Hypertension & other blood pressure related items

waltky · Nov 17, 2016

Granny says, "Dat's right - it's a rough ol' world to try to get through...

Huge Study Finds 1 Billion People Suffer From High Blood Pressure
November 15, 2016 The number of people with high blood pressure has almost doubled in 40 years to over 1.1 billion worldwide, scientists said on Wednesday, with the burden of the condition shifting from the rich to the poor.

In the largest study of its kind analyzing blood pressure in every nation between 1975 and 2015, the scientists said that it has dropped sharply in wealthy countries - possibly due to healthier diets and lifestyles - but risen in poorer ones. The increases are especially significant in Africa and South Asia, the researchers said, and could be partly due to poor nutrition in childhood. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, puts extra strain on the blood vessels and major organs such as the heart, brain and kidneys. It is the world's top cause of cardiovascular disease, which leads to strokes and heart attacks, and is estimated to cause 7.5 million deaths a year worldwide. Led by World Health Organization researchers working with hundreds of scientists internationally, this study covered blood pressure measurements from nearly 20 million people and was published in The Lancet medical journal.

A nurse trainee measures a pregnant woman's blood pressure during a prenatal consultation at the United Brethren in Christ Hospital in the town of Mattru Jong, Bonthe District, Sierra Leone.

In Europe, Britain had the lowest proportion of people with high blood pressure in 2015. South Korea, the United States and Canada had the lowest hypertension rates in the world. More than half the world's adults with high blood pressure in 2015 lived in Asia, the study estimated. Some 226 million people in China have high blood pressure, it said, as do 200 million in India. "High blood pressure is no longer related to affluence - as it was in 1975 - but is now a major health issue linked with poverty," said Majid Ezzati, a professor at Imperial College London's school of public health. He said that while he could not be sure of why the data showed high blood pressure as more of a problem in poorer countries, it may be partly due to overall better health and more consumption of fruit and vegetables in wealthy societies.

In rich countries, the condition is also caught more frequently and earlier, and managed more effectively with medicines, Ezzati said. Blood pressure is defined by two numbers - systolic pressure, which represents the force with which the heart pumps blood into the blood vessels, and diastolic pressure, a measure of the resistance to the blood flow in the body's blood vessels. Both numbers are measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg). High blood pressure is defined as 140/90 mmHg or higher. The condition is caused by a number of factors including having a diet high in salt and low in fruit and vegetables, and not taking enough exercise.

http://www.voanews.com/a/reu-huge-s...-suffer-from-high-blood-pressure/3597988.html
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waltky · Apr 7, 2017

Granny always pushin' possum an' Uncle Ferd to eat dey's fruits an' veggies...

Study: Fruits and Vegetables Can Lower Blood Pressure
April 06, 2017 - There’s another reason to eat your fruits and vegetables. It could lower your blood pressure, according to new research.

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California have found potassium-rich vegetables like sweet potatoes, avocados, spinach, beans and bananas could help lower blood pressure. "Decreasing sodium intake is a well-established way to lower blood pressure," said professor Alicia McDonough. “But evidence suggests that increasing dietary potassium may have an equally important effect on hypertension."

To reach her conclusions, McDonough reviewed studies that looked at the link between potassium and sodium, which has been known to cause hypertension. She found that people who had more potassium tended to have lower blood pressure regardless of sodium consumption. Her research indicated that the body does a “balancing act” using sodium to control potassium levels in the blood. Potassium is important for normal muscle and nerve function. "When dietary potassium is high, kidneys excrete more salt and water, which increases potassium excretion," McDonough said. "Eating a high potassium diet is like taking a diuretic."

A new study suggests the potassium found in many fruits and vegetables can help lower blood pressure.

She said that as humans evolved, they ate a diet rich in potassium, but low in sodium, leading us to crave sodium, not potassium. "If you eat a typical Western diet, your sodium intake is high and your potassium intake is low. This significantly increases your chances of developing high blood pressure," she said.

According to a 2004 study by the Institute of Medicine, adults should eat about 4.7 grams of potassium a day to lower blood pressure. Eating about 60 grams of beans would account for 50 percent of that, McDonough said. According to the World Health Organization, more than one billion people suffer from high blood pressure. High blood pressure accounts for 51 percent of global stroke deaths and 45 percent of deaths due to heart disease. McDonough’s study appeared in the April 2017 issue of the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism.

http://www.voanews.com/a/mht-fruits-and-vegetables-can-lower-blood-pressure/3798979.html
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waltky · Jun 21, 2017

Vaccine-like Drug Lowers LDL Cholesterol...

Vaccine-like Drug Lowers 'Bad' Cholesterol
June 19, 2017 | WASHINGTON — A drug that acts like a vaccine has been shown to lower "bad" cholesterol or LDL and reduce the amount of fatty plaque that can lead to heart attacks. The drug rallies the immune system against a molecule that contributes to atherosclerosis.

The drug, called AT04A, is a form of immunotherapy that targets an enzyme, called PCSK9, that contributes to the formation of harmful plaque in coronary arteries. In studies of mice fed fatty, Western-style diets putting them at risk for heart disease, researchers showed that AT04A reduced the total amount of cholesterol by 53 percent and shrank atherosclerotic plaques by 64 percent, according to Oliver Siegel, who is with the Austrian pharmaceutical company AFFiRiS. "More importantly in the mice, we have seen a very significant reduction in development of those plaques, said Siegel. "As a result, we believe the reduction of LDL which we have seen before would translate into a clinical benefit, i.e. reduction of plaque that would otherwise reduce inflammation that would otherwise be the cause of heart attack potentially." AT04A was able to rally the immune system to produce antibodies that blocked the PCSK9 enzyme in the circulation of mice during the study. The study was published in European Heart Journal.

The immunotherapeutic approach, according to Siegel, is similar to, but not a vaccine per se in the sense that it doesn’t target bacteria and viruses, just the harmful enzyme. In an accompanying editorial in the journal, Ulrich Laufs of Saarland University in Germany and Brian Ference of the University of Bristol noted that in people taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, including AT04A, there may be an increased risk of patients developing diabetes. But Siegel said nothing like that has cropped up so far in studies of the compound.

A selection of pastries, including doughnuts, bagels, rolls, croissants, turnovers and sticky buns are displayed in a New York coffee cart. In studies of mice fed fatty, Western-style diets putting them at risk for heart disease, researchers showed that AT04A reduced the total amount of cholesterol by 53 percent.

The authors of the editorial wrote in the short term, having a long-acting, cholesterol lowering drug may far outweigh the slight risk of new onset diabetes. Currently, many people with high levels of cholesterol take daily medication that drives down "bad" LDL cholesterol; but, Siegel says compliance is less than ideal. "What a few studies have shown is that patients, who...have already had a heart attack, have a relatively low adherence or compliance rate and we would imagine that patients who didn’t have a heart attack would have an even lower compliance rate," said Siegel.

Fatty plaques that develop in the heart vessels can choke off the flow of blood, causing a heart attack. If a piece of plaque breaks off and travels to the brain, it can cause stroke. Diseases of the coronary arteries are a leading cause of illness and death worldwide. Siegel said the shot under the skin would have to be given once a year like an immunization. Early human clinical trials testing the compounds safety are nearly completed, and Siegel hopes to have a cholesterol-lowering, clot-busting drug on the market in the next few years.

https://www.voanews.com/a/vaccine-like-drug-lowers-bad-cholesterol/3907533.html
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Hypertension & other blood pressure related items

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