.
What is the link between weight and high blood pressure?
The two are linked because every part of your body needs a blood supply including any excess fat you are carrying. In fact, every extra pound of fat you have increases the total length of the small blood vessels in your body by about a mile. And the longer network of vessels means your heart has to pump harder to send the blood around your body – increasing blood pressure with every pound you carry.
But the good news is that these changes are reversible. Just as blood pressure tends to increase as you gain weight, losing weight reduces it. Sometimes the changes are dramatic.
Research has shown that, if you are overweight, losing 10kg (about 22lbs) can lower your systolic blood pressure level by up to 10mmgH – a figure that would not be a poor result for many of the blood pressure medications currently available. And it could certainly help you if you and your doctor are aiming to reduce the amount of medication you take.
The best way to lose weight is to gradually change your diet for a healthier one and slowly increase the amount of exercise you take. The weight loss programs which fail most are those which try to get you to change your whole lifestyle overnight. That is just not sustainable for most people.
By introducing more fruit, vegetables and whole grains, cutting down on junk food, reducing portion sizes and becoming a bit more active you will give yourself the best possible chance to succeed. A healthier diet and exercise not only leads to welcome weight loss but will also help reduce your blood pressure in other ways.
Why not take a look at Natural ways to lower your blood pressure for more ideas on losing weight to reduce blood pressure?

Best Foods to Beat High Blood Pressure

Your blood pressure used to be high; if it topped 140/90. Not anymore: New medical guidelines say it should be under 120/80. That means nearly half of adults have a blood pressure problem.
Of course, medications and exercise can help lower it. But diet can equal drugs at controlling blood pressure, says Lawrence Appel, M.D., a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. In a landmark 1997 study, he found that a special DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet reduced high blood pressure an average 11.4 points (in the systolic, upper number) and 5.5 points (in the diastolic, lower number).
Since then the DASH diet has become the best-tested, most successful eating plan to prevent and reduce high blood pressure. Eating this way also lowers artery-clogging cholesterol and homocysteine, promotes bone mass, cuts weight and may help prevent cancer.
The diet calls for more fruits, vegetables, and low-fat or fat-free dairy products. It prescribes less fat (especially saturated animal fat), red meat, sweets and sugary beverages. The benefits are greatest when you also restrict sodium and alcohol.
It's not entirely clear why eating the DASH way lowers blood pressure quickly (often within two weeks) and dramatically. Theories: "The DASH diet acts as a natural diuretic," says new Japanese research. Appel says high potassium and low sodium in fruits and vegetables help regulate blood pressure. Weight loss is well-known to lower blood pressure: In a new study, DASH dieters lost an average 13 pounds in six months; the percentage of those with high blood pressure fell from 37% to 12%. These recommended amounts are for a person who eats 2,000 calories a day.

• Grains and grain products (7 to 8 daily servings): 1 slice whole-wheat bread, 1/2 bagel, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 ounce unsalted pretzels
• Vegetables (4 to 5 daily servings): 1/2 cup tomatoes, potatoes, carrots
• Fruits(4 to 5 daily servings): 1 medium banana, orange, apple; 1/2 cup grapes, melon, berries
• Dairy products(2 to 3 daily servings): 1 cup fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt; 1 1/2 ounces fat-free or low-fat cheese
• Meats, poultry, fish(2 daily servings or fewer): 3 ounces lean, not fried; poultry is skinless
• Fat and oils(2 to 3 daily servings): 1 tsp. soft margarine, or olive or canola oil; 1 Tb. low-fat mayo; 2 Tbs. light salad dressing
• Nuts, seeds, dried beans(4 to 5 servings a week): 1/3 cup almonds, walnuts, peanuts; 1/2 cup dried beans, lentils
• Sweets(5 servings a week): 1Tb. sugar, jelly or jam; 1/2 cup sorbet

For best results, cut sodium, too
In one test, DASH dieters who cut sodium to 1,500 milligrams daily (2/3 tsp. salt from all sources) had the greatest reduction in blood pressure. Many Americans eat three times that much sodium.
Low-salt tactics include:

• Use spices, not salt, to flavor foods.
• Rinse canned foods, such as tuna and beans, to remove some sodium.
• Buy fresh, plain frozen or no-salt-added canned vegetables. Regular canned tomatoes have 10 times more sodium than no-salt-added tomatoes.
• Restrict cured meats (bacon, ham), foods in brine (pickles, olives) and condiments (MSG, soy sauce, mustard, ketchup).
• Cook rice, pasta and cereals without salt.

Hypertension - silent killer

When we are talking about high blood pressure, it is important to clarify its importance for human health. Called a "silent killer", most often it has no symptoms for years and it is deadly because it damages vital organs and their function. High blood pressure can cause heart attacks, strokes, kidney failures, and even blindness.
If your blood pressure is 140/90 mmHg or higher, you have high blood pressure. If it is between the values of 120/80 mmHg and 139/89 mmHg, you have a prehypertension and if you dont make life style changes you will most likely develop a high blood pressure.
Most people don't think about high blood pressure until it is already too late and they need medications. If you are one of those people, you are not to blame. In order to take this global epidemic seriously in your own life, you need to understand some things about high blood pressure. First thing you probably want to know about high blood pressure is why it is so dangerous.
High blood pressure is dangerous because it makes the heart work too hard. And if this goes on for a long time, it can cause a damage to a heart muscle. It also makes artery walls harder.

High blood pressure can damage your arteries inner lining, which causes hardening of the arteries (medical term is arteriosclerosis). Fats, including cholesterol, passing through the blood collect on the damaged cells to start atherosclerosis.  When fat hardening of artery walls gets bigger it can block blood flow to any organ of the body, including heart, brain, kidneys, arm or legs. This can lead to many problems, including heart attack, heart failure, chest pain (angina), stroke, eye damage, blocked arteries in legs or arms.

High blood pressure, regardless of the cause, is divided into primary (essential) and secondary hypertension.

The most often (95%) the cause of hypertension is unknown, in this case we are talking about the primary or essential hypertension. The remaining 5% cases of high blood pressure is a secondary hypertension, i.e. high blood pressure as a result of some other diseases or disorders in the body. The most common causes of secondary hypertension are kidney diseases (narrowing of the renal artery, inflammation of kidneytissue or renal tubules, tumors, cysts in the kidneys, kidney damage due to diabetes), hormonal disorders (Cushing's syndrome, adrenal gland tumor), medications (oral contraceptives, immunosuppressive drugs, overuse of alcohol, cocaine and antidepressants), acute lead poisoning and some others.

High blood pressure rings your bell maybe?

High blood pressure, called hypertension, is a major risk factor for a stroke, heart failure, kidney failure and heart attack. It is often called a “silent killer” because it is deadly and can have no symptoms or only vague symptoms. The consequences of having a high blood pressure are unfortunately often seen after it is already too late. When your blood pressure is higher than 140/90 mmHg that is considered hypertension. If your blood pressure is above 120/80 and lower than 140/90 you have a prehypertension, which is a warning sign for you to adopt a healthier life style and visit your physician. 85% of people older than the age of 65 have hypertension.

Having a risk factors for a high blood pressure should be an alarm for you to take an action. Fortunately, all risk factors can be mitigated with a little of effort.

Weight is a major risk factors. Being overweight increases blood pressure, so it is recommended to lose weight in order to reduce or prevent hypertension. You should keep check of your waist line too. Abdominal fat is even more important than weight because it shows more precisely amount of fat in the body. Waist line over 35 inches in women and 40 inches in men is considered too high. Being physically inactive makes your blood pressure higher as well. Moderate physical activity for 30 minutes a day like gardening, walking, bicycling should be enough to keep your blood pressure in check. You can use the stairs instead of an elevator, or park your car 5 minutes away of your house to walk a little. Washing and waxing your car is a great physical activity, and also saves you some money.

Having a diabetes, abnormal cholesterol, or using tobacco are also risk factors for high blood pressure, so you need to try to control those diseases by following your doctor's instructions.

Controlling what you eat is probably the most important part of lowering your blood pressure. In the era of fast food it is really hard for most of us to eat healthy. There is an eating plan developed specifically to prevent high blood pressure called DASH („Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension“). The DASH eating plan includes poultry, fish, whole grains and nuts, and has low

quantities of  red meat, fats, sweets and sugared beverages. DASH is also high in calcium, potassium, magnesium, fiber and protein. It is also very important to eat food lower in salt and sodium. The recommended dose of sodium is 1400 mg to 2400 mg daily, which is up to 1 tablespoon of salt.

You should switch to a DASH eating plan gradually, by adding fruits, grains and vegetable serving to meals, using only half of the butter or margarine, taking enzymes if you have problems with digesting food, spreading out the servings. You can control what you eat by keeping a food diary. You can make a habit of it, and it may be fun to go back and see how your eating habits have changed and how much progress you have made.

Drinks with high amount of sugar may increase blood pressure

Drinking sugar-sweetened sodas and fruit drinks appears to be associated with a greater risk for high blood pressure among adults, a new study suggests.
The research team says that both the glucose and fructose found in such drinks are implicated in the linkage.
The findings "suggest that individuals who consume more soda and other sugar-sweetened soft drinks may have higher blood pressure levels than those who consume less," said study author Ian J. Brown, a research associate in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics with the School of Public Health at Imperial College London. "And the problem may be exacerbated by higher salt intake, an important cause of high blood pressure in itself."
"We also found that men and women who consumed one or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day tended to be heavier, consume more calories, and have less healthy diets than those who consumed none," Brown added.
Brown and his colleagues report their findings in the Feb. 28 issue of Hypertension.
To explore the potential for a link between sugar-sweetened drinks and high blood pressure, the authors analyzed the consumption patterns of nearly 2,700 American and British men and women between the ages of 40 and 59.
Diet diaries covering food, sugars, sugar-sweetened drinks and diet drinks were completed over a four-day period for each study participants. Detailed questionnaires focusing on a range of lifestyle, medical and social factors were also completed. Urine samples and blood pressure readings were taken throughout the study period.
The team observed that those who drank more than one sugar-sweetened beverage a day had the highest sugar consumption (whether glucose, fructose or sucrose) and the highest calorie consumption, at an average of about 400 extra calories a day.
Those drinking more than one sugar-sweetened beverage a day also registered higher average body-mass indexes (BMI) compared with those who drank none, suggesting that those who consumed such drinks also consumed less healthy foods.
And as for blood pressure, for every serving (355-milliliters) of sugar-sweetened beverage consumed per day, there was a significant bump in both systolic and diastolic readings (+1.6 and +0.8, respectively), even after adjusting for BMI.
What's more, the association between drinking a sugar-sweetened drink and having higher blood pressure appeared to be even stronger among those who also had higher dietary sodium intake.
Drinking a diet beverage, however, was actually linked to a slight drop in blood pressure (although this finding did not meet "statistical significance"), while caffeine consumption appeared to have no impact on blood pressure.
"Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption has been linked to high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease risk," said Brown. "So we suggest that if individuals want to drink these beverages, they do so only in moderation."
For those who wish to follow American Heart Association guidelines, Brown noted that a moderate amount would translate to roughly three 12-ounce cans per week for individuals who routinely consume about 2,000 calories a day.
"Better still," he advised, "choose heart-healthy alternatives such as water or unsweetened teas."
Dr. Sahil Parikh, a cardiologist at the Harrington-McLaughlin Heart and Vascular Institute at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, said the findings "fall along the lines of the kind of common sense your mother would offer."
"We have long known that sugary drinks are bad for you, because they are a lot of empty calories," he said. "But what makes this study important is that it suggests that beyond just making you fatter these drinks also prompt hypertension, which can increase the incidence of heart attack and stroke."
"Now we will need to have future studies to understand how this works," Parikh added, "because even though this data shows a pretty clear association between sugary drinks and high blood pressure, it doesn't definitively suggest a mechanistic link."
"Having said that, as a cardiologist my concern is how do we minimize our risk factors for cardiovascular events," he continued. "And we know the way to do that is to avoid tobacco use and avoid obesity. So to the extent that one can control calorie intake, there really isn't a downside to eliminating sugar drinks. They're empty calories of limited value. So why not do that?"
In response to the latest findings, the American Beverage Association issued a statement Monday saying that while high blood pressure is "a serious health concern," the current study "does not and cannot establish that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages in any way causes hypertension."

Study hard, get a degree and save your blood pressure

Despite exam stress, a long stint in education is good for people’s blood pressure, according to researchers in the US.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is linked to heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.
The study, published in the journal BMC Public Health, shows the link is stronger in women than in men.
The British Heart Foundation said the findings supported the link between deprivation and heart disease risk.
Higher levels of education have been linked to lower levels of heart disease. The researchers suggest that blood pressure could be the reason why.

The study looked at 30 years of data from 3,890 people who were being followed as part of the Framingham Offspring Study.
People were divided into three groups, low education (12 years or less), middle education (13 to 16 years) and high education (17 years or more).
The average systolic blood pressure for the 30 year period was then calculated.


Predisposition

Women with low education had a blood pressure 3.26 mmHg higher than those with a high level of education. In men the difference was 2.26 mmHg.

Other factors, such as smoking, taking blood pressure medication and drinking, were taken into consideration and the effect on blood pressure remained, although at a much lower level.

Writing in the journal, the researchers says: “Low educational attainment has been demonstrated to predispose individuals to high strain jobs, characterised by high levels of demand and low levels of control, which have been associated with elevated blood pressure.”

Professor Eric Loucks, who conducted the study at Brown University, said: “Women with less education are more likely to be experiencing depression, they are more likely to be single parents, more likely to be living in impoverished areas and more likely to be living below the poverty line.”

Natasha Stewart, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “These findings support existing evidence about the link between socio-economic deprivation and heart disease risk.

“However, the study only showed up a small blood pressure drop among women and an insignificant decrease among men.

“Action is needed across all parts of society to give children the best possible start in life and reduce health inequalities.”

Sex drive and high blood pressure

There is definitely a relationship between prescribed high blood pressure medication and one's sex drive, for both men and women. They can cause erectile problems in men and lack of lubrication in women.

Most prescription medications are accompanied by uncomfortable and often unusual side effects, and the same goes for high blood pressure medications. There is definitely a relationship between high blood pressure medication and one’s sex drive, for both men and women. In men high blood pressure medication can cause erectile problems because they slow down the flow of blood to the penis, thereby making it much more difficult for the man to get an erection when sexually aroused. Women taking these medications may experience pain during intercourse due to a lack of lubrication which is a side effect of the drugs.

Exactly how high blood pressure and sexual dysfunction are connected is not completely clear, but a very important issue for everyone to be aware of, even if they themselves are not presently dealing with a high blood pressure condition. Women actually experience a bigger affect to their sex drive when taking high blood pressure medication than men do, namely a loss of natural lubrication. Women also may experience a recurring decrease in sexual desire, persistent or recurring decrease in sexual arousal, or a difficulty or even complete inability to achieve an orgasm.
One of the biggest ironies of the strange relationship between blood pressure medication and sex drive becomes more understandable when one studies the effect of these medicines on sexual functioning. While it is safe to use certain sexual performance products such as ProSolution for instance, it is very important that proper care and common sense is used here, and that they are not taken with nitrates, because the combination here can be dangerous, and even potentially lethal.
The most commonly used medicines for high blood pressure that cause a dysfunction in one’s sex drive include:

• Antihypertensive medicines such as clonidine and methyldopa
• ACE inhibitors like enalapril and lisinopril
• Beta blockers such as atenolol and propanolol
• Thiazide diuretics

These and other high blood pressure medications can result in causing impotency, delayed ejaculation, and even a completely diminished sex drive. Even though there are premature ejaculation treatment and other treatment options available here, obviously the most important thing one can do is be positively sure that these medications are necessary for their high blood pressure before starting on them. Only a medical professional will be able to determine this, and this decision will be based on a few factors in particular. This includes how severe the condition actually is and how long the person has been dealing with it.
All of these symptoms and side effects can be incredibly frustrating and devastating to a person’s life, and this is why careful consideration should be put forth before one is started on any type of prescription medication.

Does drinking too much water lowers your blood pressure?

Sometimes when reading tips for reducing blood pressure, drinking water is recommended. However, authority websites including the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Mayo Clinic do not mention drinking water to lower blood pressure, when discussing treatments and lifestyle changes.
Why should some articles say that drinking water lowers blood pressure?
The idea that drinking water will lower blood pressure seems to come from the idea that when lots of water is consumed, that sodium will be flushed out of the body and consequently pressure will drop.
After all, several classes of diuretics are very effective at reducing pressure. These diuretics function by increasing the loss of sodium from the body and an increased volume of urine. Both the loss of sodium from the blood and decreasing the blood volume result in decreased blood pressure.
So, if drugs, that effectively lower blood pressure in most people, work by increasing the volume of urine and the amount of sodium, then drinking more water should do the same thing?
Unfortunately, there is a problem with this reasoning. To understand why, it is necessary to understand that the body very tightly controls the levels of fluid and ions such as sodium and calcium. For optimal functioning, the body has evolved a wide range of control processes that are involved in keeping many ions and fluid levels within a narrow range.
Diuretics act on parts of the system that control sodium. For instance thiazide diuretics bind to, and inhibit, a protein called the Na/Cl symporter (Na=sodium, Cl=chloride) that controls the amount of sodium that is reabsorbed back into the blood from the urine that is being formed. The result is that the body recovers less sodium from the urine as it is being formed, and so more sodium is lost in the urine and there is a slight increase in volume. So diuretics affect the regulatory system and change a part of this.
Water has no impact on the sodium or fluid control system so it will not change the total amount of sodium in the urine, or change the blood volume. Drinking more water will increase the volume of urine as the body regulates fluid levels, to keep the blood volume stable. Additionally, the same amount of sodium (and other ions etc.) in a bigger volume will lead to the urine being more dilute.
Think about the color of urine. If not much fluid has been consumed, or there has been a lot of sweating, there will a small quantity of urine with a strong yellow color (from urobilin). If a person is well hydrated, there is more urine with a pale color. Same thing with sodium. In a healthy individual, the greater the volume of urine due to increased fluid consumption, the lower the concentration of sodium.
So the bottom line is that, generally, increasing the amount of water that is consumed will not increase the amount of sodium lost by the blood, so blood pressure will not be lowered.
In fact, drinking water can actually cause a very short term increase in blood pressure in some people, particularly those with some types of very low blood pressure. This is only temporary and has no long term impact on blood pressure.
Keeping hydrated is good for health, but overhydration has no benefit for lowering blood pressure.

High blood pressure can be caused by viruses

A study carried out by a team of Chinese doctors says that high blood pressure could be caused by a common virus. This finding has possible implications for millions of people around the world.

The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infects most adults but is repressed by the body's immune system and rarely causes any symptoms.


But a team from Beijing Chaoyang Hospital's cardiology centre has found the first evidence of a link between HCMV and essential hypertension, according to a report published on the website of the US medical journal Circulation.
Essential hypertension, the world's most common form of high blood pressure, has in the past been linked to lifestyle and genetic factors.

The findings "demonstrate a novel link between HCMV infection and essential hypertension," according to the report.

"These findings may reveal important insights into the pathogenesis of essential hypertension," it added.

The study could have widespread health implications -- the World Health Organization says around a billion people worldwide suffer from high blood pressure.

Former Circulation chief editor James Willerson posted comments on Beijing Chaoyang Hospital's website, saying the findings of the study "might present a new strategy for preventing and treating cardiovascular disease".

High blood pressure research - different drugs for different patients

Having high blood pressure and a particular genetic alteration dramatically increases the risk of heart attack, stroke or death, and may explain why some hypertensive patients fare worse than others - even if they take the same medication, University of Florida researchers announced.

The discovery, reported at the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, brings scientists a step closer toward determining how certain genes influence the development of hypertension and the bad outcomes associated with the condition. Just as discriminating shoppers buy made-to-order suits to flatter their figure, this type of research may someday enable patients to seek out medicine tailored to fit, based not on their size and shape but on their genetic makeup.
UF researchers studied about 5,700 patients ages 50 and older who were participating in a National Institutes of Health-funded substudy of the International Verapamil SR-Trandolapril study, or INVEST-GENES. Other scientists had previously found that hypertensive patients with a certain version of the alpha-adducin gene were less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke if they were taking a diuretic.
"Specifically, their data suggested that one genotype group benefited from the diuretic and had a reduction in heart attack and stroke, while the other genotype group did not," said Julie Johnson, Pharm.D., director of the UF Center for Pharmacogenomics and chairwoman of the department of pharmacy practice at UF's College of Pharmacy. "We felt we had an ideal population for trying to replicate this finding, which if true could have important clinical implications.
"In our study, carriers of the genetic variation had an approximately 43 percent higher risk of death, heart attack or stroke," she said. "Thus, this helps us piece together the puzzle of the various genes that lead to some people having worse outcomes than others when they have hypertension."
Genes likely determine nearly half one's risk of developing hypertension, and factors such as diet, age, health status and the environment determine the rest. Similarly, certain genes are associated with the risk of the adverse consequences of hypertension, such as heart attack, stroke and kidney failure, said Johnson, a member of the UF Genetics Institute.
"One of the goals of our research is to identify the genes that are related to patient-to-patient differences in response to medications," Johnson said. "Personalizing drugs based on genetic makeup instead of taking a trial-and-error approach could lead to safer, more effective treatments for individual patients."
About 65 million Americans have high blood pressure, and another 25 million are at high risk of developing hypertension in the next decade, Johnson said. Elevated blood pressure is associated with kidney disease and up to half of all cases of coronary artery disease, the No. 1 killer of men and women in the United States. Many patients fail to achieve targeted blood pressure goals.
In the INVEST substudy, nearly a third of the participants were carriers of the tryptophan version of the alpha-adducin gene, a protein associated with the movement of ions, especially sodium, across cells. In these individuals, the amino acid glycine has been swapped with the amino acid tryptophan. Up to 40 percent of the population carries at least one copy of the tryptophan form of the gene.
In the UF study, those with this version had a 43 percent higher risk of heart attack, stroke or death than those with the glycine form in the 2 ½ years after the study began; 258 patients, about 5 percent, experienced a heart attack or stroke, or died. But unlike previous research, the UF study did not show that patients with the glycine form benefited more from diuretics, which help lower blood pressure by ridding the body of excess salt and water.
"We were not able to show any relationship between the genetic variations and benefits associated with diuretic therapy," Johnson said. "Thus, our data suggest that we would not use this genetic information to help determine who should get a diuretic. However, it does provide us clues into at least one gene that likely places people at risk for death, heart attack and stroke, and so perhaps in the future this information can be used to be more aggressive in the preventive therapies for these individuals."
As researchers learn more, they hope to better understand the complex interplay between genes, disease development and the treatments that work best depending on one's DNA. For now, identifying patients at risk remains a challenge, and treatment is often inadequate, Johnson said.
"There are five first-line drug classes, with probably an average of seven to eight drugs in each class, then an additional half-dozen or so other drug classes that aren't considered first-line," Johnson said. "This means there are many choices for drug therapy in hypertension - a good thing - but also adds to the trial-and-error element of finding the right drug for the right person, as any specific drug has only about a 50 percent chance of being effective in a specific patient."
Identifying genetic risk factors is only the first step, said epidemiologist Sharon Kardia, Ph.D., director of the Public Health Genetics Program at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
"Large research studies need to be undertaken to prove that genetic risk can be reduced through medical or public health interventions. Second, this whole new realm of genomic medicine greatly expands the responsibilities of doctors, nurses and pharmacist to assure the proper use of genetic information in prescribing, dispensing and administering drug therapies," Kardia said. "Lastly, we have to tread lightly until we have assurances that people's genetic information will be properly protected so that identifying someone as more expensive or difficult to treat won't result in insurance or perhaps job discrimination. As Dr. Johnson's research illustrates, we now have good evidence that we should be investing in genetics education, regulation and social engagement so that we can move these results to the next level - namely, decreasing health-care costs and saving lives."

The operation to 'cure' high blood pressure: how it works

LIfestyle improvements such as weight loss if necessary, exercise, stopping smoking and a low salt diet can reduce high blood pressure but many will require medication.

There are an estimated 15 million people in Britain with raised blood pressure and drugs to treat the condition are amongst the most commonly prescribed drugs.

For some people their blood pressure remains high even though they eat little salt and take medication.

In these patients the nervous system keeps sending signals from the brain to the kidneys to leave large amounts of salt in the blood which increases the volume of blood, causing a rise in pressure. The kidneys also produce hormones which cause the blood vessels to contract or dilate which also affects blood pressure.

The new procedure interferes with the signals to the kidneys by damaging the nerves carrying them.

The procedure involves passing a wire into the blood vessel in the groin and up into the main artery leading into the kidneys. From there the wire is used to make a series of tiny burns on the inside of the blood vessel which damages the nerve running along the outside of it.
The tiny burns just one millimetre across are the equivalent of snuffing a candle out between the fingers. A series of four or five burns are carried out in a spiral pattern along the inside of the artery to each kidney.
The blood vessel itself does not sustain serious damage as the blood flowing along inside it cools the burn, like running a burned finger under a tap. But the burn is deep enough to affect the nerve on the other side of the vessel.
Once the connection between the brain and kidneys is distrupted the signals to raise blood pressure should stop.
Early results show it can take between one and three months for the procedure to have an effect on blood pressure.
For some patients it will mean their blood pressure will respond to medication and for others it will mean they can reduce their dose or even stop taking them altogether.
Blood pressure is expressed with two numbers, systolic and diastolic. Systolic, the first number, reflects pressure in the arteries as the heart beats and the diastolic, the second number, is the pressure between beats.
A normal blood pressure is around 120/80 with most otherwise healthy people not suffering any ill effects up to around 130/80 and 140/90. Blood pressure between 140/90 and 160/100 is known as mildly raised and above 160/100 is definitely too high.

Get down: 68 natural ways to lower blood pressure

It's an emerging epidemic in North America: One out of every three people has pre-hypertension, a condition thal leads to high blood pressure. And most of them don't know it.
Don't assume that your blood pressure is normal lust because it used to be. Get it checked often. Once high blood pressure develops, it usually lasts a lifetime. Sure, you can lower it with treatment. But stop treating it, and it goes up again. It's easier and wiser to prevent high blood pressure in the first place.
So fight this key risk for heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease now. Read on to learn about assessing your risk--and about 68 natural options for preventing high blood pressure. And be assured that even the 50 million Americans currently afflicted with high blood pressure can lower their readings by following our prevention plan.

1. Watch Your Weight: In over weight people, a 10 percent reduction in total body weight will sometimes normalize blood pressure.
2. Get Physical: Go for a brisk 30-minute walk 6 days a week.
3. Meditate: A new study shows it works for teens too.
4. Try Yoga: It reduces stress and strengthens the mind and body.
5. Butt Out: All forms of tobacco dramatically raise blood pressure.
6. Shake Off Salt: And sodium-rich foods such as soy sauce and canned soups.
7. Leave the Bar: 1-2 drinks a day is OK--even stress-relieving--but more can cause health problems.
8. Check Your Blood: Have cholesterol and triglycerides checked regularly.
9. Reject Refined Foods: Shun the sally, sugary, pre-made, preserved, fried and fatty.
10. Swear Off Sodas: Soft drinks can deplete potassium (see No. 20).
11. Find Fiber: Think veggies and whole grains.
12. Forgo Fat: Choose white fish and skinless chicken and turkey. Skip cheese, bacon, red meat, gravy and desserts.
13. Toss the Trans Fats: These are a greater risk than even saturated fats.
14. Howl for Whole Oats: Eaten daily, oats lower hypertension.
15. Try L-Carnitine: Another amino acid, also found in protein.
16. DASH Your Diet: DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is high in fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy, and it's low in fat.
17. Defeat Diabetes: Diabetics who control their condition reduce hypertension risk.
18. Compute Your Body Mass Index: Multiply your weight in pounds by 703; then divide by your height in inches; then again divide by your height in inches. Try to stay between 18.5 and 24.9.
19. Mull Over a Multi: A daily multivitamin ensures that you're getting the basics.
20. Prefer Potassium: This crucial mineral is found in many fruits, vegetables, dairy foods, fish and supplements.
21. Make It Magnesium: It's in leafy greens, legumes, whole grains and supplements.
22. Value Vitamin C: The less vitamin C in the blood, the higher the blood pressure in hypertensive patients.
23. Boost Bioflavonoids: Available in fruits, vegetables and supplements, bioflavonoids enhance vitamin C's effect.
24. Embrace Vitamin E: Evidence suggests that vitamin E also magnifies vitamin C's blood pressure-lowering effect.
25. Get Milk: Hypertensive patients seldom drink enough milk--and they are usually low on calcium. Broccoli, spinach, tofu, goat milk and calcium supplements are alternatives.
26. Pick Pycnogenol: French maritime pine bark extract lowered blood pressure in a Chinese study, which was reported in the January 2, 2004 issue of Life Sciences.
27. Fish for Omega-3s: Stress essential fatty acid-containing foods or supplements of fish oil, flaxseed oil and primrose oil.
28. Queue Up for Coenzyme Q10: Hypertensive patients are often deficient in ubiquinone. Aside from supplements, organ meats are the richest sources.
29. Seize the Soy: Studies suggest that the isoflavones in soy, tofu, tempeh and miso make arterial walls more elastic.
30. Think Zinc: Zinc may reverse hypertension that has been caused by too much cadmium.
31. Have Some Hawthorn: An enzyme that can cause arteries to constrict is blocked by this berry.
32. Look for Linden: This blossom is often combined with hawthorn for blood pressure.
33. Target Taurine: This amino acid--available in protein and as a supplement--balances sodium and potassium in the blood, lowering blood pressure.
34. Crave Carrot Juice: Studies show it cleans arteries.
35. Cook with Cayenne: The capsicum in cayenne slows arteriosclerosis, which can cause hypertension.
36. Don't Pass on Parsley: It's a natural diuretic, which cuts blood pressure.
37. Go for Ginger: Ginger offers hypertensive benefits to some.
38. Seal the Deal: Goldenseal root may reduce blood pressure, especially when taken in conjunction with ginger.
39. Defy Dracula: Evidence shows that garlic lowers hypertension 2-7 percent. Onions help too.
40. Single Out Psyllium: Take this soluble fiber with plenty of water. Other sources of fiber include peas, beans, apples, pears and citrus fruit.
41. Consider Black Cohosh: Commonly used to alleviate the symptoms of menopause, this herb may also help with hypertension.
42. Cultivate Celery Seeds: They also contain calcium, which might add to their effect.
43. Dig Dandelions: Available in tinctures, tea, capsules and edible fresh leaves or roots.
44. Yell for Yarrow: Herbalists also call it milfoil.
45. Mind Your Melatonin: This hormone decreases nighttime blood pressure, concluded a study published in the January 2004 issue of Hypertension.
46. Stork Up on Perinatal EFAs: The fatty acids DHA, EPA and ALA--taken by pregnant women 5 months before and 1 month after giving birth--help prevent hypertension in adulthood.
47. Bring on Biofeedback: Using a special biofeedback machine, individuals learn to control their own physiological responses--including blood pressure.
48. Omit Oral Contraceptives: Birth control pills can increase blood pressure.
49. Don't Knock Noni: This Polynesian fruit is also known as morinda citrifolia and Indian mulberry.
50. Spice It Up: Try basil, black pepper, cinnamon, chili powder, cloves, curry, dillweed, dillseed, fennel, horseradish, marjoram, nutmeg, oregano, rosemary, sage, tarragon and thyme. Their antioxidants may help--some directly lower blood pressure, and all substitute for salt.
51. Grasp Grape Seed Extract: Research at the University of Alabama suggests grape seed extract can lower blood pressure significantly.
52. Fall in Love with Lutein: Eat your spinach--or your kale or collards or mustard greens--or lake lutein supplements.
53. Don't Give Up on Ginkgo Biloba: It relaxes arterial walls, easing pressure.
54. Remember These Three Bs: Alter angioplasty surgery, three different B vitamins--folate, [B.sub.6] and [B.sub.12]--cut in half the risk that arteries will re-close.
55. Air Out Antioxidants: Zeaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanthin and alpha-carotene may help.
56. Go Mad About Saffron: This herb contains a blood pressure-lowering chemical called crocetin.
57. Reach for Reishi Mushroom Extract: Taking 55 mg of concentrated reishi mushroom extract three times a clay was found to reduce moderately high blood pressure after 1 month.
58. 'Tai' One On: Tat chi proponents say their rituals lower blood pressure.
59. Call Your Motherwort: This herb is also known as Leonurus cardiaca.
60. Highlight Herbs: Chamomile flowers, fennel seed and rosemary may cut hypertension risk.
61. Go Cuckoo for Coleus Forskohlii: This mint-family herb lowers blood pressure naturally.
62. Buy into Bilberry: This European blueberry contains anthocyanosides, which are powerful flavonoids.
63. Let in the Cat's Claw: Contains the alkaloid rhynchophylline, which has anti-hypertensive effects.
64. Keep Kelp: A 1997 study suggested kelp may help.
65. Go to Gotu Kola: For insomnia and lowering blood pressure.
66. Indulge in Aromatherapy: Aromatic bath or massage oils temporarily lower hypertension. Try 5 drops each of lemon balm and lavender essential oils in warm bath water.
67. Jilt the Java: Too much daily coffee-and even tea-can raise blood pressure.
68. Now, Go to Bed: High blood pressure patients deprived of sleep experience significant increases in blood pressure, especially during the evening.

High blood pressure (hypertension)

The heart is a pump designed to force blood through our body. Blood is pumped from the heart through the arteries out to our muscles and organs.
Pumps work by generating pressure. Put simply, too much pressure puts a strain on the arteries and on the heart itself. This can cause an artery to rupture or the heart to fail under the strain – in the worst case stopping altogether.
Blood pressure depends on a combination of two factors:

• how forcefully the heart pumps blood around the body
• how narrowed or relaxed your arteries are.

Hypertension occurs when blood is forced through the arteries at an increased pressure.
Around 10 million people in the UK have high blood pressure – that's one in five of us.

What is normal blood pressure?

Blood pressure is measured using two numbers. An example of this could be 'the blood pressure is 120 over 80', which is written as '120/80mmHg'.

• The first figure is the systolic blood pressure – the maximum pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts (beats) and pushes blood out into the body.
• The second figure is the diastolic blood pressure. This is the minimum pressure in the arteries between beats when the heart relaxes to fill with blood.

Because the height of a mercury column is used in blood pressure gauges, standard blood pressure readings are always written as so many ‘millimetres of mercury’, which is abbreviated to ‘mmHg’.
The systolic pressure is always listed first, then the diastolic pressure. A typical normal blood pressure reading would be 120/80 mmHg.

What's classed as high?

There is a natural tendency for blood pressure to rise with age due to the reduced elasticity of the arterial system. Age is therefore one of the factors that needs to be taken into account in deciding whether a person's blood pressure is too high.
In general terms, people with a systolic blood pressure consistently above 140mmHg and/or a diastolic pressure over 85mmHg need treatment to lower their blood pressure.
People with slightly lower blood pressures (130 to140mmHg systolic or 80 to 85mmHg diastolic) may also need treatment if they have a high risk of developing cardiovascular disease, eg stroke or angina (chest pains).

What are the symptoms?

One of the big problems with high blood pressure is that it hardly ever causes symptoms.
This means it may go unnoticed until it causes one of its later complications, such as a stroke or heart attack.
Despite the popularity of such ideas, nosebleeds and ruddy complexions are hardly ever caused by high blood pressure.
Severe hypertension can cause symptoms such as:

• headache
• sleepiness
• confusion
• coma.

What complications are caused by high blood pressure?

• Atherosclerosis: narrowing of the arteries.
• Stroke: haemorrhage or blood clot in the brain.
• Aneurysm: dangerous expansion of the main artery either in the chest or the abdomen, which becomes weakened and may rupture.
• Heart attack.
• Heart failure: reduced pumping ability.
• Kidney failure.
• Eye damage.

What causes hypertension?

For more than 95 per cent of people with high blood pressure, the cause is unknown. This is called 'primary' or 'essential hypertension'.
In the remaining 5 per cent or so, there is an underlying cause. This is called 'secondary hypertension'.
Some of the main causes for secondary hypertension are:

• chronic kidney diseases
• diseases in the arteries supplying the kidneys
• chronic alcohol abuse
• hormonal disturbances
• endocrine tumours.

What factors increase the risk of hypertension?

Anyone can suffer from high blood pressure, but certain factors can seriously aggravate hypertension and increase the risk of complications:

• a tendency in the family to suffer hypertension
• obesity
• smoking
• diabetes Type 1 or Type 2
• kidney diseases
• high alcohol intake
• excessive salt intake
• lack of exercise
• certain medicines, such as steroids.

What can I do?

Every adult near or past middle age should ‘know their numbers’ – ie your height, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
You should also have regular blood pressure tests if there is a family tendency for hypertension. This way, treatment can be started before any complications arise.
Change your lifestyle:

• stop smoking
• lose weight
• exercise regularly – as a minimum, 20 minute sessions, three times a week, sufficiently intense to induce some breathlessness
• cut down on alcohol – aiming for less than 21 units a week for men, 14 units a week for women
• eat a varied diet
• avoid all salt in food
• reduce stress by trying different relaxation techniques or by avoiding stressful situations.

These changes will lower blood pressure – to reduce your risk of developing the condition in the first place or to treat hypertension.
If your blood pressure requires medical treatment, you will probably have to take medicine on a regular basis.
If so, never stop taking it without consulting your GP, even if you feel fine. Hypertension can lead to serious complications if left untreated.

What can your doctor do?

• Pinpoint risk factors and help you change your lifestyle to reduce blood pressure.
• Offer medication for the reduction of blood pressure and arrange regular monitoring. Sometimes blood pressure control is not straightforward. Many people require more than one drug on a regular basis to get their blood pressure under good control.
• Your GP may wish to seek the advice of an expert in hypertension if your blood pressure seems particularly difficult to control.

What are the treatment targets?

Diabetes considerably increases the risk of cardiovascular disease if hypertension is also present, so the targets for blood pressure control in diabetes are tighter.
For people who don't have diabetes, the treatment goals for blood pressure for are:

• systolic pressure of less than 140mmHg
• diastolic pressure of less than 85mmHg.

For people with diabetes, the goals are:

• systolic pressure of less than 130mmHg
• diastolic pressure of less than 80mmHg.

Which medicines are used to treat hypertension?

• ACE inhibitors stop the production of a hormone called angiotensin II that makes the blood vessels narrow. As a result, the vessels expand, improving blood flow. Tension in the circulation is also lowered by the kidneys filtering more fluid from the blood vessels into urine. This also helps reduce blood pressure. If your blood pressure is not easily controlled on simple medication, your doctor will probably use a medicine of this type.
• Angiotensin-II receptor antagonists work in a similar way to ACE inhibitors. But instead of stopping the production of angiotensin II, they block its action. This allows the blood vessels to expand, improving blood flow and reducing blood pressure.
• Beta-blockers block the effect of the hormone adrenaline and the sympathetic nervous system on the body. This relaxes the heart so that it beats more slowly, lowering the blood pressure.
• Alpha-blockers cause the blood vessels to relax and widen. Combining them with beta-blockers has a greater effect on the resistance in the circulation.
• Calcium-channel blockers reduce muscle tension in the arteries, expanding them and creating more room for the blood flow. In addition, they slightly relax the heart muscle so it beats more slowly, reducing blood pressure.
• Diuretics help the body get rid of excess salt and fluids via the kidneys. In certain cases, they relax blood vessels, reducing the strain on your circulation.

The following medicines are used less frequently.

• Indapamide (eg Natrilix) is a mildly diuretic preparation that also relaxes the peripheral arteries.
• Hydralazine (eg Apresoline) relaxes the vascular walls in the peripheral arteries thereby reducing the blood pressure.
• Methyldopa (eg Aldomet) stimulates the alpha receptors in the brain that relax the blood vessels, causing the blood pressure to drop.
• Moxonidine (eg Physiotens) is another medicine that acts on receptors in the involuntary part of the brain, causing blood pressure to decrease.
• Minoxidil (Loniten) relaxes the small arteries so that blood pressure drops. It must be used in combination with other hypertension medicines.

Cholesterol

An important factor in determining the danger of high blood pressure is your cholesterol – a high cholesterol increases the sensitivity of the arteries to high blood pressure and makes them more likely to be damaged.
This means that when treating blood pressure, it's crucial to know what the cholesterol is – and if it is raised, to bring it down.
While diet, exercise, ideal weight and regular exercise are all important in reducing cholesterol, most people with high blood pressure and normal or high cholesterol also need a cholesterol lowering drug, such as a statin.

In the long term

By treating hypertension well, complications can be avoided and average life expectancy will remain almost normal.
Without treatment, life expectancy may well be reduced due to the risk of developing complications such as heart failure or stroke.

Nearly 1 in 5 younger adults has high blood pressure

Almost one in five younger adults in the U.S. has high blood pressure, according to a new study.

But only half of those adults, who were ages 24 to 32, have been told by a doctor that they are hypertensive, which shows that not everyone may be aware that they have the symptomless disease, said study researcher Dr. Eric Whitsel, an assistant professor in medicine and epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
If a younger adult goes to a doctor for a checkup, the doctor will likely screen for high blood pressure. But “if people aren’t visiting health care professionals and aren’t measuring their blood pressure at home using inexpensive monitors, then they won't capture their illness," Whitsel told MyHealthNewsDaily.
Diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure are important because, if left untreated, it can lead to heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
The new study was published online on the May 25 in the journal Epidemiology.

Who has high blood pressure?
Researchers analyzed health data from 14,000 men and women ages 24 to 32 who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, also known as the Add Health study.

They found that of those people, 19 percent had high blood pressure — that is, they had a blood pressure reading of 140/90 millimeters of mercury or higher.
"And we found the results across every demographic: age, race, ethnicity, gender and level of obesity," Whitsel said. "So it didn’t seem like it was concentrated within a particular group of individuals."

However, some trends did emerge. Researchers found that men were more likely than women to have hypertension (27 percent of men, versus 11 percent of women).
College-educated adults were less likely to have high blood pressure than people who have only a high school diploma (22 percent of college-educated people, versus 17 percent of high school-educated people), according to the study.
The results were surprising because a previous study, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, also conducted around 2008, showed that only 4 percent of young adults had hypertension, said study researcher Kathleen Mullan Harris, interim director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Possible reasons for some of the discrepancy in the findings are differing characteristics of the study participants and the accuracy of the blood pressure readings, she said. But researchers found that none of these reasons could possibly account for such a large discrepancy in both studies' results, Harris said.

How to keep blood pressure down

High blood pressure is caused by a mix of social, behavioral and biological factors, Harris said. However, the study makes it clear that high blood pressure in young adulthood is the manifestation of an unhealthy lifestyle, she said.
"This stage of early adulthood is when young people move out of the house, get into regular lifestyle choices and develop habits that will last into adulthood," Harris told MyHealthNewsDaily. "So we think this is an important time of the life course to bring attention to their health and screen for such conditions like high blood pressure that are asymptomatic."
Whitsel offered four ways to keep high blood pressure from getting too high:
1. Eat a balanced and healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables.
2. Reduce intake of sodium, which has a prominent effect on blood pressure levels, to less than 2,300 milligrams per day.
3. Limit daily alcohol consumption to two drinks or less for men and one drink or less for women.
4. Make sure you exercise regularly. Adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are also a number of drugs that can treat high blood pressure, including beta blockers, calcium channel blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.

Pass it on: High blood pressure doesn't have any symptoms, so it's important to get screened by a doctor to make sure your blood pressure isn't too high.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors of High blood pressure

Many factors can affect blood pressure, including:

• How much water and salt you have in your body
  
• The condition of your kidneys, nervous system, or blood vessels
  
• The levels of different body hormones

You are more likely to be told your blood pressure is too high as you get older. This is because your blood vessels become stiffer as you age. When that happens, your blood pressure goes up. High blood pressure increases your chance of having a stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney disease, and early death.
You have a higher risk of high blood pressure if you:

• Are African American
  
• Are obese
  
• Are often stressed or anxious
  
• Eat too much salt in your diet
  
• Have a family history of high blood pressure
  
• Have diabetes
  
• Smoke

Most of the time, no cause is identified. This is called essential hypertension.
High blood pressure that is caused by another medical condition or medication is called secondary hypertension. Secondary hypertension may be due to:

• Alcohol abuse
  
• Atherosclerosis
  
• Autoimmune disorders such as periarteritis nodosa
  
• Chronic kidney disease
  
• Coarctation of the aorta
  
• Cocaine use
  
• Diabetes (if it causes kidney damage)
  
• Endocrine disorders, such as adrenal tumors (pheochromocytoma, aldosteronism), thyroid disorders, and Cushing syndrome
  
• Medications
  
  • Appetite suppressants
    
  • Birth control pills
    
  • Certain cold medications
    
  • Corticosteroids
    
  • Migraine medications
• Renal artery stenosis

Symptoms

Most of the time, there are no symptoms. Symptoms that may occur include:

• Confusion
  
• Ear noise or buzzing
  
• Fatigue
  
• Headache
  
• Irregular heartbeat
  
• Nosebleed
  
• Vision changes

If you have a severe headache or any of the symptoms above, see your doctor right away. These may be signs of a complication or dangerously high blood pressure called malignant hypertension.

Signs and tests

Your health care provider will perform a physical exam and check your blood pressure. If the measurement is high, your health care provider may think you have high blood pressure. The measurements need to be repeated over time, so that the diagnosis can be confirmed.
If you monitor your blood pressure at home, you may be asked the following questions:

• What was your most recent blood pressure reading?
  
• What was the previous blood pressure reading?
  
• What is the average systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) reading?
  
• Has your blood pressure increased recently?

Other tests may be done to look for blood in the urine or heart failure. Your doctor will look for signs of complications in your heart, kidneys, eyes, and other organs in your body.
These tests may include:

• Blood tests
  
• Echocardiogram
  
• Electrocardiogram
  
• Urinalysis
  
• Ultrasound of the kidneys

Treatment

The goal of treatment is to reduce blood pressure so that you have a lower risk of complications. You and your health care provider should set a blood pressure goal for you.
There are many different medicines that can be used to treat high blood pressure, including:

• Alpha blockers
  
• Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors
  
• Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs)
  
• Beta blockers
  
• Calcium channel blockers
  
• Central alpha agonists
  
• Diuretics
  
• Renin inhibitors, including aliskiren (Tekturna)
  
• Vasodilators

Your health care provider may also tell you to exercise, lose weight, and follow a healthier diet. If you have pre-hypertension, your health care provider will recommend the same lifestyle changes to bring your blood pressure down to a normal range.
Often, a single blood pressure drug may not be enough to control your blood pressure, and you may need to take two or more drugs. It is very important that you take the medications prescribed to you. If you have side effects, your health care provider can substitute a different medication.
In addition to taking medicine, you can do many things to help control your blood pressure, including:

• Eat a heart-healthy diet, including potassium and fiber, and drink plenty of water.
  
• Exercise regularly -- at least 30 minutes a day.
  
• If you smoke, quit -- find a program that will help you stop.
  
• Limit how much alcohol you drink -- 1 drink a day for women, 2 a day for men.
  
• Limit the amount of sodium (salt) you eat -- aim for less than 1,500 mg per day.
  
• Reduce stress -- try to avoid things that cause stress for you. You can also try meditation or yoga.
  
• Stay at a healthy body weight -- find a weight-loss program to help you, if you need it.

Your health care provider can help you find programs for losing weight, stopping smoking, and exercising. You can also get a referral from your doctor to a dietitian, who can help you plan a diet that is healthy for you.
Your health care provider may ask you to keep track of your blood pressure at home. Make sure you get a good quality, well-fitting home device. It will probably have a cuff with a stethoscope or a digital readout. Practice with your health care provider or nurse to make sure you are taking your blood pressure correctly.

Expectations (prognosis)

Most of the time, high blood pressure can be controlled with medicine and lifestyle changes.

Complications

• Aortic dissection
  
• Blood vessel damage (arteriosclerosis)
  
• Brain damage
  
• Congestive heart failure
  
• Chronic kidney disease
  
• Heart attack
  
• Hypertensive heart disease
  
• Peripheral artery disease
  
• Pregnancy complications
  
• Stroke
  
• Vision loss

Calling your health care provider

If you have high blood pressure, you will have regularly scheduled appointments with your doctor.
Even if you have not been diagnosed with high blood pressure, it is important to have your blood pressure checked during your yearly check-up, especially if someone in your family has or had high blood pressure.
Call your health care provider right away if home monitoring shows that your blood pressure remains high or you have any of the following symptoms:

• Chest pain
  
• Confusion
  
• Excessive tiredness
  
• Headache
  
• Nausea and vomiting
  
• Shortness of breath
  
• Significant sweating
  
• Vision changes

Prevention

Adults over 18 should have their blood pressure checked routinely.
Lifestyle changes may help control your blood pressure:

• Avoid smoking.
  
• Do not consume more than 1 drink a day for women, 2 a day for men.
  
• Eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products while reducing total and saturated fat intake (the DASH diet is one way of achieving this kind of dietary plan).
  
• Exercise regularly. If possible, exercise for 30 minutes on most days.
  
• If you have diabetes, keep your blood sugar under control.
  
• Lose weight if you are overweight. Excess weight adds to strain on the heart. In some cases, weight loss may be the only treatment needed.
  
• Try to manage your stress.

Follow your health care provider's recommendations to modify, treat, or control possible causes of secondary hypertension.

High blood pressure may be widespread in young adults

About one in five young adults may have high blood pressure, a new study suggests, but many of them appear unaware of it. Such are the results of the latest attempt to clarify just how many far-from-elderly Americans are putting their long-term health at risk via hypertension.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analyzed blood pressure data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, called Add Health, and compared it with data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, commonly referred to as NHANES. They focused specifically on the information about adults age 24 to 32.
They found significantly different rates of hypertension between the two studies, but similar rates of diagnosed hypertension. Add Health data suggested that 19% of participants had high blood pressure but that only 11% had been told of their condition. NHANES data suggested that 4% had high blood pressure and that 9% had been told they had the condition.
Even the researchers seem at a loss to explain the discrepancy. “We really don’t know for sure,” said sociologist and lead author Kathleen Mullan Harris in a phone interview. “We looked at differences that we thought would probably would play a role, differences in the populations, differences in the methods we used to measure. None of those accounted for the gap.”
But, she added:
“We think the estimates are probably somewhere in between.” After all, about one in three U.S. adults -- counting the young and old -- have high blood pressure.
The study’s conclusion notes: “The prevalence of hypertension among Add Health Wave IV participants indicates an unexpectedly high risk of cardiovascular disease among U.S. young adults and deserves further scrutiny.”
Researchers obviously need to better identify the number of young adults who may be at risk -- especially, points out Harris, as young people transition from college to their first jobs (where they may become more sedentary) and start a family.
Here’s why it matters, according to the National Heart Lung Blood Institute’s information on high blood pressure:
“The condition itself usually has no symptoms. You can have it for years without knowing it. During this time, though, HBP can damage the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, and other parts of your body.”
And the younger a person is when they develop high blood pressure, the earlier this damage can start.

What Is High Blood Pressure?

High blood pressure (HBP) is a serious condition that can lead to coronary heart disease (also called coronary artery disease), heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, and other health problems.
"Blood pressure" is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage the body in many ways.

Overview

About 1 in 3 adults in the United States has High blood pressure. The condition itself usually has no symptoms. You can have it for years without knowing it. During this time, though, High blood pressure can damage the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, and other parts of your body.
Knowing your blood pressure numbers is important, even when you're feeling fine. If your blood pressure is normal, you can work with your health care team to keep it that way. If your blood pressure is too high, treatment may help prevent damage to your body's organs.

Blood Pressure Numbers

Blood pressure is measured as systolic (sis-TOL-ik) and diastolic (di-a-STOL-ik) pressures. "Systolic" refers to blood pressure when the heart beats while pumping blood. "Diastolic" refers to blood pressure when the heart is at rest between beats.
You most often will see blood pressure numbers written with the systolic number above or before the diastolic number, such as 120/80 mmHg. (The mmHg is millimeters of mercury—the units used to measure blood pressure.)
The table below shows normal blood pressure numbers for adults. It also shows which numbers put you at greater risk for health problems.

Categories for Blood Pressure Levels in Adults (measured in millimeters of mercury, or mmHg)

Category	Systolic (top number)		Diastolic (bottom number)
Normal	Less than 120	And	Less than 80
Prehypertension	120–139	Or	80–89
High blood pressure
Stage 1	140–159	Or	90–99
Stage 2	160 or higher	Or	100 or higher

The ranges in the table apply to most adults (aged 18 and older) who don't have short-term serious illnesses.
Blood pressure doesn't stay the same all the time. It lowers as you sleep and rises when you wake up. Blood pressure also rises when you're excited, nervous, or active. If your numbers stay above normal most of the time, you're at risk for health problems.
All levels above 120/80 mmHg raise your risk, and the risk grows as blood pressure numbers rise. "Prehypertension" means you're likely to end up with High blood pressure, unless you take steps to prevent it.
If you're being treated for High blood pressure and have repeat readings in the normal range, your blood pressure is under control. However, you still have the condition. You should see your doctor and follow your treatment plan to keep your blood pressure under control.
Your systolic and diastolic numbers may not be in the same blood pressure category. In this case, the more severe category is the one you're in. For example, if your systolic number is 160 and your diastolic number is 80, you have stage 2 HBP. If your systolic number is 120 and your diastolic number is 95, you have stage 1 HBP.
If you have diabetes or chronic kidney disease, High blood pressure is defined as 130/80 mmHg or higher. High blood pressure numbers also differ for children and teens.

Outlook

Blood pressure tends to rise with age. Following a healthy lifestyle helps some people delay or prevent this rise in blood pressure.
People who have High blood pressure can take steps to control it and reduce their risk of related health problems. Key steps include following a healthy lifestyle, having ongoing medical care, and following your treatment plan.