High Blood Pressure: Overview, Causes, Symptoms, Risk factors, Treatment

What Are Diuretics?

Diuretics are a common medication used to treat high blood pressure. They are relatively inexpensive and are widely available. In addition to high blood pressure, diuretics are often used to treat other illnesses, including:

* Heart Failure
* Edema
* Some types of poisoning

While the general action of diuretics is to increase excretion of salt and water, many diuretics can lower blood pressure at lower doses than those needed to cause diuresis (excretion).

Taking blood pressure pills cuts risk of dying

People with high blood pressure who want to reduce their risk of having a stroke or dying prematurely should get their prescriptions filled and see their doctor regularly.

In a large study of Medicaid patients, researchers found that the more closely a person adhered to his or her doctor’s recommendations for filling their blood pressure medication prescription, the lower his or her risk of stroke and death.

Taking just one more pill as recommended each week (from a one-a-day regimen) cut stroke risk by 9 percent and death risk by 7 percent, Dr. James E. Bailey of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis and colleagues report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Feeling Lonely Increases Blood Pressure for People 50 and Older

Chronic feelings of loneliness take a toll on blood pressure over time, causing a marked increase after four years, according to a new study at the University of Chicago.

A new study shows, for the first time, a direct relation between loneliness and larger increases in blood pressure four years later - a link that is independent of age and other factors that could cause blood pressure to rise, including body-mass index, smoking, alcohol use and demographic differences such as race and income.

The researchers also looked at the possibility that depression and stress might account for the increase but found that those factors did not fully explain the increase in blood pressure among lonely people 50 years and older.

Blood pressure, “rich” blood affect baby’s growth

Women with high blood pressure and blood overly rich in red blood cells are more likely to give birth to babies who are too small or born too early, researchers in the Netherlands reported on Tuesday.

Mothers who smoked or who did not take supplements correctly also were more likely to have babies who were underweight or born too early, the study found - and these factors seem to affect the fetus during the first three months of pregnancy, before a woman has had much prenatal care.

But early ultrasounds may help identify the babies most at risk, the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests.

What You Should Know About How Smoking Could Cause High Blood Pressure

Arteries are arteries that carry the blood from the heart to other parts of your body. Raised blood pressure will occur if the blood can’t pass through these arteries at a normal pace. In relation to smoking, the nicotine content of cigarettes or tobacco causes the arteries to constrict.

The blood in circulation isn’t able to pass through while the building pressure of the suppressed blood flow will result to a transient rise in the blood pressure. During this time, the heart has a tendency to beat at a quicker rate.

Smoking hurts the arterial walls and accelerates the toughening of the arteries. It’s a major risk factor for any kind of heart illness ( CVD ). When you smoke, you are doubling the chance of having the CVD Problems. Additionally, smoking could cause brain attack, coronary, stroke, and leg pains leading to amputation due to poor blood circulation.

Low-carb diet best for lowering blood pressure

People with high blood pressure who want to drop some pounds may want to choose a low-carb diet, a new study shows.

In the study, overweight or obese individuals who went on a low-carb diet lost about the same amount of weight as those who cut down on their fat intake and took the weight-loss aid orlistat (sold as Xenical or Alli). However, the low-carb diet produced more favorable effects on blood pressure.

Most studies of weight loss methods have enrolled overweight or obese volunteers who were healthy, aside from weighing too much. The current study, in contrast, enrolled “real patients” with common conditions like diabetes and heart disease, William S. Yancy Jr. of the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, told Reuters Health. People with these health issues are often excluded from weight loss studies, Yancy said.

Blood pressure control abnormal in newborns of smoking mothers

Newborns of women who smoked during pregnancy show signs of circulatory dysfunction in the first few weeks of life that get worse throughout the first year, Swedish researchers reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The blood pressure response to tilting the infants upright during sleep — a test of how the body copes with repositioning — was dramatically different in infants born to smoking mothers compared to those born to nonsmoking parents.

Infants not exposed to tobacco experienced only a 2 percent increase in blood pressure when they were tilted upright at one week of age and later a 10 percent increase in blood pressure at one year. Infants of smoking mothers had the reverse — a 10 percent increase in blood pressure during a tilt at one week and only a 4 percent increase at one year. At three months and one year, the heart rate response to tilting in the tobacco-exposed infants was abnormal and highly exaggerated, researchers reported.

Extra Vigilance Crucial for Those with High Blood Pressure

For people with hypertension, the damage of unhealthy eating can have particularly negative consequences.

About one in four Americans has hypertension, a disease that elevates blood pressure and can lead to a host of serious problems including heart attacks and strokes.

“I tell patients to allow themselves one special meal occasionally, but not to continue unhealthy eating habits for several days or weeks,” said Dr. Shawna Nesbitt, hypertension specialist at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Hypertension Linked to Dementia in Older Women

Older women with hypertension are at increased risk for developing brain lesions that cause dementia later in life, according to data from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS). The findings were published in the December 2009 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension.

The research was conducted as part of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), the largest multi-site longitudinal study looking at health risks among postmenopausal women. WHIMS, which involves a subgroup of the women enrolled in WHI, looks at the influence of hormone therapy on thinking and memory. All the women in WHIMS were 65 or older.

Upon enrolling in the trial and annually during their participation in it, the women had their blood pressure measured and underwent tests to measure their cognitive ability.

Study Shows Key Protein Helps Control Blood Pressure

University of Iowa researchers have shown that a protein channel helps nerve sensors in blood vessels keep blood pressure in check. Without the protein channel, known as ASIC2, the sensors are unable to send the brain the signals it needs to properly control blood pressure.

The finding, which was based in animal models, is important because it could be used to create new treatments to prevent high blood pressure (hypertension). The study results appear in the Dec. 24 print issue of the journal Neuron.

“Sensors in your body’s blood vessels sense when your blood pressure goes up, for instance, when you get mad at someone,” said the study’s principal investigator Frank Abboud, M.D., professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics and director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Iowa. “These built-in sensors perceive the change and trigger a nearly instantaneous adjustment by sending signals to the brain, which in turn tells the blood vessels how to adjust.