High Blood Pressure News and Research

Latest High Blood Pressure News and Research

Kidneys from donors with renal masses to address the current organ shortage

Surgeons who successfully performed kidney transplants after removing small cancerous and benign masses from the donated organs, have published their results in the December issue of the UK-based urology journal BJUI.

7 Dec 2009

Unique project to address key healthcare reform issue to be launched

Groundbreaking ceremonies on December 15 will mark the launch of a unique project that exemplifies how new technologies are being used to address a key healthcare reform issue: the multi-billion dollar cost of repeatedly hospitalizing patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, asthma and lung disease.

5 Dec 2009

Health Policy Research Roundup

UCLA Center For Health Policy Research: Health Disparities Among California's Nearly Four Million Low-Income Nonelderly Adult Women - Using data from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey, the authors of this policy brief compare low-income women, ages 18-64, to others. The report finds the low-income women are four times more likely to report fair or poor health and are more likely to report a health condition that interferes with basic physical activities, such as walking or climbing stairs.

4 Dec 2009

Smoking cessation efforts attracted mixed results in Ohio's Appalachian region

In the Appalachian region of the country — where smoking rates are high, tobacco is often a cash crop and income and education levels are low — a smoking cessation effort led by non-medical professionals was successful in the short term, but quit rates trailed off in the long term.

3 Dec 2009

Beta blockers and stress tests before non-cardiac surgeries should be avoided, according to study

Physicians should "throttle back" from routinely ordering stress tests and prescribing beta blockers to patients before non-cardiac surgeries, according to a report by the University of Michigan released online this week.

3 Dec 2009

Democrats push for extension as dwindling COBRA subsidies are bad news for jobless

Subsidies to help people pay for COBRA benefits - the program that lets laid off or departing employees temporarily hang on to their health coverage - are drying up, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. The subsidies, which pay for 65 percent of the often-costly premiums, became available in March as part of the economic stimulus legislation.

2 Dec 2009

Study identifies genetic link between vitamin D and heart disease

Previous studies have shown a link between low vitamin D status and heart disease. Now a new study shows that patients with high blood pressure who possess a gene variant that affects an enzyme critical to normal vitamin D activation are twice as likely as those without the variant to have congestive heart failure.

2 Dec 2009

Study examines racial disparities in hospitalization for white and black adults with preventable conditions

Receiving prompt treatment for common health problems like diabetes, pneumonia and high blood pressure can save patients trips to the hospital and thousands of dollars in medical care costs.

1 Dec 2009

Low-income women experience significantly greater gaps in access to health care

Low-income women are four times more likely than higher-income women to report fair or poor health and nearly twice as likely to report a health condition that limits their basic physical activities, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

1 Dec 2009

Researchers find link between novel gene, phosducin and blood pressure response to stress

Does stress increase blood pressure? This simple question has been the focus of intense research for many years. New Stress-related gene Modulates High Blood Pressure in Mice & Men

26 Nov 2009

High salt intake poses greater risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease

High salt intake is associated with significantly greater risk of both stroke and cardiovascular disease, concludes a study published on bmj.com today.

25 Nov 2009

Withheld anger in MS patients can have adverse effect on health

People with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) feel more than twice as much withheld anger as the general population and this could have an adverse effect on their relationships and health, according to a study published in the December issue of the European Journal of Neurology.

24 Nov 2009

Presence of increased body fat hinders the loss of body weight

The presence of increased body fat, and therefore higher levels of inflammatory substances in the blood, hinders the loss and maintenance of body weight; as shown by a research project of the University of Navarra conducted by Estíbaliz Goyenechea Soto, a scientist at the School of Pharmacy.

24 Nov 2009

Team-based care and medical homes may improve chronic disease management

Patients whose hypertension is managed by a physician-pharmacist team have lower blood pressure levels and are more likely to reach goals for blood pressure control than those treated without this collaborative approach, according to a report in the November 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

24 Nov 2009

Diabetics should keep blood pressure under control to protect kidneys from disease, says nephrologist

What’s good for your heart is also good for your kidneys, according to recommendations from the Texas Campaign for Kidney Health, a collaborative of health care stakeholders seeking to prevent kidney disease in the Lone Star State.

23 Nov 2009

Walgreens re-launches its website with expanded shopping tools and services

Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain and a leading destination for health and wellness services, today announced the re-launch of Walgreens.com (www.walgreens.com), offering users a variety of new healthy living and product resources, along with expanded yet simplified shopping tools and services.

23 Nov 2009

Children with kidney disease likely to have "masked" hypertension

Spot blood pressure readings in children with chronic kidney disease often fail to detect hypertension - even during doctor's office visits - increasing a child's risk for serious heart problems, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children's Center and other institutions. A report of the findings appears online in the Journal of American Society of Nephrology.

20 Nov 2009

8.3% of households in Massachusetts struggle with food insecurity

Project Bread, the state's leading anti-hunger organization, released numbers from its upcoming annual status report on hunger in the Commonwealth. The disquieting trends described in this report, caused by high unemployment, point to 554,000 people in the Commonwealth struggling with hunger.

20 Nov 2009

Pfizer’s Revatio Injection receives FDA approval

Pfizer announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Revatio® (sildenafil) Injection, an intravenous formulation of Revatio. Revatio is the only FDA-approved phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitor available in both tablet and intravenous formulations.

20 Nov 2009

NHLBI-supported research shares new strategies on hypertension, heart defect and air pollution

New education strategies for better controlling hypertension and research suggesting a possible link between short-term and long-term exposure to air pollution and increased risk of constricted blood vessels are among the research highlights from studies supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the American Heart Association's 2009 Scientific Sessions in Orlando held Nov. 14-18.

20 Nov 2009