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Home > Health Conditions > Hypertension.

Hypertension

Click here for why I feel that Micardis® (telmisartan) should be the first line treatment for hypertension.

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Other News:

  • Reduction in Blood Pressure With Statins: Results From the UCSD Statin Study, a Randomized Trial - Arch Intern Med. 2008 Apr 14;168(7):721-7 - "Statins modestly but significantly reduced BP relative to placebo,by 2.2 mm Hg for SBP (P = .02) and 2.4mm Hg for DBP"
  • Statins Lower Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/11/08 - "We found that statins lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and that the effect extends to patients with pre-hypertension, with normal blood pressure, and persons not on blood-pressure lowering medications"
  • Blood pressure and mortality among Chinese patients with cardiovascular disease - J Hypertens. 2008 May;26(5):859-865 - "For example, compared with those with a systolic BP less than 120 mmHg, patients with a systolic BP of 120-129, 130-139, 140-159, 160-179, and at least 180 mmHg had relative risks (95% confidence interval) of 1.28 (0.92, 1.78), 1.62 (1.19, 2.20), 2.09 (1.58, 2.77), 2.31 (1.73, 3.10), and 2.66 (2.01, 3.53) for CVD mortality, and 1.08 (0.84, 1.38), 1.26 (1.00, 1.60), 1.44 (1.17, 1.79), 1.57 (1.25, 1.96), and 1.86 (1.50, 2.30) for all-cause mortality (both P values < 0.0001 for linear trends), respectively"
  • Significant Reductions In Mortality Shown Using Blood Pressure-lowering Treatment In Very Elderly - Science Daily, 3/31/08 - "Lowering the blood pressure of elderly patients could cut their total mortality by a fifth and their rate of cardiovascular events by a third"
  • 2-drug Blood Pressure Therapy Dramatically Lowers Cardiovascular Risk - Science Daily, 3/31/08 - "One group received a tablet containing benazepril, which is a type of drug called an ACE inhibitor, and amlodipine, which belongs to a class of drugs known as calcium channel blockers or CCBs. The other pill combined benazepril and hydrochloro-thiazide, a type of diuretic or "water pill." The 20 percent reduction in cardiovascular events was observed with the ACE/CCB combination tablet"
  • High Blood Pressure Runs in Families - WebMD, 3/24/08
  • Why Certain Diabetes Drugs Appear To Lower Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 3/4/08 - "Drugs called thiazolidinediones (TDZs), which are used to treat type II diabetes, target and activate PPAR gamma. In addition to controlling blood sugar, these drugs also appear to lower blood pressure ... It appears that when PPAR gamma is activated it initiates a cascade of events that protect the blood vessel ... When we interfere with the PPAR gamma pathway, those protective mechanisms are eliminated and the blood vessel becomes dysfunctional" - I've read all the negative of thiazolidinediones (TDZs) and I still feel the good outweight the bad.  I take Actos (pioglitazone HCl) to help prevent diabetes among other thing like I feel they will eventually show that it helps prevent advanced glycation end products, a major cause of aging.
  • High Blood Pressure Linked to Kidney Cancer Risk - Medscape, 3/4/08 - "Hypertension is an important risk factor of RCC, accounting for approximately 20%-30% of cases"
  • Meat intake and the risk of hypertension in middle-aged and older women - J Hypertens. 2008 Feb;26(2):215-222 - "Red meat intake was positively associated, whereas poultry intake was unassociated, with the risk of hypertension in middle-aged and older women"
  • Blood Pressure and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Chinese Men and Women - Am J Hypertens. 2008 Jan 10 - "Our results indicate that there is a strong, linear, and independent relationship between BP levels and the risk of CVD in Chinese adults. Systolic BP is a stronger predictor of CVD risk compared to diastolic BP"
  • Can Your Brain Control Your Blood Pressure? - Science Daily, 1/11/08
  • Timing of Blood Pressure Measurement Related to Caffeine Consumption (January) - Ann Pharmacother. 2007 Dec 19 - "Reviews of caffeine's acute effect on blood pressure indicate changes of 3-15 mm Hg systolic and 4-13 mm Hg diastolic. Typically, blood pressure changes occur within 30 minutes, peak in 1-2 hours, and may persist for more than 4 hours"
  • Most Adults With Conditions That Increase Cardiovascular Disease Risk Have High Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 12/17/07 - "High blood pressure was found in most persons with cardiovascular diseases and related problems ... 75 percent or more were being treated for hypertension, but only one-third to one-half of those in treatment reached goal levels for blood pressure (140/90 milligrams of mercury for most patients, or 130/80 milligrams of mercury for patients with diabetes or chronic kidney disease)"
  • Blood Pressure Drugs: Is Timing Key? - WebMD, 12/13/07 - "The study was small, involving just 32 patients with chronic kidney disease taking more than one blood pressure medication ... When the patients switched just one of their blood pressure drugs from morning to bedtime, 28 experienced normalization of nighttime blood pressure patterns within eight weeks ... Most patients also showed decreases in protein levels in their urine indicative of better kidney function"
  • High Blood Pressure Associated With Risk For Mild Cognitive Impairment - Science Daily, 12/12/07 - "Hypertension (high blood pressure) was associated with an increased risk of all types of mild cognitive impairment that was mostly driven by an increased risk of non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment ... Preventing and treating hypertension may have an important impact in lowering the risk of cognitive impairment"
  • High Blood Pressure May Heighten Effects Of Alzheimer's Disease - Science Daily, 11/28/07 - "Having hypertension, or high blood pressure, reduces blood flow in the brains of adults with Alzheimer's disease"
  • 13% of Americans Have Kidney Disease - WebMD, 11/6/07 - "Thirteen percent of Americans now have chronic kidney disease, up 3% over the last decade, mostly due to higher rates of diabetes and high blood pressure ... A recent CDC report on the same NHANES data suggested that 17% of Americans have chronic kidney disease. Coresh and colleagues came up with a lower number because the CDC analysis included people with earlier signs of kidney disease, while the Coresh team counted only those with persistent kidney disease"
  • High Blood Pressure Or Irregular Heartbeat Linked To Alzheimer's Disease Progression - Science Daily, 11/5/07 - "10 with high blood pressure (systolic pressure over 160) at the time of AD diagnosis showed a rate of memory loss roughly 100 percent faster than those with normal blood pressure ... 10 with atrial fibrillation at the time of the diagnosis showed a rate of memory decline that was 75 percent faster than those with normal heartbeats"
  • High Blood Pressure May Vary by Season - WebMD, 11/5/07 - "people with high blood pressure may need higher doses of medication or even different drugs in the winter months ... Blood pressure was nearly 8% less likely to return to normal in the winter than in the summer ... weight and exercise may play a role in the seasonal variations ... People gain weight in the winter and lose weight in the summer"
  • When Treating High Blood Pressure, Simplicity is Best, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 11/5/07 - "initiate therapy with ACE-inhibitor/diuretic or Angiotensin receptor blocker/diuretic combination ... up-titrate combination therapy to the highest does ... add a calcium channel blocker and up-titrate ... add one of the non-first line antihypertensive agents" - I'm not a doctor but still feel people should stay away from diuretics.  See my research on first line treatments.  Also see the Alternative News section of my hypertension page.
  • Drugs For Hypertension May Help Prevent And Treat Alzheimer's Disease - Science Daily, 10/26/07 - "mice genetically determined to develop Alzheimer's disease beta-amyloid production and subsequent cognitive deterioration, significantly benefit from the treatment with the anti-hypertensive agent Valsartan, found to pharmacologically prevent beta-amyloid production in the brain even when delivered to Alzheimer's disease mice at doses 3-4 fold lower than the minimal equivalent dose prescribed for the treatment of hypertension in humans. Other anti-hypertension drugs with beneficial results included Propranolol HCI, Carvedilol, Losartan, Nicardipine HCI, Amiloride HCI and Hydralazine HCI" - Note:  I'm big on Micardis (telmisartan).  Valsartan and losartan (generic names so they shouldn't have been capitalized) are also ARBs.  I'm wondering if telmisartan was in the study.
  • Statin Use Linked to Better Blood Pressure Control - Medscape, 10/23/07 - "After adjustment for demographics, body mass index, diabetes, smoking, exercise, low-salt diet, and antihypertensive medications, the odds ratio for having blood pressure under control was 1.46 for statin users compared with nonusers"
  • Women With High Or Increasing Blood Pressure Are Up To Three Times More Likely To Develop Diabetes - Science Daily, 10/9/07 - "women who have high blood pressure levels are three times more likely to develop diabetes than women with low blood pressure levels ... The authors suggest a possible mechanism for the relation between BP and diabetes may be endothelial dysfunction -- a dysfunction of the normal biochemical processes carried out by the layer of cells that line the inner surfaces of blood vessels. "It may be a precursor of both hypertension and diabetes," ... the progression of endothelial dysfunction may cause worsening of both BP and blood glucose. This is in line with the fact that both BP and blood glucose occur together as part of the metabolic syndrome"
  • High Blood Pressure May Be Due To Excess Weight In Half Of Overweight Adults - Science Daily, 9/28/07 - "about 50 percent of overweight, hypertensive adults, ranging in age from 29 to 65 years, achieved normal body weight and blood pressure after six months of treatment with a reduced-calorie diet"
  • Use of Statins and Blood Pressure - Am J Hypertens. 2007 Sep;20(9):937-941 - "Compared with people not using statin medication, significantly more statin users had their blood pressure under control (52.2% v 38.0%). After adjustment for demographic factors, statin users were two times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.46 to 2.72) more likely to have their blood pressure under control (<140/90 mm Hg) than nonusers. After further adjustment for body mass index, diabetes, smoking, exercise, low-salt diet, and antihypertensive medications, the likelihood of having blood pressure under control remained more likely among statin users (odds ratio, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.05)"
  • Heavy Drinking Raises Blood Pressure In Older Men Regardless Of 'Good' Cholesterol - WebMD, 8/31/07 - "When looking at men of all ages, those with the lowest level of good cholesterol had the highest blood pressure in all three groups: nondrinkers, moderate drinkers and heavy drinkers. However, high levels of good cholesterol HDL did not do as much for the heavy drinkers"
  • Pioglitazone Decreases Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Type 2 Diabetics With Difficult-to-Control Hypertension - J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2007 Jul;9(7):530-7 - "add-on therapy with pioglitazone 30 to 45 mg for 20 weeks. After 20 weeks of treatment, 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring showed significant reductions (from 144+/-13 to 136+/-16 mm Hg systolic BP and from 79+/-9 to 76+/-10 mm Hg diastolic BP [P=.001]). Treatment was also associated with improvements in insulin sensitivity and glycemic and lipid profile"
  • Predictors of antihypertensive drug responses: initial data from a placebo-controlled, randomized, cross-over study with four antihypertensive drugs (The GENRES Study) - Am J Hypertens. 2007 Mar;20(3):311-8 - "amlodipine (5 mg), bisoprolol (5 mg), hydrochlorothiazide (25 mg), or losartan (50 mg) daily ... The median BP responses in 24-h ambulatory recordings (systolic/diastolic) were 11/8 mm Hg for bisoprolol, 9/6 mm Hg for losartan, 7/5 mm Hg for amlodipine, and 5/2 mm Hg for hydrochlorothiazide. The highest pairwise within-subject correlations in BP responses were seen for the combinations of bisoprolol-losartan and amlodipine-hydrochlorothiazide" - Note:  Amlodipine is a calcium channel blocker, bisoprolol is a beta blocker, hydrochlorothiazide is a diuretic and losartan is an ARB.  Strange that they didn't include an ACE inhibitor.
  • One Pill May Be Better Than Two For Treating Patients With High Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 5/11/07 - "Adults with high blood pressure and additional risk factors for heart disease may benefit more from taking one tablet rather than two, if their current treatment combines the lipid-lowering medication atorvastatin with the blood pressure-lowering medication amlodipine"
  • Blood pressure 'is in the brain - BBC News, 4/15/07
  • Predictors of antihypertensive drug responses: initial data from a placebo-controlled, randomized, cross-over study with four antihypertensive drugs (The GENRES Study) - Am J Hypertens. 2007 Mar;20(3):311-8 - "The median BP responses in 24-h ambulatory recordings (systolic/diastolic) were 11/8 mm Hg for bisoprolol, 9/6 mm Hg for losartan, 7/5 mm Hg for amlodipine, and 5/2 mm Hg for hydrochlorothiazide. The highest pairwise within-subject correlations in BP responses were seen for the combinations of bisoprolol-losartan and amlodipine-hydrochlorothiazide"
  • Job Stress Jacks Up Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/10/07 - "Their blood pressure was highest on the job, when they had 5.9/3.0 mm Hg higher blood pressure than the nonstressed workers did. But the stressed-out workers also had higher blood pressure while at home, including while they were sleeping"
  • Cholesterol Busting Statins Also Reduce Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 3/8/07 - "the use of statins did produce a drop in blood pressure. The overall effect of the use of statins was a 1.9 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure and 0.9 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure. The effect was even more pronounced in patients with high blood pressure (systolic over 130 mmHg) who showed an average drop of 4.0 mmHg if treated with statins"
  • High Blood Pressure: Drugs to Avoid When You Have Hypertension - WebMD, 3/6/07 - "Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) ... Migraine Headache Medications ... Weight Loss Medications"
  • Prehypertension Is "On the Map" of Cardiovascular Risk Factors - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/07 - "prehypertension is systolic pressure of 120-139 ... The increased cardiovascular risk with prehypertension is certainly smaller than the risk associated with having diabetes (158% higher risk), but is greater than that associated with smoking (34% higher). Since smoking is pretty much unchallenged as a cardiovascular risk factor, perhaps prehypertension should be afforded the same acceptance"
  • Study Finds Differences between Blood Pressure Medicines and Newly-Diagnosed Diabetes - Doctor's Guide, 1/19/07 - "the lowest risk of new-onset diabetes occurred with ARBs or ACE-inhibitors, followed by calcium channel blockers or placebo (both of which were relatively neutral), and highest with beta-blockers or diuretics. They concluded that compared to inactive sugar-pills, diuretics or beta-blockers slightly increase the risk of becoming diabetic, whereas ARBs or ACE-inhibitors significantly decrease the risk"
  • ARBs May Protect Against Diabetes Better Than ACE Inhibitors - Medscape, 1/19/07 - "Odds ratio of diabetes ... ARBs ... 0.57 ... ACE inhibitors ... 0.67 ... Calcium blockers ... 0.75 ... Placebo ... 0.77 ... Beta blockers ... 0.90 ... Diuretics (reference) ... 1.00"
  • Fasting Glucose Increases in Older Adults With Hypertension Regardless of Treatment Type - Medscape, 11/16/06 - "randomized to receive treatment with chlorthalidone, amlodipine, or lisinopril to reduce blood pressure to less than 140/90 mm Hg ... During the first 2 years, the mean increase is serum glucose levels was 8.5, 5.5, and 3.5 mg/dL among the chlorthalidone, amlodipine, and lisinopril groups, respectively" - Note:  Chlorthalidone is a diuretic, amlodipine is a calcium channel blocker and lisinopril is an ACE inhibitor.
  • Systolic Blood Pressure Predicts Mortality In Heart Failure Patients - Science Daily, 11/9/06 - "heart failure patients with higher systolic blood pressures had substantially lower death rates compared to patients with lower systolic pressures, and that lower systolic pressures may indicate more advanced disease and a poorer prognosis"
  • Estrogen and hypertension - Curr Hypertens Rep. 2006 Oct;8(5):368-76 - "emerging evidence from recent clinical trials indicates a small increase, rather than decrease, in systolic BP with oral estrogen administration in postmenopausal women, without any detectable effect on diastolic BP ... transdermal delivery of estrogen, which avoids the first-pass hepatic metabolism of estradiol, appears to have a small BP-lowering effect in postmenopausal women and may be a safer alternative in hypertensive women"
  • Long Hours Up High Blood Pressure Risk - WebMD, 8/28/06
  • Effects of a New Hormone Therapy, Drospirenone and 17-{beta}-Estradiol, in Postmenopausal Women With Hypertension - Hypertension. 2006 Jun 26 - "these data show that DRSP combined with E2 significantly reduces BP in postmenopausal women with hypertension and did not induce significant increases in serum potassium"
  • Elderly Blood Pressure Variability Affects Cognitive Function - Doctor's Guide, 5/26/06 - "study suggested that lowering the systolic BP by 20 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure by 10 mm Hg would have a considerable beneficial effect on the preservation of cognitive abilities in the whole population"
  • Experts Explore Potential Benefits of Treating Prehypertension - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/06 - "compared to placebo over a four-year period, treatment of prehypertension with Atacand© (candesartan cilexetil) significantly reduced the relative risk of developing hypertension"
  • Medication Slowed Progression to Hypertension - Intelihealth, 5/19/06 - "people with pre-hypertension who received candesartan -- an anti-hypertensive drug -- had a significantly reduced risk of developing high blood pressure compared with those who received a placebo"
  • Blood Pressure and Women's Sex Drive - WebMD, 5/19/06 - "women with high blood pressure were twice as likely to experience sexual dysfunction compared with their counterparts who had normal blood pressure"
  • Antihypertensive Agents May Be Linked to Decreased Risk for Alzheimer Disease - Medscape, 5/9/06 - "The use of any antihypertensive medications significantly reduced the risk of developing AD (adjusted HR, 0.64). This result did not vary by sex, APOE status, subjects' blood pressure values, or the duration of antihypertensive use ... potassium-sparing diuretics had the most significant affect on the