http://www.severehypertension.net/ en 2009-05-07T08:27:00+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/computerized-calls-boost-blood-pressure-control/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/computerized-calls-boost-blood-pressure-control/#When:08:27:00Z Weekly automated phone calls can help people with hypertension control their blood pressure more effectively, Canadian researchers have shown. After about a year, 46 percent of men and women who got such calls had brought their blood pressure down to optimum levels, compared to about 29 percent of people who didn’t receive calls, Dr. Pavel Hamet of the University of Montreal and his colleagues report. “A fairly simple intervention supported by technology that consumed very little human resources can be highly effective in primary care settings,” they write in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Severe Hypertension News 2009-05-07T08:27:00+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/study-pinpoints-genes-tied-to-high-blood-pressure/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/study-pinpoints-genes-tied-to-high-blood-pressure/#When:18:17:01Z Two genes that help the body get rid of excess sodium may be important causes of high blood pressure, U.S. scientists reported on Sunday. They found that people with two particular variants of the genes were at higher risk for high blood pressure. High blood pressure, also called hypertension, can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure and kidney failure, and it tends to run in families. But scientists have struggled to pinpoint genetic traits involved in the condition. Dr. Christopher Newton-Cheh of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and colleagues used genetic data on about 30,000 people from the United States, Sweden and Finland to detect the roles of two genes called NPPA and NPPB. Severe Hypertension News 2009-02-16T18:17:01+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/uric-acid-may-be-associated-with-high-blood-pressure/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/uric-acid-may-be-associated-with-high-blood-pressure/#When:11:37:00Z Reducing levels of uric acid in blood lowered blood pressure to normal in most teens in a study designed to investigate a possible link between blood pressure and the chemical, a waste product of the body’s normal metabolism, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. “If you reduce uric acid, at least in some patients, you may be able to reduce blood pressure,” said Dr. Daniel Feig, associate professor of pediatrics-renal at BCM and chief of the pediatric hypertension clinics at Texas Children’s Hospital. “This could be one way people develop hypertension and may allow us to develop new therapies.” Understanding how people develop high blood pressure gives scientists new tools for understanding the disorder and developing drugs to prevent and treat it. Severe Hypertension News 2008-08-27T11:37:00+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/high-blood-pressure-to-face-the-music/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/high-blood-pressure-to-face-the-music/#When:16:01:00Z Listening to just 30 minutes of rhythmically homogeneous music every day may significantly reduce high blood pressure, according to researchers at the American Society of Hypertension’s Twenty Third Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2008). In the first study to examine the antihypertensive effect of music listening on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP), today??™s findings reveal that patients with mild hypertension who listened to just half an hour of classical, Celtic or raga music a day for four weeks experienced significant reductions in 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP). Hypertension is a common disorder in which blood pressure remains abnormally high (a reading of 140/90 mm Hg or greater) and is responsible for causing at least five million premature deaths each year worldwide. “Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure,??? said study investigator, Prof. Pietro A. Modesti, MD, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine, Dep.Critical Care Medicine, University of Florence, Italy. ???But for the first time, today??™s results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ABP. We are excited about the positive implications for both patients and physicians, who can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, non-pharmacological treatment option or a complement to therapy.” Severe Hypertension News 2008-05-14T16:01:00+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/meditation-impacts-blood-pressure/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/meditation-impacts-blood-pressure/#When:17:30:01Z Transcendental Meditation is an effective treatment for controlling high blood pressure with the added benefit of bypassing possible side effects and hazards of anti-hypertension drugs, according to a new meta-analysis conducted at the University of Kentucky. The study appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Hypertension. The meta-analysis evaluated nine randomized, controlled trials using Transcendental Meditation as a primary intervention for hypertensive patients. The practice of Transcendental Meditation was associated with approximate reductions of 4.7 mm systolic blood pressure and 3.2 mm diastolic blood pressure. Severe Hypertension News 2008-03-14T17:30:01+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/stress-high-blood-pressure-tied-to-birthweight/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/stress-high-blood-pressure-tied-to-birthweight/#When:12:51:00Z Pregnant women with both high stress levels and high blood pressure may be at increased risk of having an underweight baby, a study suggests. What’s more, researchers found, the combination of high stress and elevated blood pressure was twice as common among African-American women versus white women. They say the findings may help explain why black women are at particular risk of having a low-birthweight baby. In the study, which appears in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers followed 170 white and African-American women who had their blood pressure and stress levels measured at different points during pregnancy. Severe Hypertension News 2008-02-08T12:51:00+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/severe-hypertension-silent-killer-still-on-the-loose/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/severe-hypertension-silent-killer-still-on-the-loose/#When:17:35:00Z High blood pressure may be one of the top killers in the country, but you??™d never know it by the way we??™re behaving, say scientists attending the annual congress of the Society for Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). ???Research shows that some 73 million people in the U.S. have high blood pressure, yet many of them don??™t even know it. And among those that do, a large number are not taking the medications they need to control it,” says Dr. Christopher Granger, a cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center. ???We??™ve discovered that these patients are getting highly variable treatment. Moreover, we also found out that we aren??™t doing a very good job following up with these folks once they leave the hospital,??? he adds. Granger and colleagues at nearly two dozen institutions around the country created a special registry to find out what happens to patients with acute, severe hypertension ??“ those with blood pressure readings above 160/110 ??“ when they come to an emergency department or critical care setting for treatment. Severe Hypertension News 2008-01-31T17:35:00+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/diabetes-and-hypertension-in-severe-obesity/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/diabetes-and-hypertension-in-severe-obesity/#When:20:02:00Z Objective To evaluate the preoperative relationships of hypertension and diabetes mellitus in severe obesity and the effects of gastric bypass (GBP)-induced weight loss. Summary Background Data Severe obesity is associated with multiple comorbidities, particularly hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus, that may affect life expectancy. Severe Hypertension News 2008-01-22T20:02:00+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/theories-of-stress/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/theories-of-stress/#When:00:29:00Z There are several theoretical positions devised for examining and understanding stress and stress-related disorders. Brantley and Thomason (1995) categorized them into three groups: response theories, stimulus theories, and interaction (or transaction) theories. Given the distinction made earlier between stress as a stimulus and as a response, this system serves as a useful way to present the various theories and associated research. Response Theories and Research Because chronic stress responses involve actual physiological changes to body systems and organs, a good bit of attention has been paid to acute physiological stress responses and how they might possibly lead to subsequent chronic stress responses (McEwen and Stellar, 1993). Models of Stress, Theories of Stress 2008-01-10T00:29:00+00:00 http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/stimulus-theories-and-research/ http://www.severehypertension.net/hbp/more/stimulus-theories-and-research/#When:00:25:00Z Remaining consistent with the usage of the term ‘stress’ described in physics, some investigators have focused on stress as a stimulus. Most notable among researchers employing this approach were Holmes and Rahe (1967). These investigators devised a list of major life events known as the Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Intuitively selecting ‘death of a spouse’ as the barometer of the most stressful life event, this instrument consisted of 43 items measuring distinct life changes that were self-reported over a specified period of time, typically one year. Each item was assigned what Holmes and Rahe called a Life Change Unit score based upon the item’s relative severity with reference to ‘death of a spouse.’ Research employing the Social Readjustment Rating Scale has demonstrated an association between the number of significant stressful life events and incidence of a number of psychological disorders and medical diseases (Brown and Harris, 1989; Horowitz et al.,1977). Models of Stress, Theories of Stress 2008-01-10T00:25:00+00:00