Salt Contributes to Resistant High Blood Pressure

health.msn.com — Too much salt can contribute to resistant high blood pressure despite taking several medications to control it, University of Alabama researchers report. High blood pressure is called resistant hypertension when blood pressure remains above goal despite their taking three medications to lower it. High blood pressure that is under control, but requires four or more medications to treat it, is also considered resistant to treatment. "High-salt diet contributes importantly to resistant-to-treatment hypertension and high volume and vascular resistance may contribute to resistant hypertension," said lead researcher Dr. Eduardo Pimenta, now at the Department of Hypertension and Nephrology at the Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology in Sao Paulo, Brazil. read more...

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High blood pressure in the bush

abc.net.au — Hypertension is a silent condition – someone who has high blood pressure often doesn't know about it. But it's a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, stroke and kidney failure. It's the biggest single contributor to poor health in Australia, and nowhere more so than in Australia's rural community, where studies suggest it's not only more common, but less successfully treated than in the cities. In fact, researchers at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales put the prevalence of hypertension in one rural community at a whopping 58 per cent of 50 to 75-year-olds, based on a study recently published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Hypertension. The researchers studied a group of 674 people from in and around Albury, a large town in New South Wales, who answered an advertisement offering a free blood pressure check. Researchers quizzed them about their past medical history and treatment, and took their blood pressure. Thirty-seven per cent had been diagnosed with hypertension in the past and 21 per cent were found to have undiagnosed hypertension. This high prevalence of hypertension, at 58 per cent, is considerably higher than the average for Australian adults, which other studies have put at 28 to 42 per cent, but which is probably closer to around 30 per cent, the researchers say. Of the Albury participants who were known to have hypertension, only about 43 per cent were actually being treated with blood pressure lowering medication. And of these, fewer than half had a normal blood pressure – defined as 140 mm Hg (systolic) and 80 mm Hg (diastolic) or lower. In other words, less than half were getting optimal treatment. Now, there was some study bias in this group. The average age was in the early sixties (an age group more likely to have hypertension), and the participants were 'self-selecting' – that is, they volunteered to take part, possibly because they thought their blood pressure would be high. And some in the study may simply have had high blood pressure on the day, but not at other times. So the figure of 58 per cent is probably artificially high. read more...

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Elevated Albumin Levels in Urine Raise Hypertension Risk

nlm.nih.gov — MONDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- Healthy people with elevated levels of albumin in their urine, even within the range considered normal, are at increased risk for high blood pressure, say researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. To help prevent cardiovascular disease, the researchers suggested the definition of normal urinary albumin excretion should be reconsidered. Previous research has found that higher levels of urinary albumin excretion, even within the normal range, are associated with cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes or hypertension. But it hasn't been clear whether this was also true in healthy people. The Brigham and Women's team analyzed data on 2,179 women without baseline hypertension or diabetes, and with normal levels of urine albumin, enrolled in the Nurses' Health Studies. The researchers found that higher levels of urinary albumin excretion, even within the normal range, increased a person's risk of developing hypertension. read more...

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