High Blood Pressure News and Research

Latest High Blood Pressure News and Research

HeartMate XVE left ventricular assist device

Nine years ago this week, a team of University of Michigan doctors gave a dying heart patient a second chance at life by implanting a high-tech pump in his chest. The high-risk procedure was the first in Michigan performed using a new blood-pumping device called a HeartMate XVE left ventricular assist device, which helped the patient live until he received a heart transplant five weeks later.

28 Sep 2005

Possible therapy that could control blood pressure

A newly developed virus that introduces a blood pressure-lowering gene into cells and enables that gene to maintain blood pressure at healthy levels for four months promises to take gene therapy for the disorder a step closer to reality, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report released online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

27 Sep 2005

48 percent of adults in the U.S. have inadequate health literacy

Health problems that place limitations on daily activities and result in pain that interferes with normal work activities were more common among older individuals with poor health literacy, according to a study in the current issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

27 Sep 2005

Aggressive public health efforts to control hypertension may help preserve cognitive abilities as well as cardiovascular health

Not only does high blood pressure adversely affect mental functioning, but the correlation appears to be stronger among African-Americans than among whites, researchers report in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

26 Sep 2005

Researchers map genetic location that explains why certain blood pressure-lowering drugs aren't effective for some people

"The findings bring us a step closer to developing targeted therapies for patients with high blood pressure who might otherwise be started on medications that won't help," said lead author Sandosh Padmanabhan, Ph.D.

26 Sep 2005

Lead exposures early in life combined with high blood pressure in working age adults may lead to diminishing cognitive abilities in later life

Exposure to lead in early childhood and adolescence may contribute to hypertension-related decline that can impair a person's cognitive abilities, according to a new study presented at the 2005 American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research meeting.

26 Sep 2005

Genes from both the mother and father can trigger pre-eclampsia

Pre-eclampsia is a serious condition where abnormally high blood pressure and other disturbances develop in the second half of pregnancy. It occurs in 3-5% of pregnancies and is dangerous for both mother and child.

26 Sep 2005

Smoking may increase the risk of developing diabetes

The surprising finding emerged when researchers examined the relationship between smoking and diabetes among participants in a major national study, the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study (IRAS).

26 Sep 2005

"Designer" rats help show how declining estrogen after menopause can affect hypertension

Scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have created a better research rat – the first to enable them to study how declining estrogen after menopause can affect hypertension, heart failure and kidney damage.

26 Sep 2005

Supportive spouse helps lower blood pressure

When job strain causes stress, a supportive spouse might help lower the negative impact on a person's blood pressure, according to a study presented at the 2005 American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research meeting.

26 Sep 2005

Low-dose aspirin might prevent the cardiovascular damage known to arise from use of the painkiller rofecoxib (Vioxx)

Their findings that a chemical imbalance might underlie such damage could also lead to the development of anti-inflammatory drugs without the adverse side effects, the researchers said.

20 Sep 2005

Nuclear receptor proteins could change anti-inflammatory treatments

Several nuclear receptor proteins appear to overlap in their ability to exert anti-inflammatory effects, according to new research by scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

12 Sep 2005

Low-fat, plant-based diet is more effective at helping women lose weight

A low-fat, plant-based diet is more effective at helping women lose weight and improve insulin sensitivity than an omnivorous diet, shows a new study appearing in the September issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

10 Sep 2005

Strokes and heart attacks can be prevented in people with high blood pressure

Most strokes and heart attacks in people with high blood pressure can be abolished by simply combining effective, modern blood pressure lowering drugs with treatment to reduce cholesterol.

6 Sep 2005

Metabolic Syndrome, a map of the cardiovascular damage

The metabolic syndrome (MS) is a cluster of metabolic abnormalities with abdominal obesity (increased waist circumference) at its centre. Although all forms of obesity have a negative impact on human health, metabolic syndrome describes a set of particularly adverse biochemical changes accompanying (abdominal) obesity.

5 Sep 2005

Sports and exercise - in addition to preventing obesity and diabetes - directly improve vascular function and reduce atherosclerosis

When asked about his personal recipe for old age, Winston Churchill used to answer: "First of all: No sports." While being a visionary figure in world politics researchers in cardiovascular exercise science today would unanimously reply to his medical hypothesis: "Sorry, you are wrong."

5 Sep 2005