Join the 'Hypertension' group to help and get support from people like you.

Hypertension Blog

Blog (170)

Common Blood Pressure Drugs Might Lower Dementia Risk

Posted 7 Jan 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Jan. 7 – Taking blood pressure drugs known as beta blockers may reduce the risk of brain changes that can lead to Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, new research suggests. "Levels of the Alzheimer lesions were about half or less in persons receiving beta blockers, compared with persons whose hypertension was untreated," said study author Dr. Lon White, a researcher at the Pacific Health Research and Education Institute in Honolulu. Beta blockers also appeared to reduce the risk of these brain changes more than other blood pressure medications did. White added a caution, however. "It would be premature to make any specific recommendations for treatment," he said, such as suggesting people switch to beta blockers only. Examples of beta blockers are Inderal (propranolol), Tenormin (atenolol) and Lopressor (metoprolol). "Our findings will need to be examined in other studies ... Read more

New Diabetes Guidelines May Lower Patient Medical Bills

Posted 20 Dec 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Dec. 20 – New guidelines issued by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Thursday may reduce the number of people who need to take blood pressure medications, and they may help more people get insurance coverage for testing their blood sugar levels. "We're constantly looking at the data to try to make our treatment guidelines as personalized and as consistent as possible," said Dr. Robert Ratner, chief scientific and medical officer for the ADA. And, that's exactly what happened with the ADA's first significant change in this year's guidelines. The ADA is lowering the bar for its systolic blood pressure goal – going from less than 130 millimeters of mercury (mm/Hg) to less than 140 mm/Hg. Systolic blood pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading. "The early evidence suggested that greater control of blood pressure in people with diabetes might make more of a ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Type 2, Hypertension

Treating Kidneys With Radio Waves May Ease Tough-to-Control Hypertension

Posted 17 Dec 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Dec. 17 – For patients whose high blood pressure cannot be controlled despite taking several medications, a short burst of radio waves at the nerves around the kidneys may do the trick, a small new study says. The treatment was effective for at least six months. The findings could be a significant step in treating people with resistant hypertension, which is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke, the researchers said. The technique – called catheter-based renal denervation – is minimally invasive. In it, doctors use a catheter inserted through the artery in the groin, which sends radio waves burning away nerve tissue around the arteries that feed the kidneys. The procedure destroys nerves that help control and filter salt in the body and may be overactive in patients with high blood pressure. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved its use. The ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Hypertension

High Blood Pressure Poses Bigger Stroke Risk for Blacks, Study Says

Posted 14 Dec 2012 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, Dec. 14 – Black people are known to be at greater risk for high blood pressure, and now a new study suggests that this places them at an even higher risk for stroke. "Blood pressure is a triple threat to African Americans," said study author Dr. George Howard, chair of biostatistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. For starters, they are more likely to have high blood pressure and less likely to have their blood pressure controlled once it is elevated, he explained. His research takes the threat one step further. "Once it is not controlled, the health impact of increased stroke risk is three times larger for African Americans than whites," he said. "Collectively, these pathways account for most of the 300 percent increased risk of stroke for African Americans aged 45 to 64." The study included almost 28,000 black and white patients who were followed for more than ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Hypertension, Ischemic Stroke

Consider Weight When Choosing Blood Pressure Meds: Study

Posted 6 Dec 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Dec. 6 – Taking a patient's weight into account when choosing blood pressure medications might help prevent strokes, heart attacks and death, a new study suggests. Lean and obese people react differently to different blood pressure medications, said the researchers, who believe their findings could change the way high blood pressure (hypertension) is treated. "Unexpectedly, people who have high blood pressure and are fat actually have a better prognosis than people who have high blood pressure and are thin," said lead researcher Dr. Michael Weber, a professor of medicine at Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York in New York City. "You can now choose blood pressure medication as a means of compensating for this difference between obese and thin people, so that it's possible to treat everybody with a medicine that maximizes the outcome regardless of how ... Read more

High Blood Pressure Often Missed in Young Adults: Study

Posted 6 Nov 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Nov. 6 – Younger adults with high blood pressure are less likely than older adults with elevated blood pressure (hypertension) to be diagnosed during doctor visits, a new study says. Researchers examined the health records of more than 13,000 men and women aged 18 and older in the United States who had made at least two routine visits to their doctors within the previous few years and met the criteria for a diagnosis of high blood pressure. After four years of visiting their doctors, 54 percent of people 60 and older remained undiagnosed, compared with 67 percent of those aged 18 to 24, 65 percent of those aged 25 to 31 and 59 percent of those aged 32 to 39. The researchers also found that young adults were less likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure if they smoked and if they had a mild stage of hypertension. A high blood pressure diagnosis was more likely for ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Hypertension

Higher Blood Pressure May Harm the Middle-Aged Brain, Study Finds

Posted 1 Nov 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Nov. 1 – High blood pressure can damage the structure of the brain in people as young as 40, a new study finds. Structural damage was found even in the brains of young middle-aged people who had pre-hypertension, in which blood pressure is elevated but not to the level considered to be high blood pressure. Researchers looked at nearly 600 people who were an average of 39 years old when the study was launched in 2009. Their blood pressure was checked and they underwent MRI brain scans. Accelerated brain aging was found in people with hypertension as well as those with pre-hypertension, including damage to the structural integrity of white matter and the volume of grey matter. The study is the first to find that elevated blood pressure damages the brains of young middle-aged adults and suggests that blood-pressure-related brain damage occurs over a lifetime, the researchers ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Hypertension

More Americans Have High Blood Pressure Under Control: Survey

Posted 22 Oct 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Oct. 22 – Increased use of multiple drug combinations likely explains the significant increase in the number of U.S. adults with hypertension who say they have their blood pressure under control, according to a new study. Researchers followed more than 9,300 patients with high blood pressure and found that those who said they had their blood pressure under control increased from 29 percent in 2001 to 47 percent in 2010. The study also found that the use of two or more drugs to control high blood pressure increased from 37 percent to 48 percent during that time, and that nearly two-thirds of patients on combination therapy had controlled blood pressure by 2010. Older adults, blacks and people with chronic kidney disease and diabetes have higher rates of high blood pressure, and Mexican-Americans are least likely to take blood pressure medications, according to the study, which ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Hypertension

Common Heart Medicine May Not Be Effective for Some: Study

Posted 2 Oct 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Oct. 2 – A common type of blood pressure drug called a beta blocker may not prevent heart attack, stroke or death, a new study suggests. This is particularly true for patients at risk for heart disease, patients who have heart disease but who have never had a heart attack, or patients who have had a heart attack, the researchers added. "We found in this group of patients there was no benefit from beta blockers," said lead researcher Dr. Sripal Bangalore, assistant professor of cardiology at the New York University School of Medicine. Instead, among some patients, beta blockers increased the risk of a bad outcome, he said. Specific types of patients taking the drugs had a higher risk of death or hospitalization for a heart procedure. One group, however, had a lower risk of being hospitalized. These findings may be due in part to the nature of beta blockers themselves, Bangalore ... Read more

Melatonin May Improve Sleep for People on Blood-Pressure Meds

Posted 29 Sep 2012 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, Sept. 28 – People with high blood pressure who lose sleep as the result of medications known as beta blockers may benefit from a nightly dose of melatonin. In a small study published in the October issue of the journal Sleep, people being treated for high blood pressure, or hypertension, who also took melatonin slept longer, fell asleep sooner and had more restful sleep than people taking an inactive placebo. "The sleep community is well aware of the difficulties that beta blockers can cause with insomnia and sleep fragmentation," said Dr. Michael Yurcheshen, a physician with the Strong Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. "Although the sample size [in this study] is small, the results are compelling. If real-world experience parallels [these] lab results, such changes could make a significant clinical impact for these patients." ... Read more

Cooking-Oil Combo May Improve Blood Pressure

Posted 19 Sep 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19 – Reinforcing the role nutrition plays in heart health, new research suggests that cooking with a combination of sesame oil and rice bran oil can lower mild to moderately high blood pressure. A small study conducted in New Delhi, India, found that hypertensive adults who added roughly 1.25 ounces of a rice bran/sesame oil mixture to their daily diet experienced a drop in blood pressure nearly equivalent to that experienced by those taking a standard calcium-channel blocker blood pressure medication alone. And those who consumed both the oil mixture and their blood pressure medication saw a blood pressure drop more than twice that of those taking the drug alone. The oil combination also seemed to lower so-called "bad" (LDL) cholesterol and raise "good" (HDL) cholesterol, the researchers reported. This cholesterol profile improvement was not found among those taking a ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Hypertension

Some Blood Pressure Drugs Might Help Slow Alzheimer's: Study

Posted 11 Sep 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Sept. 11 – Angiotensin receptor blockers, drugs commonly taken to control high blood pressure, appear to reduce the amount of plaque in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and others, a new study shows. These results were found when patients with high blood pressure on drugs such as losartan (Cozaar) died and underwent an autopsy. These brain plaques are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Whether, however, these drug also improve mental function isn't known, the researchers added. "[It] would have to be proven in a clinical trial whether these effects seen in an autopsy study manifest themselves in a clinical setting," said lead researcher Dr. Ihab Hajjar, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. "But since we don't have any treatment for Alzheimer's, it's worth pursuing." Candesartan (Atacand), irbesartan (Avapro), olmesartan ... Read more

More Pregnant Women on Blood Pressure Drugs: Study

Posted 11 Sep 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Sept. 11 – Growing numbers of pregnant women are on medicines to treat high blood pressure, new research indicates. "The reasons for the increase are not entirely clear," said study author Dr. Brian Bateman, an assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. While it's important to manage high blood pressure during pregnancy, certain drugs are preferred due to their safety profile. In the study, Bateman found that many women were not on those drugs. "We need to do more research to figure out which medicines are the best for insuring a good pregnancy outcome for both mother and baby," he said. The findings are published in the October issue of Hypertension. Bateman and his colleagues examined Medicaid claims from 2000 to 2007, looking for the records of women who had completed pregnancies. Of the more than 1 million women, nearly 48,500 (4.4 percent) took blood ... Read more

Nonalcoholic Red Wine Might Help Lower Blood Pressure

Posted 6 Sep 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Sept. 6 – While some say it's not as flavorful as the real thing, drinking nonalcoholic red wine might help lower blood pressure in men at high risk for heart disease. Middle-aged and older men who drank moderate amounts of de-alcoholized red wine daily for four weeks had drops in systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure, according to a small new study by Spanish researchers. "In the context of a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle, daily consumption of de-alcoholized red wine can help prevent hypertension," said study author Gemma Chiva-Blanch, at the department of internal medicine at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. The study was published online Sept. 6 in the journal Circulation Research. The nonalcoholic wine drinkers also showed increased levels of nitric oxide – a molecule in the blood that previous studies have linked with improving ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Hypertension

Artery Stiffness May Predict High Blood Pressure

Posted 4 Sep 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Sept. 4 – Stiffening of the wall of the aorta is linked with increased risk of high blood pressure, according to a new study. The aorta, the largest artery in the body, extends from the heart down into the chest and abdomen. In this study, researchers looked at seven years of data from more than 1,700 people enrolled in the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study. Average age was 60. The analysis showed that higher aortic stiffness was associated with a higher risk of newly developed high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. However, patients' initial blood pressure was not independently associated with risk of progressive aortic stiffening. This suggests that aortic stiffness may contribute to high blood pressure, rather than being the result of high blood pressure, according to Dr. Bernhard Kaess, of the Framingham Heart Study, and ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Hypertension, Atherosclerosis

Page: 1 2 3 4 ... Next (170 results)

Ask a Question

Further Information

Related Condition Support Groups

Hypertensive Emergency, Intracranial Hypertension, Hypertensive Heart Disease, Cardiovascular Conditions and Disorders

Related Drug Support Groups