Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 6/24/09.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Testosterone Therapy Improves Metabolic Syndrome, Liver Steatosis in Hypogonadal Men - Doctor's Guide, 6/22/09 - "After receiving TU for 6 months, their body mass index, waist circumference, and low-density and high-density lipoprotein were improved ... Similarly, their serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels decreased towards the end of the first year of treatment, and then remained stable for the duration of the study ... The mean tryglyceride levels after treatment with TU were 195 mg/dL, down from 312 mg/dL before treatment ... LDL levels decreased after treatment as well, from 164 to 134 mg/dL, whereas HDL levels increased from 36.5 to 54.6 mg/dL"

New Evidence That Vinegar May Be Natural Fat-fighter - Science Daily, 6/22/09 - "Their new study showed that laboratory mice fed a high-fat diet and given acetic acid developed significantly less body fat (up to 10 percent less) than other mice. Importantly, the new research adds evidence to the belief that acetic acid fights fat by turning on genes for fatty acid oxidation enzymes. The genes churn out proteins involved in breaking down fats, thus suppressing body fat accumulation in the body" - See apple cider vinegar at Amazon.com - 4.5 tablets equals about 3 tablespoons by my calculations.  I've been popping 4 of these with meals for years and more and more research keeps backing me up.

Melatonin: The Fountain Of Youth? - Science Daily, 6/22/09 - "Melatonin can slow down the effects of aging. A team at laboratoire Arago in Banyuls sur Mer (CNRS / Université Pierre et Marie Curie) has found that a treatment based on melatonin can delay the first signs of aging in a small mammal ... studied the long-term effects of melatonin on the Greater White-toothed shrew, a small nocturnal insectivorous mammal. Under normal conditions, this animal shows the first signs of aging after reaching 12 months, mainly through the loss of circadian rhythm in its activities. By continuously administering melatonin, starting a little before 12 months, the appearance of these first signs was delayed by at least 3 months, which is a considerable period in relation to the lifespan of this shrew ... Melatonin is now known to play several beneficial roles. These include being an antioxidant, an anti-depressant, and helping to remediate sleep problems" - See melatonin at Amazon.com.

Statins Can Protect Against Alzheimer’s Disease, According To New Study - Science Daily, 6/22/09 - "They clearly demonstrated that treatment with a statin called Lovastatin could prevent the death of nerve cells under these conditions. The statins not only prevented cells from dying but also prevented the loss of memory capacity that normally occurs after such cell death. In a previous study Dolga had showed that these statins stimulate the protective capacity of tumor necrosis factor, which is a key player in the brain’s immune response" - [Abstract] - Note:  Lovastatin (that's the generic name and therefore shouldn't be capitalized) is in red yeast rice.  See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.

Protecting the Brain from Aging? - Dr. Weil, 6/22/09 - "Dr. Khalsa is president and medical director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Foundation International and author of the book "The Better Memory Kit" to be published later this year. He tells me that supplemental acetyl-L-carnitine can increase energy in the mitochondria, the power plants of all cells, and thereby helps generally boost physical and mental energy. He describes acetyl-L-carnitine as a superior antioxidant that promotes the production in cells of glutathione, perhaps our most potent free radical scavenger. If you decide to try it, Dr. Khalsa recommends taking 500 to 1,500 mg per day along with 100 mg of Coenzyme-Q-10"

Most men deficient in key nutrients - MSNBC, 6/19/09 - "studies show that 77 percent of men don't take in enough magnesium, that many of us are deficient in vitamin D, and that the vitamin B12 in our diets may be undermined by a common heartburn medication. And we haven't even mentioned our problems with potassium and iodine" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.

Green Tea May Slow Prostate Cancer Progression - Science Daily, 6/19/09 - "According to results of a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, men with prostate cancer who consumed the active compounds in green tea demonstrated a significant reduction in serum markers predictive of prostate cancer progression ... Findings showed a significant reduction in serum levels of HGF, VEGF and PSA after treatment, with some patients demonstrating reductions in levels of greater than 30 percent" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.

Dramatic Outcomes In Prostate Cancer Study - Science Daily, 6/19/09 - "The patients first received a type of hormone therapy called androgen ablation, which removes testosterone and usually causes some initial reduction in tumor size. Researchers then introduced a single dose of ipilimumab, an antibody, which builds on the anti-tumor action of the hormone and causes a much larger immune response, resulting in massive death of the tumor cells. Both men experienced consistent drops in their prostate specific antigen (PSA) counts over the following weeks until both were deemed eligible for surgery. Then, during surgery, came a greater surprise ... The tumors had shrunk dramatically"

New Supplement May Help Slow Sight Loss In Elderly - Science Daily, 6/19/09 - "As the macula of the eye is very rich in antioxidants the researchers wanted to see if a supplement called CARMA (Caroteneoids and Co-antioxidants in Age-related Maculopathy) containing the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin could help slow down AMD ... The supplement also contained vitamins C,E and Zinc"

Could vinegar be natural fat fighter? - Nutra USA, 6/18/09 - "fed mice a high-fat diet, with 50 per cent of energy coming from fat, and treated the animals with 1.5 per cent vinegar (high-dose group), 0.3 per cent vinegar (low-dose group), or water (control group) ... the researchers noted that that both vinegar groups produced reductions in fat mass of about 10 per cent, with no apparent dose-dependent effect, compared to the control mice ... The results of this study suggest that acetic acid suppresses body fat accumulation by increasing fatty oxidation and thermogenesis in the liver through PPAR-alpha" - [Abstract] - See vinegar supplements at Amazon.com.  Related study:

• Vinegar as a Sweet Solution? - Science News, 12/18/04 - "2 tablespoons of vinegar before a meal—perhaps, as part of a vinaigrette salad dressing—will dramatically reduce the spike in blood concentrations of insulin and glucose that come after a meal ... vinegar cut their blood-glucose rise in the first hour after a meal by about half ... a 2-pound weight loss, on average, over the 4 weeks in the vinegar group" - Note:  1 Source Natural 500 mg tablet equals 2 tsb of vinegar.  4.5 tablets equals about 3 tablespoons by my calculations.

Antibiotics Take Toll On Beneficial Microbes In Gut - Science Daily, 6/18/09 - "Normally, a set of thousands of different kinds of microbes lives in the gut – a distinctive mix for each person, and thought to be passed on from mother to baby. The microbes, including many different bacteria, aid digestion and nutrition, appear to help maintain a healthy immune system, and keep order when harmful microbes invade ... Mice, which normally develop a diverse set of microbes after being born without one, then were given either cefoperazone, a broad-spectrum cephalosporin antibiotic, or a combination of three antibiotics (amoxicillin, bismuth and metronidazole) ... Both antibiotic treatments caused significant changes in the gut microbial community. However, in the mice given cefoperazone, there was no recovery of normal diversity. In other mice given the amoxicillin-containing combination, the microbiota largely recovered, but not completely ... Probiotics may be part of the solution, but we don’t know that yet" - See probiotics at Amazon.com.

Certain Zinc-based Cold Remedies Linked To Loss Of Sense Of Smell, FDA Says - Science Daily, 6/18/09 - "The FDA has received more than 130 reports of loss of sense of smell associated with the use of these three Zicam products" - Seems like Zicam has been around over ten years and at least 20 million people must have used it by now.  130/20,000,000 = 0.0000065 or one chance in 154,000.  Seems like it could have been due to chance.  People worried about those odds might not want to drive to work.  36,000 people in the U.S. die from the flu each year (360,000 in ten years).  Maybe the reduction in flu severity provided by the Zicam would have been enough to save 130 of them.  Sometimes I think the FDA gets carried away.  We've probably had more problems with peanut allergies so maybe peanuts should be outlawed.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Protect Against Progression Of Age-related Macular Degeneration - Science Daily, 6/18/09 - "we observed participants with early stages of AMD in the placebo group benefited from higher intake of DHA, but it appears that the high-dose supplements of the antioxidants and/or the minerals somehow interfered with the benefits of DHA against early AMD progression ... The antioxidant supplements did not seem to interfere with the protective effects of DHA and EPA against progression to advanced stages of AMD. Participants who consumed higher amounts of DHA and EPA appeared to have lower risk of progression to both wet and dry forms of advanced AMD" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Red Yeast Rice May Lower Cholesterol - WebMD, 6/17/09 - "After six months, patients who took the red yeast rice had lowered their LDL cholesterol by an average of 35 mg/dL, compared to 15 mg/dL among the placebo group" - See red yeast rice products at iHerb.

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics plus abstracts from my RSS feeds (Click here for the journals, the PubMed ones at the top):

Pretreatment with Lovastatin Prevents N-Methyl-D-Aspartate-Induced Neurodegeneration in the Magnocellular Nucleus Basalis and Behavioral Dysfunction - J Alzheimers Dis. 2009 Mar 6 - "From these studies we conclude that treatment with lovastatin may provide protection against neuronal injury in excitotoxic conditions associated with neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease" - Note:  Lovastatin (that's the generic name and therefore shouldn't be capitalized) is in red yeast rice.  See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.

Comparison of dietary conjugated linoleic acid with safflower oil on body composition in obese postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus - Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Jun 17 - "Supplementation with CLA reduced body mass index (BMI) (P = 0.0022) and total adipose mass (P = 0.0187) without altering lean mass. The effect of CLA in lowering BMI was detected during the last 8 wk of each 16-wk diet period. In contrast, SAF had no effect on BMI or total adipose mass but reduced trunk adipose mass (P = 0.0422) and increased lean mass (P = 0.0432). SAF also significantly lowered fasting glucose (P = 0.0343) and increased adiponectin (P = 0.0051). No differences were observed in dietary energy intake, total fat intake, and fat quality in either diet period for either intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Supplementation with CLA and SAF exerted different effects on BMI, total and trunk adipose mass, and lean tissue mass in obese postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes" - See conjugated linoleic acid at Amazon.com.

Inhibition of UVA and UVB radiation-induced lipid oxidation by quercetin - J Agric Food Chem. 2009 Jun 24;57(12):5301-5 - "Quercetin, which absorbs UV radiation at 255 and 365 nm, was determined to be a stronger inhibitor of lipid oxidation induced by UVB (3.7 radicals scavenged per molecule) than by lipid oxidation induced by UVA (1.9 radicals scavenged per molecule). The values for inhibition of UVB-induced lipid oxidation by quercetin are comparable to those when 2,2'-azobis(2-amidinopropane) was used as an oxidizing system (four radicals scavenged per molecule). The protective effect of quercetin appears to be mainly the result of scavenging of UV-generated radical species, although this may be decreased slightly in the UVA as a result of its absorption at 365 nm" - See quercetin at Amazon.com.

Acetic Acid Upregulates the Expression of Genes for Fatty Acid Oxidation Enzymes in Liver To Suppress Body Fat Accumulation - J Agric Food Chem. 2009 May 26 - "acetic acid (AcOH) ... AcOH suppresses accumulation of body fat and liver lipids by upregulation of genes for PPARalpha and fatty-acid-oxidation-related proteins by alpha2 AMPK mediation in the liver" - See vinegar supplements at Amazon.com.

Pioglitazone might prevent the progression of slowly progressive type 1 diabetes - Intern Med. 2009;48(12):1037-9 - "We report a slowly progressive type 1 diabetic patient whose insulin production was preserved for 4 years (SigmaC-peptide from 29.48 ng/mL to 24.58 ng/mL) using pioglitazone despite a high titer of anti-GAD antibody (GADA; 120.7 U/mL). This case suggests that pioglitazone might prevent or delay the loss of insulin secretion and insulin dependency in slowly progressive type 1 diabetic patients" - See pioglitazone at OffshoreRx1.com.

Clinical studies show no effects of soy protein or isoflavones on reproductive hormones in men: results of a meta-analysis - Fertil Steril. 2009 Jun 11 - "No significant effects of soy protein or isoflavone intake on T, SHBG, free T, or FAI were detected regardless of statistical model"

Antidiabetic effects of 11beta-HSD1 inhibition in a mouse model of combined diabetes, dyslipidaemia and atherosclerosis - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2009 Jul;11(7):688-99 - "Importantly, 11beta-HSD1 inhibition leads to improved glucose metabolism and does not result in a worsening of atherosclerotic lesion area, yet retained antidiabetic potential in the face of multiple severe metabolic aberrations. This study reinforces the potential use of 11beta-HSD1 inhibitors in patients with the metabolic syndrome without negatively impacting atherosclerosis" - Note:  I  started that page on 11beta-HSD1 quit some time ago because of its connection with cortisol.  Also it may be a major cause of belly fat.  11beta-HSD1 inhibitors may be the way to go to reduce cortisol.  So far the only thing I'm aware of to reduce cortisol is phosphatidylserine which is claimed to reduce cortisol by 30% but I couldn't find anything on for how long, i.e., 5 minutes, an hour, 24 hours, etc.  Plus phosphatidylserine is very expensive.

Neat Tech Stuff :

Health Focus (hypertension):

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

Popular Medications/Related Topics:

• Hypertension / pulse pressure / hardening of the arteries / angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) / ace inhibitors / alpha blockers / calcium channel blockers / diuretics / beta blockers / Renin Inhibitors /  Vanlev (omapatrilat) / aldosterone blockers / dihydropyridine (DHP) calcium antagonist / first line treatment for hypertension
• DASH Diet / memory and hypertension

Popular Supplements:

• Anti-Ace Peptides™ / Celery Extract / Co-enzyme Q10 / Melatonin / Hawthorn / Omega-3 Fatty Acids / Gamma Linolenic Acid (GLA) / Magnesium / Stevia / Vitamin C / Vitamin E / Potassium / HMB / Folic Acid / L-Citrulline / L-Arginine / Garlic / Green Tea
• blood pressure monitors at Amazon.com

Alternative News:

• Hypertension  - Life Extension Foundation
• Hypertension - The Natural Pharmacist
• New Findings On Green Tea - Life Extension Foundation - "Green tea is a natural ACE inhibitor."
• Lower your blood pressure naturally - Intelihealth
• Lower Blood Pressure Naturally - Dr. Murray - "The degree of blood pressure reduction in these studies was quite significant, typically reducing the systolic by at least 10 mm Hg and the diastolic by 7 mm Hg in people with borderline and mild hypertension.  Greater reductions will be seen in people with higher initial blood pressure readings"
• Too little sleep may raise blood pressure - MSNBC, 6/9/09 - "The study ... found missing an average one hour of sleep over five years raised the risk of developing high blood pressure by 37 percent"
• Omega-3 may improve blood pressure during weight loss - Nutra USA, 6/2/09 - "Consumption of fatty fish like salmon, or fish oil supplements, may reduce blood pressure during an energy-restricted diet" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Magnesium may benefit blood pressure in hypertensives - Nutra USA, 5/19/09 - "receive either daily supplements of 300 mg of elemental magnesium in the magnesium oxide form or placebo for 12 weeks ... At the end of the study, no significant differences were observed between the magnesium or placebo groups. However, when the researchers looked specifically at hypertensives, significant decreases in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were observed in the magnesium group (17.1 and 3.4 mmHg, respectively), compared to placebo (6.7 and 0.8 mmHg, respectively)" - [Abstract] - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.
• Effects of oral magnesium supplementation on insulin sensitivity and blood pressure in normo-magnesemic nondiabetic overweight Korean adults - Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2009 Apr 7 - "These results suggested that magnesium supplementation does not reduce BP and enhance insulin sensitivity in normo-magnesemic nondiabetic overweight people. However, it appears that magnesium supplementation may lower BP in healthy adults with higher BP" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.
• Quercetin reduces systolic blood pressure and plasma oxidised low-density lipoprotein concentrations in overweight subjects with a high-cardiovascular disease risk phenotype: a double-blinded, placebo-controlled cross-over study - Br J Nutr. 2009 Apr 30:1-10 - "Subjects were randomised to receive 150 mg quercetin/d in a double-blinded, placebo-controlled cross-over trial with 6-week treatment periods separated by a 5-week washout period. Mean fasting plasma quercetin concentrations increased from 71 to 269 nmol/l (P < 0.001) during quercetin treatment. In contrast to placebo, quercetin decreased systolic blood pressure (SBP) by 2.6 mmHg (P < 0.01) in the entire study group, by 2.9 mmHg (P < 0.01) in the subgroup of hypertensive subjects and by 3.7 mmHg (P < 0.001) in the subgroup of younger adults aged 25-50 years. Quercetin decreased serum HDL-cholesterol concentrations (P < 0.001), while total cholesterol, TAG and the LDL:HDL-cholesterol and TAG:HDL-cholesterol ratios were unaltered. Quercetin significantly decreased plasma concentrations of atherogenic oxidised LDL, but did not affect TNF-alpha and C-reactive protein when compared with placebo ... Blood parameters of liver and kidney function, haematology and serum electrolytes did not reveal any adverse effects of quercetin. In conclusion, quercetin reduced SBP and plasma oxidised LDL concentrations in overweight subjects with a high-CVD risk phenotype. Our findings provide further evidence that quercetin may provide protection against CVD" - See quercetin at Amazon.com.
• Time-released garlic powder tablets lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure in men with mild and moderate arterial hypertension - Hypertens Res. 2009 Apr 24 - "hypotensive action of time-released garlic powder tablets (Allicor) was compared with that of regular garlic pills (Kwai) in 84 men with mild or moderate arterial hypertension ... Allicor treatment (600 mg daily) resulted in a reduction of both systolic and diastolic blood pressures by 7.0 mm Hg (95% confidence interval (95% CI): 5.3-8.7) and 3.8 mm Hg (95% CI: 2.7-4.8), respectively. Increasing the Allicor dosage to 2400 mg daily did not provide any additional benefit. Treatment with Kwai resulted in the same decrease in systolic blood pressure (5.4 mm Hg, 95% CI: 1.9-8.8) as that seen with Allicor, but no decrease in diastolic blood pressure was observed with Kwai ... The results of this study show that time-released garlic powder tablets are more effective for the treatment of mild and moderate arterial hypertension than are regular garlic supplements" - See garlic supplements at Amazon.com.
• Benefit Of Grapes May Be More Than Skin Deep: Lower Blood Pressure, Reduced Heart Damage - Science Daily, 4/22/09 - "After 18 weeks, the rats that received the grape-enriched diet powder had lower blood pressure, better heart function, and fewer signs of heart muscle damage than the rats that ate the same salty diet but didn't receive grapes ... Rats that received the blood pressure medicine, hydrazine, along with a salty diet also had lower blood pressure, but their hearts were not protected from damage as they were in the grape-fed group" - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com.
• Resveratrol attenuates angiotensin II-induced interleukin-6 expression and perivascular fibrosis - Hypertens Res. 2009 Apr 17 - "Resveratrol significantly attenuated Ang II-induced IL-6 mRNA expression and IL-6 protein in the supernatant of VSMC in a dose-dependent manner. Resveratrol suppressed the IL-6 gene promoter activity. Resveratrol inhibited the Ang II-induced cAMP-response element-binding protein and nuclear factor-kappa B activity, which are critical for Ang II-induced IL-6 gene activation. An increase in the serum concentration of IL-6 induced by Ang II infusion was attenuated by an oral administration of resveratrol. Resveratrol also inhibited Ang II-induced hypertension and perivascular fibrosis of the heart. Although hydralazine reduced blood pressure level equal to resveratrol, it did not reduce the Ang II-induced IL-6 production and perivascular fibrosis. These data suggest that the inhibition of Ang II-induced vascular inflammation and high blood pressure by resveratrol may contribute, at least in part, to the anti-atherogenic effects of resveratrol" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.
• Late Bedtimes Linked to Heart Disease - WebMD, 3/30/09 - "The fewer hours a man slept each night, the higher his BMI, blood pressure, and triglyceride levels"
• Chronic Insomnia With Short Sleep Duration Is Significant Risk Factor For Hypertension - Science Daily, 4/1/09 - "A study in the April 1 issue of the journal SLEEP is the first to demonstrate that chronic insomnia with objectively measured short sleep time is an independent and clinically significant risk factor for hypertension"
• Conjugated Linoleic Acid Supplementation Enhances Antihypertensive Effect of Ramipril in Chinese Patients With Obesity-Related Hypertension - Am J Hypertens. 2009 Mar 19 - "Participants were randomized to a daily dose of 4.5 g/day CLA (nine 0.5-g capsules; a 50:50 isomer blend of c 9,t 11 and t 10,c 12 CLA) with 37.5 mg/day ramipril (group 1) or placebo with 37.5 mg/day ramipril (group 2) for 8 weeks ... Treatment with CLA significantly enhanced the reduction effect of ramipril on systolic BP and diastolic BP (P < 0.05). It also increased plasma adiponectin concentration (P < 0.05) and decreased plasma concentrations of leptin and angiotensinogen (P < 0.05); however, significant change was not observed in ACE activity" - See conjugated linoleic acid at Amazon.com.
• Low Vitamin D Hurts Teenagers’ Hearts - WebMD, 3/11/09 - "Compared to the 25% of teens with the highest levels of vitamin D in their blood (more than 26 nanograms per milliliter), the 25% of teens with the lowest vitamin D levels (less than 15 ng/mL) had: ... Fourfold greater risk of metabolic syndrome, a combination of risk factors for diabetes ... 2.54 times greater risk of high blood sugar ... 2.36 times greater risk of high blood pressure" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Catechin prevents endothelial dysfunction in the prediabetic stage of OLETF rats by reducing vascular NADPH oxidase activity and expression - Atherosclerosis. 2009 Feb 3 - "studies have indicated that regular intake of green tea reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases. This study examined whether catechin prevents endothelial dysfunction and hyperglycemia in the prediabetic stage of a type 2 diabetic (T2D) rat ... Catechin significantly reduced blood pressure (OLETF vs. Catechin-OLETF; 138+/-16mmHg vs. 126+/-16mmHg, p=0.013), fasting sugar (129+/-11mg/dL vs. 118+/-9mg/dL, p=0.02) and the insulin level (2.13+/-1.29ng/mL vs. 0.53+/-0.27ng/mL, p=0.004). In the aorta of Catechin-OLETF at 25 weeks, endothelium-dependent relaxations were significantly improved and NADPH oxidase activity in aortic rings was markedly decreased compared with those of OLETF. Catechin reduced vascular reactive oxygen species formation in the aorta and suppressed the expression of p22phox and p47phox NADPH oxidase subunits" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin C-rich foods may boost artery health - Nutra USA, 2/17/09 - "increased intakes of vitamin C and fruit and berries were associated with less thickening of the carotid artery ... one mg per decilitre increase in blood vitamin C levels was linked to a 4.1 and 4.0 mmHg in systolic and diastolic blood pressures" - [Abstract] - See vitamin C products at Amazon.com.
• Low-fat dairy linked to blood pressure improvements: Study - Nutra USA, 1/29/09 - "The systolic and diastolic blood pressures of those with the highest average level of low-fat dairy intake (631 grams per day) were 4.2 and 1.8 mmHg lower than for participants with the lowest average intakes (3.1 grams per day)"
• Low-Sodium, High Potassium is Effective in Lowering Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 1/26/09 - "Those with the highest sodium levels in their urine were 20% more likely to suffer strokes, heart attacks, or other forms of cardiovascular disease compared with their counterparts with the lowest sodium levels. However this link was not strong enough to be considered statistically significant ... By contrast, participants with the highest sodium-to-potassium ratio in urine were 50% more likely to experience cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest sodium-to-potassium ratios. This link was statistically significant ... To lower blood pressure and blunt the effects of salt, adults should consume 4.7 grams of potassium per day unless they have a clinical condition or medication need that is a contraindication to increased potassium intake" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
• Reducing Salt Intake Isn't The Only Way To Reduce Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 1/26/09 - "A new study suggests that people trying to lower their blood pressure should also boost their intake of potassium, which has the opposite effect to sodium ... To lower blood pressure and blunt the effects of salt, adults should consume 4.7 grams of potassium per day unless they have a clinical condition or medication need that is a contraindication to increased potassium intake" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin C and BP - Medscape, 1/6/09 - "plasma vitamin-C concentrations were inversely associated with blood pressure in young women [1]. The results suggest that this nutrient may favorably influence blood pressure in healthy young adults ... plasma ascorbic acid at year 10 was inversely associated with systolic and diastolic BP. Those in the highest quartile of plasma vitamin C had 4.66-mm-Hg lower systolic BP and 6.04-mm-Hg lower diastolic BP (p=0.0002) than those in the lowest quartile ... Block says she has recently authored two papers detailing possible mechanisms by which vitamin C could lower BP. These show that vitamin C significantly lowers F2-isprostane, a marker of oxidative stress, and CRP, a marker of inflammation [2,3]. "Both inflammation and oxidative stress are pretty well established as having a role in hypertension ... Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant in vitro, and in some animal studies it has been shown to act as a vasodilator, possibly by enhancing the bioavailability of nitric oxide" - See vitamin C products at Amazon.com.
• Treatment of white coat hypertension with metformin - Int Heart J. 2008 Nov;49(6):671-9 - "White coat hypertension (WCH) is most likely a disorder associated with metabolic syndrome ... Twenty-five cases (14.7%) stopped metformin therapy due to excessive anorexia. At the end of a 6-month period, there were highly significant differences between the two groups with respect to the prevalences of resolved WCH, hyperbetalipoproteinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, dyslipidemia, overweight and obesity, and decreased fasting plasma glucose below 110 mg/dL ... Thus, the management of WCH should not focus solely on the regulation of blood pressure with antihypertensive medications, but rather on the prevention of future excess weight and various associated disorders, and metformin alone is an effective therapeutic option, most likely due to its powerful inhibitory effect on appetite"
• The Effects of Natural Antioxidants from Tomato Extract in Treated but Uncontrolled Hypertensive Patients - Cardiovasc Drugs Ther. 2008 Dec 4 - "two double blind cross-over treatment periods of 6 weeks each, with standardized tomato extract or identical placebo ... There was a significant reduction of systolic BP after 6 weeks of tomato extract supplementation, from 145.8 +/- 8.7 to 132.2 +/- 8.6 mmHg (p < 0.001) and 140.4 +/- 13.3 to 128.7 +/- 10.4 mmHg (p < 0.001) in the two groups accordingly. Similarly, there was a decline in diastolic BP from 82.1 +/- 7.2 to 77.9 +/- 6.8 mmHg (p = 0.001) and from 80.1 +/- 7.9 to 74.2 +/- 8.5 mmHg (p = 0.001). There was no significant change in systolic and diastolic BP during the placebo period" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at Amazon.com.
• Potassium Loss From Blood Pressure Drugs May Explain Higher Risk Of Adult Diabetes - Science Daily, 11/24/08 - "a drop in blood potassium levels caused by diuretics commonly prescribed for high blood pressure could be the reason why people on those drugs are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
• Effects of Garlic on Blood Pressure in Patients With and Without Systolic Hypertension: A Meta-Analysis (December) - Ann Pharmacother. 2008 Nov 18 - "Garlic reduced SBP by 16.3 mm Hg (95% CI 6.2 to 26.5) and DBP by 9.3 mmHg (95% CI 5.3 to 13.3) compared with placebo in patients with elevated SBP" - See garlic supplements at Amazon.com.
• The effect of lowering blood pressure by magnesium supplementation in diabetic hypertensive adults with low serum magnesium levels: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial - J Hum Hypertens. 2008 Nov 20 - "Over 4 months, subjects in the intervention group received 2.5 g of MgCl(2) (50 ml of a solution containing 50 g of MgCl(2) per 1000 ml of solution) equivalent to 450 mg of elemental magnesium, and control subjects inert placebo ... SBP (-20.4+/-15.9 versus -4.7 +/- 12.7 mm Hg, P=0.03) and DBP (-8.7+/-16.3 versus -1.2+/-12.6 mm Hg, P=0.02) showed significant decreases, and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (0.1+/-0.6 versus -0.1+/-0.7 mmol l(-1), P=0.04) a significant increase in the magnesium group compared to the placebo group. The adjusted odds ratio between serum magnesium and BP was 2.8 (95%CI: 1.4-6.9). Oral magnesium supplementation with MgCl(2) significantly reduces SBP and DBP in diabetic hypertensive adults with hypomagnesaemia" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.
• Hibiscus Tea May Cut Blood Pressure - WebMD, 11/10/08 - "Overall, drinking hibiscus tea blends lowered systolic blood pressure -- the top number in the blood pressure reading -- by an average of 7 points. That was significantly more than the 1-point drop observed in people who were given a placebo in the form of hibiscus-flavored water"
• Low Potassium Linked To High Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 11/8/08 - "As a risk factor for high blood pressure, low levels of potassium in the diet may be as important as high levels of sodium" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
• Grapes May Aid A Bunch Of Heart Risk Factors, Animal Study Finds - Science Daily, 10/29/08 - "Could eating grapes help fight high blood pressure related to a salty diet? And could grapes calm other factors that are also related to heart diseases such as heart failure? A new University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center study suggests so" - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com.
• Chicken Soup May Help Fight High Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 10/13/08 - "Saiga and colleagues extracted collagen from chicken legs and tested its ability to act as an ACE inhibitor in the laboratory studies. They identified four different proteins in the collagen mixture with high ACE-inhibitory activity. Given to rats used to model human high blood pressure, the proteins produced a significant and prolonged decrease in blood pressure"
• Olive Leaf Extract Can Help Tackle High Blood Pressure And Cholesterol - Science Daily, 8/27/08 - "This works showed that taking a 1000mg dose has substantial effects in people with borderline hypertension" - See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com.
• High-sugar diets increase cardiac dysfunction and mortality in hypertension compared to low-carbohydrate or high-starch diets - J Hypertens. 2008 Jul;26(7):1402-1410 - "Diets high in sugar accelerated cardiac systolic dysfunction and mortality in hypertension compared to either a low-carbohydrate/high-fat or high-starch diet"
• Chromium ingredient may lower blood pressure: study - Nutra USA, 5/15/08 - "niacin-bound chromium III (NBC) may act as an ACE inhibitor, which work by inhibiting the conversion of angiotensin I to the potent vasoconstrictor, angiotensin II, thereby improving blood flow and blood pressure" - I've been told that niacin-bound chromium is sold as ChromeMate®.  See chromium supplements at Amazon.com.
• Pine bark extract may boost diabetics' heart health - Nutra USA, 5/12/08 - "recruited diabetic subjects with an average age of 60 and randomly assigned them to receive daily supplements of Pycnogenol (125 mg) or placebo for 12 weeks ... All subjects were receiving pharmaceutical anti-hypertension treatment (angiotensin- converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitors) ... 58.3 per cent of subjects in the Pycnogenol group experienced blood pressure control, defined as attaining a stable systolic blood pressure, compared to 20.8 per cent in the placebo group ... use of ACE inhibitors was reduced by 50 per cent in the group receiving the pine bark extract ... a 23.7 mg/dL reduction in fasting blood glucose levels in the Pycnogenol group, compared to only 5.7 mg/dL in the placebo group" - See Pycnogenol at Amazon.com.
• Happy Marriage, Better Blood Pressure - WebMD, 3/20/08
• Vitamin D improves endothelial function in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus and low vitamin D levels - Diabet Med. 2008 Feb 13 - "Vitamin D supplementation significantly decreased systolic blood pressure by 14 mmHg compared with placebo" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Antihyperlipemic and antihypertensive effects of Spirulina maxima in an open sample of Mexican population: a preliminary report - Lipids Health Dis. 2007 Nov 26;6:33 - "the calculated values for cholesterol associated to low density lipoprotein (LDL-C) were significantly reduced by the Spirulina maxima ... significant differences were found comparing initial and final SYST-P and DIAST-P blood pressure in both male and female: SYST-P male 121 +/- 9 vs. 111 +/- 8 mm Hg (p < 0.01), DIAST-P male 85 +/- 6.5 vs. 77 +/- 9 mm Hg (p < 0.01); SYST-P female 120 +/- 9.5 vs. 109 +/- 11 mm Hg (p < 0.002), DIAST-P female 85 +/- 11 vs. 79 +/- 7.5 mm Hg" - See spirulina at Amazon.com.
• Dietary pattern and blood pressure control in a hypertension outpatient clinic - Hypertens Res. 2007 Nov;30(11):1043-50 - "those who return to a diet richer in vegetables, legumes and fish and poorer in saturated fat and salt achieve better control of their BP, without increasing the number of antihypertensive pills"
• n-3 Fatty acids, hypertension and risk of cognitive decline among older adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study - Public Health Nutr. 2008 Jan;11(1):17-29 - "Word Fluency Test (WFT) ... an increase of one standard deviation in dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (% of energy intake) and balancing long-chain n-3/n-6 decreased the risk of 6-year cognitive decline in verbal fluency with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 0.79 (0.66-0.95) and 0.81 (0.68-0.96), respectively, among hypertensives. An interaction with hypertensive status was found for dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (g day-1) and WFT decline (likelihood ratio test, P = 0.06). This exposure in plasma cholesteryl esters was also protective against WFT decline, particularly among hypertensives (OR = 0.51" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• Optimal vitamin D status attenuates the age-associated increase in systolic blood pressure in white Americans: results from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Jan;87(1):136-41 - "systolic blood pressure (SBP) ... SBP is inversely associated with serum vitamin D concentrations in nonhypertensive white persons in the United States" - Note:  SBP is the upper number.  See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Ascorbic Acid Decreases the Binding Affinity of the AT(1) Receptor for Angiotensin II - Am J Hypertens. 2008 Jan;21(1):67-71 - "Ascorbic acid decreases the binding affinity of the AT(1) receptor. These results offer a mechanistic explanation for the reported blood pressure lowering effect of ascorbic acid"
• Prevention of hypertension, cardiovascular damage and endothelial dysfunction with green tea extracts - Am J Hypertens. 2007 Dec;20(12):1321-8 - "green tea extract (GTE) ... The GTE prevented hypertension and target organ damage induced by a high Ang II dose, likely by prevention or scavenging of superoxide anion generation" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.
• Pycnogenol((R)), French maritime pine bark extract, augments endothelium-dependent vasodilation in humans - Hypertens Res. 2007 Sep;30(9):775-80 - "These findings suggest that Pycnogenol((R)) augments endothelium-dependent vasodilation by increasing in NO production. Pycnogenol((R)) would be useful for treating various diseases whose pathogeneses involve endothelial dysfunction" - Some say that grape seed extract is the same as Pycnogenol((R)) without the patent markup.  See Pycnogenol at Amazon.com and grape seed extract at Amazon.com.
• n-3 Fatty acids, hypertension and risk of cognitive decline among older adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study - Public Health Nutr. 2007 Jul 12;:1-13 - "Word Fluency Test (WFT) ... Findings indicated that an increase of one standard deviation in dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (% of energy intake) and balancing long-chain n-3/n-6 decreased the risk of 6-year cognitive decline in verbal fluency with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 0.79 (0.66-0.95) and 0.81 (0.68-0.96), respectively, among hypertensives. An interaction with hypertensive status was found for dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (g day-1) and WFT decline (likelihood ratio test, P = 0.06). This exposure in plasma cholesteryl esters was also protective against WFT decline, particularly among hypertensives (OR = 0.51"
• Onion compound linked to lower blood pressure - Nutra USA, 10/23/07 - "receive a daily supplement of quercetin (730 mg, USANA Health Sciences) or placebo for 28 days ... the hypertensives receiving the quercitin supplement experienced reductions in systolic and diastolic BP of seven and five mmHg, respectively, compared to placebo" - See quercetin at Amazon.com.
• Quercetin reduces blood pressure in hypertensive subjects - J Nutr. 2007 Nov;137(11):2405-11 - "730 mg quercetin/d for 28 d vs. placebo ... reductions in (P < 0.01) systolic (-7 +/- 2 mm Hg), diastolic (-5 +/- 2 mm Hg), and mean arterial pressures (-5 +/- 2 mm Hg) were observed in stage 1 hypertensive patients after quercetin treatment" - See quercetin at Amazon.com.
• Modest Weight Loss Cuts Hypertension - WebMD, 10/1/07 - "A little more than half (52%) of those who met the weight loss goal also got their blood pressure down into the normal range ... The bottom line: It didn't take a whole lot of weight loss to curb high blood pressure"
• Whole Grains vs. High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 8/10/07 - "Compared to women who reported eating less than half a daily serving of whole grains, women who claimed to eat at least four daily servings of whole grains were about 23% less likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure during the study"
• Dietary patterns and blood pressure change over 5-y follow-up in the SU.VI.MAX cohort - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1650-6 - "high fruit and vegetable intakes may be associated with a lower increase in BP with aging"
• Omega-3s May Lower Blood Pressure - WebMD, 6/4/07 - "Participants with the highest intake of omega-3 fatty acids tended to have the lowest blood pressure" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com or Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Effect of combined treatment with alpha-Lipoic acid and acetyl-L-carnitine on vascular function and blood pressure in patients with coronary artery disease - J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2007 Apr;9(4):249-55 - "Mitochondria produce reactive oxygen species that may contribute to vascular dysfunction. alpha-Lipoic acid and acetyl-L-carnitine reduce oxidative stress and improve mitochondrial function ... Active treatment increased brachial artery diameter by 2.3% (P=.008), consistent with reduced arterial tone. Active treatment tended to decrease systolic blood pressure for the whole group (P=.07) and had a significant effect in the subgroup with blood pressure above the median (151+/-20 to 142+/-18 mm Hg; P=.03) and in the subgroup with the metabolic syndrome (139+/-21 to 130+/-18 mm Hg; P=.03)" - See acetyl l-carnitine at Amazon.com and the alpha lipoic acid at Amazon.com.
• Coenzyme Q10 in the treatment of hypertension: a meta-analysis of the clinical trials - J Hum Hypertens. 2007 Apr;21(4):297-306 - "coenzyme Q10 has the potential in hypertensive patients to lower systolic blood pressure by up to 17 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure by up to 10 mm Hg without significant side effects" - See ubiquinol at Amazon.com.
• Supplementation with vitamins C and e improves arterial stiffness and endothelial function in essential hypertensive patients - Am J Hypertens. 2007 Apr;20(4):392-7 - "Combined treatment with vitamins C and E has beneficial effects on endothelium-dependent vasodilation and arterial stiffness in untreated, essential hypertensive patients"
• Chiropractic Cuts Blood Pressure - WebMD, 3/16/07
• Coenzyme Q(10) in the treatment of hypertension: a meta-analysis of the clinical trials - J Hum Hypertens. 2007 Feb 8 - "We conclude that coenzyme Q(10) has the potential in hypertensive patients to lower systolic blood pressure by up to 17 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure by up to 10 mm Hg without significant side effects" - See coenzyme Q10 at Amazon.com.
• Dietary supplementation with flaxseed oil lowers blood pressure in dyslipidaemic patients - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jan 31 - "Supplementation with ALA resulted in significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels compared with LA" - See flax seed at Amazon.com.
• Moderate Consumption of Olive Oil by Healthy European Men Reduces Systolic Blood Pressure in Non-Mediterranean Participants J Nutr. 2007 Jan;137(1):84-87 - "General linear models showed that the administration of the sequence of the 3 olive oils was responsible for a 3% decrease in systolic BP (SBP) (P < 0.05), but not in diastolic BP, in the non-Mediterranean subjects"
• Whole-grain diets reduce blood pressure in mildly hypercholesterolemic men and women - J Am Diet Assoc. 2006 Sep;106(9):1445-9 - "Systolic pressure was lower after the wheat/rice and half-and-half diets. Diastolic and mean arterial pressures were reduced by all whole-grain diets"
• Potassium magnesium supplementation for four weeks improves small distal artery compliance and reduces blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension - Clin Exp Hypertens. 2006 Jul;28(5):489-97 - "magnesium, 70.8 mg/d; potassium, 217.2 mg/d ... On K+ and Mg2+ supplementation, systolic and diastolic BP decreased 7.83 +/- 1.87 mm Hg and 3.67 +/- 1.03 mm Hg"
• Low-Fat Dairy Lowers Blood Pressure - WebMD, 6/26/06 - "the systolic blood pressure of people who ate the most low-fat dairy -- more than three servings a day -- was 2.6 points lower than those who ate the least -- less than half a serving a day"
• Grape Seed Extract for Blood Pressure? - WebMD, 3/27/06
• Study Shows Grape Seed Extract May Be Effective In Reducing Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 3/27/06 - "The first group received a placebo, while the second and third groups received 150 milligrams and 300 milligrams, respectively, of a new grape seed extract ... Participants in the two groups receiving grape seed extract experienced an equal degree of reduced blood pressure. The average drop in systolic pressure was 12 millimeters. The average drop in diastolic pressure was 8 millimeters" - See iHerb or Vitacost grape seed extracts.
• Salt Substitute Significantly Reduces Hypertension Amongst Rural Chinese - Science Daily, 3/14/06 - "Among the 600 individuals studied in rural Northern China, the low-sodium high-potassium salt substitute demonstrated that it could reduce blood pressure to about the same extent as single drug therapy"
• How Nice, Brown Rice: Study Shows Rice Bran Lowers Blood Pressure In Rats - Science Daily, 3/3/06 - "adding rice bran to the diets of hypertensive, stroke-prone rats lowered the animals’ systolic blood pressure by about 20 percent and, via the same mechanism, inhibited angiotensin-1 converting enzyme, or ACE"
• Melatonin may cut hypertension - Nutra USA, 2/2/06 - "A 10 per cent decline of BP over daytime values is considered appropriate to reduce the cardiovascular risk ... During placebo use only 39 per cent of the subjects reached this value, but this rate surged to 84 per cent during melatonin administration" - See iHerb or Vitacost melatonin products.
• Tomato extract helps reduce blood pressure - Nutra USA, 1/12/06 - "a daily intake of the commercial encapsulated tomato extract Lyc-O-Mato, made by Israel-based LycoRed, was linked to a drop in systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of ten and four points after eight weeks of supplementation of a normal diet" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at Amazon.com.
• Natural antioxidants from tomato extract reduce blood pressure in patients with grade-1 hypertension: a double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study - Am Heart J. 2006 Jan;151(1):100 - "Systolic blood pressure decreased from 144 (SE +/- 1.1) to 134 mm Hg (SE +/- 2, P < .001), and diastolic blood pressure decreased from 87.4 (SE +/- 1.2) to 83.4 mm Hg" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at Amazon.com.
• Skimmed Milk Reduces The Risk Of Hypertension By 50 Percent - Science Daily, 12/1/05 - "Those persons with an elevated consumption of skimmed milk and milk products showed a reduction of 50% in their risk of developing hypertension, compared with those with a low consumption or who did not consume these products"
• Unsaturated Fats Can Lower Blood Pressure, Study Shows - WashingtonPost.com, 11/15/05 - "Trading about 10 percent of carbohydrates in one's diet for beans and healthy fats, such as olive oil, can help control high blood pressure and improve blood cholesterol levels"
• High Blood Pressure: Nightly Aspirin May Help - WebMD, 9/15/05 - "After three months, these were the results: ... Aspirin at night: Significant drop in blood pressure ... Aspirin in the morning: Slightly higher blood pressure"
• Dark Chocolate May Cut High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 7/18/05 - "With dark chocolate, 24-hour systolic blood pressure dropped 12 points; diastolic blood pressure dipped 8.5 points ... Insulin sensitivity and LDL cholesterol also improved with dark chocolate ... the dark chocolate we used had a high level of flavonoids"
• Reduce Your Blood Pressure - ABC News, 7/5/05 - "blood pressure is the key to healthy arteries, and arteries are the key to aging ... the ideal blood pressure is 115/75"
• Soybean Protein Supplementation May Reduce Systolic, Diastolic BP - Medscape, 7/5/05 - "randomized to receive 40 g of isolated soybean protein supplements daily ... the net blood pressure changes in the soy group after the intervention were -4.31 mm Hg systolic ... and -2.76 mm Hg diastolic"
• WARNING! Normal Blood Pressure May Be High Blood Pressure! - Life Extension Magazine, 5/05 - "To Solve Hypertension, Address Metabolic Syndrome"
• Exercise Alone No High Blood Pressure Cure - WebMD, 4/12/05 - "A vigorous-intensity exercise program has many benefits for older people. But curing high blood pressure doesn't seem to be one of them"
• Folic acid: It's not just for your baby’s health - MSNBC, 4/4/05 - "The younger group of women (ages 25 to 42) who consumed 1000 micrograms of folic acid through foods and supplements had a 46 percent decrease in their risk of developing hypertension as compared to those women who consumed less than 200 micrograms ... older group of women (ages 30 to 55) 1000 micrograms of folic acid was found to decrease risk of developing hypertension to a lesser extent — 18 percent" - See iHerb or Vitacost folic acid products.
• Dark Chocolate May Lower Blood Pressure - WebMD, 3/11/05 - "the participants' systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) was significantly lower after 15 days of eating dark chocolate -- an average of 108 mm Hg compared with 114 mm Hg"
• High-Fiber Diet May Fight High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 3/4/05 - "the average reduction in blood pressure was 3.12 mmHg systolic and 2.57 mmHg diastolic"
• Folic Acid May Prevent Hypertension in Addition to Reducing the Risk of Birth Defects - Doctor's Guide, 2/24/05 - "younger women who consumed at least 1,000 micrograms per day of total folic acid (dietary plus supplemental) had a 46 percent decreased risk of hypertension, compared with those who consumed less than 200 micrograms a day of total folic acid. Older women with high total folic acid intake also had an 18 percent reduced risk of hypertension"
• The combination of vitamin C and grape-seed polyphenols increases blood pressure: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial - J Hypertens. 2005 Feb;23(2):427-434 - "Vitamin C alone reduced systolic BP versus placebo ... However, treatment with the combination of vitamin C and polyphenols increased systolic BP (4.8 +/- 0.9 mmHg versus placebo ... and diastolic BP (2.7 +/- 0.6 mmHg, P < 0.0001 versus placebo"
• New Study Reveals Treatment For 'Silent Killer' Using Diet, Not Drugs - Science Daily, 1/19/04
• Folic Acid May Fight High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 1/18/05
• Folate intake and the risk of incident hypertension among US women - JAMA. 2005 Jan 19;293(3):320-9 - "Higher total folate intake was associated with a decreased risk of incident hypertension, particularly in younger women" - See iHerb or Vitacost folic acid products.
• High Folate Intake May Reduce Risk of Hypertension in Women - Medscape, 1/18/05 - [Abstract] "younger women consuming at least 1,000 µg per day of total folate (dietary plus supplemental) had a 46% reduction in the risk of incident hypertension ... compared with those ingesting less than 200 µg per day"
• The high five for hypertension - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 12/04 - "Co-enzyme Q10 ... Omega-3 fatty acids ... Garlic ... L-arginine ... Calcium"
• Cardiovascular effects of oral Supplementation of vitamin C, E and folic acid in young healthy males - Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2004 Jul;74(4):285-93 - "The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of a daily dosage of 1000 mg vitamin C, 800 mg vitamin E, and 10 mg folate on markers of vascular function in 31 young healthy male adults ... Our main finding was a significant decrease (p = 0.03) in systolic blood pressure in the experimental group"
• More Muscle Means Better Regulation Of Blood Pressure, Study Finds - Science Daily, 11/26/04 - "Fat, especially abdominal fat, secretes angiotensin which makes angiotensin II, a powerful vasoconstrictor that also directs the kidneys to absorb more sodium so blood vessels retain more fluid volume"
• Stressed? Build Muscle to Help Blood Pressure - WebMD, 11/24/04
• Folate Lowers Risk of High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 10/11/04 - "Young women with very low dietary folate who got their folate from vitamin supplements had a 39% lower risk of high blood pressure compared with young women who did not take folate supplements" - See iHerb or Vitacost folic acid products.
• Handgrip Exercises May Lower Blood Pressure - WebMD, 10/8/04
• Magnesium in Hypertension Prevention and Control - Life Extension Magazine, 9/04 - "Magnesium is one of the body’s most important minerals. ... Magnesium is a major factor in relaxing the smooth muscles within the blood vessels, thereby reducing peripheral vascular resistance and blood pressure.11-13 In addition, magnesium reduces nerve and muscle excitability, stabilizes cardiac conductivity, and influences neurochemical transmission.11,13,14 Magnesium also affects circulating levels of norepinephrine and the synthesis of serotonin and nitric oxide ... taking 600 mg of magnesium daily reduced systolic blood pressure by an average of 7.6 mm Hg and diastolic pressure by an average of 3.8 mm Hg"
• Tea Drinkers Reap Blood Pressure Benefits - WebMD, 7/26/04 - "Those who drank at least a half-cup of moderate strength green or oolong tea per day for a year had a 46% lower risk of developing hypertension than those who didn't drink tea" - See iHerb or Vitacost green tea products.  My favorite is Jarrow Green Tea at Amazon.com.
• The Natural Treatment of Hypertension - Medscape, 6/4/04
• The Impact of Vitamins and/or Mineral Supplementation on Blood Pressure in Type 2 Diabetes - J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Jun;23(3):272-9 - "group M: 200 mg Mg and 30 mg Zn (n = 16), group V: 200 mg vitamin C and 150 mg vitamin E (n = 18), group MV: minerals plus vitamins ... after three months of supplementation levels of systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure decreased significantly in the MV group"
• Melatonin to Lower Blood Pressure? - Dr. Weil, 2/24/04
• Antioxidant May Help Lower Blood Pressure - WebMD, 2/20/04 - "people with high blood pressure who took the supplement, called Pycnogenol, were able to lower their daily dose of blood pressure-lowering medications by more than 30% ... researchers looked at the effects of daily supplementation with 100 milligrams of Pycnogenol" - Some claim that grape seed extract is identical to Pycnogenol without the patent mark-up.  - See iHerb or Vitacost grape seed extracts.
• Daily nighttime melatonin reduces blood pressure in male patients with essential hypertension - Hypertension. 2004 Feb;43(2):192-7 - "In patients with essential hypertension, repeated bedtime melatonin intake significantly reduced nocturnal blood pressure"- See iHerb or Vitacost melatonin products.
• Pycnogenol reduces need for hypertension drugs - Nutra USA, 2/19/04 - "supplementation with 100mg Pycnogenol over a period of 12 weeks helped to reduce patients’ dose of the calcium antagonist nifedipine in a statistically significant manner" - Some claim that grape seed extract is identical to Pycnogenol without the patent mark-up.  - See iHerb or Vitacost grape seed extracts.
• Nightime Melatonin Supplementation May Be Useful in the Treatment of Essential Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 2/4/04 - "2.5 mg/day ... mean sleep systolic blood pressure decreased by 6 mm Hg and mean sleep diastolic blood pressure decreased by 4 mm Hg ... Repeated melatonin significantly increased sleep efficiency from 80% to 85% and increased actual sleep time from 5.6 to 6.1 hours. Melatonin therapy also reduced sleep latency from 33 to 22 minutes" - See iHerb or Vitacost melatonin products.
• Jet Lag Hormone Lowers Blood Pressure - WebMD, 1/20/04
• Potassium Supplementation Reduces Blood Pressure - Healthwell Exchange Daily News, 10/30/03 - "59 healthy adults between the ages of 25 and 65 years were randomly assigned to receive 600 mg of potassium chloride three times per day or a placebo for six weeks ... Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and MAP all decreased significantly in those taking potassium (by 7.6 mmHg, 6.5 mmHg, and 7.0 mmHg, respectively), compared with initial measurements. A significant increase in blood pressure was observed in those taking placebo" - See iHerb or Vitacost potassium products.
• Increasing Calcium More Likely to Lower Blood Pressure Than Decreasing Sodium - Doctor's Guide, 10/12/03 - "When the diet is "balanced with no deficit in minerals, salt is not a problem," he said. "Salt becomes a problem when the diet is calcium deficient. Specifically, as calcium intake increases, blood pressure decreases."" - See Tums at Amazon.com.
• Healthy BMI Prevents High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 10/9/03
• Vitamin E Supplements Effective Treatment for Mild Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 10/1/03 - "Vitamin E supplements of 200 IU/day improved the blood pressure status of 70 mild hypertensive ... Subjects who received vitamin E supplements had a 24% decrease in systolic blood pressure compared to a 1.6% decrease among placebo controls" - the systolic is the high number and is usually the problem.  See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin E products.
• Tea Intake Is Inversely Related to Blood Pressure in Older Women - J Nutr. 2003 Sep;133(9):2883-2886 - "Tea is rich in polyphenols, which have activities consistent with blood pressure-lowering potential ... Higher tea intake and higher 4-O-methylgallic acid excretion were associated with significantly lower systolic (P = 0.002 and P = 0.040, respectively) and diastolic (P = 0.027 and P < 0.001, respectively) blood pressures. A 250 mL/d (1 cup) increase in tea intake was associated with a 2.2 (0.8, 3.6) mm Hg lower systolic blood pressure and a 0.9 (0.1, 1.7) mm Hg lower diastolic blood pressure" - See iHerb or Vitacost tea products and extracts.
• A Little Exercise Lowers Blood Pressure - WebMD, 8/29/03 - "The ability to lower blood pressure was greatest among those who exercised 61-90 minutes per week -- an average of 12 point drop in systolic and eight points in diastolic. But there were no further reductions in systolic blood pressure among those who exercised more than 90 minutes a week ... The researchers also found that how many times the participants exercised per week had no obvious effect on blood pressure -- just the total amount of time"
• Dark Chocolate Is Healthy Chocolate - WebMD, 8/27/03
• Addition of Low-Dose Potassium to Diet Lowers Blood Pressure - Medscape, 8/19/03 - "KCl was administered as 1 slow-release tablet containing 8 mmol KCL taken 3 times daily with meals. This daily dose of potassium is equivalent to the content of 5 portions of fresh fruits and vegetables. At the end of the 6-week intervention, the 30 subjects who took potassium showed significant decreases in SBP and DBP (7.60 and 6.46 mm Hg, respectively)" - See iHerb or Vitacost potassium products.
• The effect of low-dose potassium supplementation on blood pressure in apparently healthy volunteers - Br J Nutr. 2003 Jul;90(1):53-60 - "After 6 weeks of supplementation MAP [mean arterial pressure] was reduced by 7.01 ... mmHg, SBP was reduced by 7.60 ... mmHg and DBP was reduced by 6.46 ... mmHg ... A low daily dietary supplement of K, equivalent to the content of five portions of fresh fruits and vegetables, induced a substantial reduction in MAP, similar in effect to single-drug therapy for hypertension" - See iHerb or Vitacost potassium products.
• What Should We Advise Our Patients About Taking Antioxidants? - J Clin Hypertens 5(3):231-233, 2003 via Medscape - "At least two randomized trials of the effects of coenzyme Q10 (another antioxidant) on blood pressure have been reported. In the first,[20] 59 treated hypertensives were randomized to either coenzyme Q10 (60 mg twice daily) or vitamin B (placebo); after 8 weeks, clinic blood pressure was 14/7 mm Hg lower in the treated group. In the second,[21] 83 patients with isolated systolic hypertension were treated with coenzyme Q10 (using the same dose as the earlier study) for 12 weeks. The mean reduction of blood pressure was 17.8/7.3 mm Hg" - See iHerb or Vitacost coenzyme Q10 products.
• Night Time Aspirin Regimen Found to Reduce Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 6/4/03 - "Researchers randomly assigned participants to 3 subgroups, which received a regimen of no aspirin, 100 mg aspirin after waking, or 100 mg aspirin before sleeping ... The subgroup following a regimen of evening aspirin administration showed a reduction in the 24 hour mean of 6.2 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure and 4.1 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure ... the effect was not evident for the subgroups receiving no aspirin or morning administration" - See aspirin at Amazon.com.
• DASH Diet Works Like Hypertension Drug - WebMD, 5/19/03 - "the DASH diet -- created to fight high blood pressure -- works just like water pills ... If people eat the DASH diet with low salt intake -- especially older people -- their blood pressure goes down 15 points"
• Lifestyle Changes Improve Blood Pressure - WebMD, 5/14/03 - "Weight loss ... 5 - 20 points per 22 lbs. lost ... DASH eating plan ... 8 -14 points ... Exercise ... 4 - 9 points ... Moderate drinking ... 2 - 4 points"
• Fatty Acids Added To Infant Formula May Cut Later Heart Disease Risks - Doctor's Guide, 5/1/03 - "Several studies have reported lower blood pressure in adults whose diet was supplemented with omega 3 fatty acids, but no published studies have looked at the effect of LCPUFA supplementation on blood pressure in children ... The LCPUFA group had significantly lower mean blood pressure: mean difference -3.0 mm Hg, and mean difference of -3.5 mm Hg diastolic"
• Fortified Formulas Promote Healthy Heart - WebMD, 5/1/03
• Sesame Oil Benefits Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/28/03 - "studied 195 men and 133 women with high blood pressure. All were taking nifedipine (brand names include Adalta, Nifedical, and Procardia), a common blood pressure-lowering drug. Despite this treatment, all patients still had moderate high blood pressure. Sankar's team asked the patients to switch to sesame oil as the only cooking oil they used ... Sixty days later, the patients' average blood pressure dropped into the normal range ... he doesn't think that the PUFAs are involved in the blood-pressure-lowering effect of sesame oil. But he speculates that lower blood pressure may be an indirect effect of sesamin, sesamol, or both"
• Grape Seed Extract May Be A Useful Supplement To Blunt Hypertension In Postmenopausal Women - Intelihealth, 4/10/03 - "a diet moderately high in grape seed extract can blunt salt (sodium chloride)-sensitive hypertension to about the same extent as treatment with either plant estrogens or 17ß-estradiol. This suggests that mechanisms other than the estrogen receptor activation actually provides the beneficial effects of estrogen therapy and that grape seed extract may be a useful supplement to blunt hypertension and other cardiovascular symptoms in postmenopausal women" - See iHerb or Vitacost grape seed extract products.
• Remember Sodium? We're Still Getting Too Much - Intelihealth, 3/14/03 - "The average American consumes 4,000 milligrams of sodium per day, far exceeding the maximum of 2,400 milligrams recommended ... only an estimated 25 percent of daily sodium intake is added at the table. The remainder is unseen, consumed in restaurant and processed foods ... A Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen entree may be low in fat and calories, but it's not so light in sodium ... a Burger King Broiler Chicken Sandwich has 1,110 milligrams of sodium ... about 90 percent of the population is diagnosed with hypertension by the age of 80. People with high blood pressure have an increased risk for heart disease and stroke. High sodium levels also raise the risk of osteoporosis and kidney problems ... In the case of osteoporosis, potassium appears to offset calcium losses from excessive sodium ... postmenopausal women with diets high in salt lost higher amounts of bone mineral. Eating potassium-rich foods such as bananas, tomatoes and orange juice helped stem the calcium loss"
• A fermented milk high in bioactive peptides has a blood pressure–lowering effect in hypertensive subjects - Am. J. of Clin. Nutr., 2/03 - "received 150 mL/d [5 ounces] of either L. helveticus LBK-16H fermented milk or a control product for 21 wk after a 2-wk run-in period ... There was a mean difference of 6.7 +/- 3.0 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure (P = 0.030) and of 3.6 +/- 1.9 mm Hg (P = 0.059) in diastolic blood pressure between the test product and control groups" - Related articles:
  • Fermented Milk Has Blood Pressure-Lowering Effects - Medscape, 2/10/03
• Vitamin C May Aid People with Diabetes - New Hope Natural Media, 2/13/03 - "randomly assigned to receive 500 mg of vitamin C per day or a placebo. After four weeks of treatment, the average blood pressure decreased significantly in the group taking vitamin C, whereas no change was seen in the placebo group. The systolic blood pressure (the higher number) decreased by an average of 9.8 mm Hg, while the diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) decreased by 4.4 mm Hg. These changes in blood pressure are nearly as great as one might expect from taking a prescription blood pressure-lowering medication. In addition, the stiffness of the arteries decreased significantly in the vitamin C group" - [J. Hypertension/Medline]- See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin C products.
• Coenzyme Q10 Improves High Blood Pressure - New Hope Natural Media, 1/9/03 - "recruited 83 people with a condition called isolated systolic hypertension (ISH), in which the higher blood pressure ... These people were assigned to take either 60 mg of CoQ10 twice daily or a placebo for 12 weeks ... The people taking CoQ10 had an 18-point (18 mm Hg) reduction in systolic blood pressure (from 165 to 147 mm Hg), compared with only a 2-point decline in the placebo group ... ISH is the most common type of high blood pressure in the United States" - See iHerb or Vitacost coenzyme Q10 products.
• Evidence-based Products - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 12/02 - "3g EPA/d and 3g DHA/d (ROPUFA) increased systemic arterial compliance in 38 dyslipidemic men and women, resulting in reduced pulse pressure and total vascular resistance ... Results showed that ROPUFA increased SAC—36 per cent with EPA and 27 per cent with DHA—compared with placebo" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com or Vitacost and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Folic Acid Improves Endothelial Function And Blood Pressure In Smokers - Doctor's Guide, 12/18/02 - "Smokers were randomly assigned to receive either 5 milligrams of folic acid or placebo every day ... Mean blood pressure was significantly reduced from 88 +/- 2 to 83 +/- 1 mmHg in those patients who received supplementation" - Seems like they could have tested non-smokers for the same effect while they were at it.  5 points is probably half of what you'd get from the standard dose of most anti-hypertensive medications. - Ben
• Slowing Down May Protect Heart - WebMD, 11/20/02
• Health Group Urges Less Salt In Food - Intelihealth, 11/13/02 - "The nation's largest public health group is recommending a 50 percent decrease in salt in processed food and restaurant meals over the next 10 years ... Government guidelines already recommend limiting intake of sodium - which increases blood pressure - to no more than 2.4 grams daily, or the equivalent of about a teaspoon of table salt. But the average American adult consumes nearly 4 grams a day"
• Banana growers given the nod on low BP claims - CNN, 11/2/00
• Moderate Intensity Aerobic Exercise Recommended for Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 10/1/02
• Folic Acid May Have Benefits for Smokers - Doctor's Guide, 9/13/02 - "randomised to four weeks of folic acid 5 mg/day or placebo ... Results showed that folic acid reduced homocysteine concentrations (10.8+/-0.6 versus 7.9+/-0.5 µmol/L, p<0.001) and there was a significant reduction in blood pressure (mean BP 88+/-2 versus 83+/-1 mmHg, p<0.01) ... Benefits also seem to be largely independent of the lowering of homocysteine concentrations"
• Soy Milk Lowers Blood Pressure - New Hope Natural Media, 8/30/02 - "After three months, the average systolic blood pressure (the higher number) had decreased by 18.4 mm Hg and the diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) had fallen by 15.9 mm Hg in the soy group. This reduction is comparable to that seen with many prescription blood pressure-lowering drugs"
• Sunflower Seed May Hold Key To Reducing Hypertension And Preventing Debilitating Strokes - Intelihealth, 8/27/02 - "One of the leading contributors to a stroke is hypertension. Before a stroke occurs, prolonged hypertension has been associated with a range of impairments and cognitive ability ... Now a researcher suggests that linoleic acid, a doubly unsaturated fatty acid, which is essential in nutrition in mammals. It cannot be produced in animals, the sources of this needed nutrient are vegetable seed oils, such as: safflower, sunflower, and hemp seed ... Linoleic acid administration seems to significantly decrease the systolic blood pressures of SHRs [spontaneously hypertensive rats] at three and six months"
• Reduction of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy After Exercise and Weight Loss in Overweight Patients With Mild Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 7/15/02 - "Blood pressure fell by 7.0 / 6.0 mmHg in the weight management group and by 3.0 / 4.0 mmHg in the aerobic exercise group"
• New Evidence Fruit and Vegetable Intake Reduces Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 5/28/02 - "systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased more in the intervention group than in the control group ... A reduction of two mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure results in a decrease of about 17 percent in the incidence of high blood pressure, six percent in the risk of coronary heart disease, and 15 percent in the risk of stroke and transient ischaemic attack, they say"
• Putting Antioxidants To Use In Functional Formulas - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 5/02 - "In one study of 38 people, Joseph A. Vita, MD, of the Boston University School of Medicine, found that 500mg/day vitamin C lowered systolic blood pressure by an average of 10 percent after only one month"
• Aerobics Best for Cutting Blood Pressure - WebMD, 5/17/02 - "They found that those who participated in only aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging, or cycling, had lower blood pressure levels than those who participated in both aerobic exercise and weight lifting or calisthenics ... This suggests that there is a detrimental effect of [weight lifting] that blunts the benefit of walking, running, and jogging ... possible explanation for their finding may be that by creating bigger muscle mass, weight lifting creates an oxygen debt in the body, which means the body must work harder to supply oxygen. Another may be that weight lifting stimulates more damaging free radicals and oxidants than aerobic exercise"
• Fiber Stalls High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 5/15/02 - "Whole grains are included as part of the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, which has been found to help reduce blood pressure. The diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products and recommends a daily intake of more than 25 grams of fiber a day. But Samuel says that based on the results of this study, whole grains aren't emphasized enough"
• Take Aspirin at Night for Heart Benefits - WebMD, 5/15/02 - "Aspirin didn't affect blood pressure if given in the morning. But when given at night, it had a significant effect: a 7.0 mmHg decrease in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood-pressure reading) and a 4.8 mmHg decrease in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number)."
• What's Wrong With Vitamin E? - Life Extension Magazine, 5/02 - "Tocotrienols and hypertension ..." - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• Exercise Said Best For Blood Pressure - Intelihealth, 4/22/02 - "The average reduction was 3.8 milligrams of mercury in systolic pressure ... average diastolic ... 2.58 milligrams of mercury lower"
• Exercise Helps Everyone's Heart - WebMD, 4/1/02 - "The overwhelming evidence shows exercise can reduce blood pressure in virtually anyone -- regardless of weight, race, or current blood pressure level ... regular aerobic exercise decreased systolic blood pressure (the top number) by an average of 3.8 mmHg and diastolic (the bottom number) by 2.58 mmHg, in people who were previously inactive"
• Orange Juice for the Heart - WebMD, 3/22/02
• Pycnogenol - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 3/02 - "Subjects taking pycnogenol experienced a significant decrease in systolic blood pressure, although there was no statistical significance in diastolic blood pressure when compared to placebo"
• Acupuncture Can Lower High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 6/11/01
• Is My Doctor Making My Blood Pressure Rise? - Dr. Weil, 1/25/02
• Antioxidants, At Certain Levels, May Reduce Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 11/14/01 - "increasing levels of serum beta- carotene were associated with significant reductions in systolic blood pressure, while increasing levels of serum vitamin C were associated with significant reductions in diastolic pressure ... In contrast, serum levels of vitamin E were associated with significant increases in diastolic blood pressure"
• Suggestions For Blood Pressure - Intelihealth, 11/5/01 - "Diet and exercise are common prescriptions for treatment of hypertension. But the study showed weight loss had a greater effect than exercise did"
• Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of coenzyme Q10 in isolated systolic hypertension - South Med J 2001 Nov;94(11):1112-7 - "conducted a 12-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with twice daily administration of 60 mg of oral CoQ ... The mean reduction in systolic blood pressure of the CoQ-treated group was 17.8"
• Pets Diminish Blood Pressure Responses To Stress - Intelihealth, 10/25/01 - "pets may help people with high blood pressure deal with stress more effectively than the leading medication"
• Tomatoes May Help Fight High Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 5/20/01 - "patients were treated with a placebo for four weeks and then tomato extract (Lyc-O-Mato, LycoRed Natural Products Industries, Ltd.), for eight weeks ... Results showed a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure, from 144 mm Hg to 135 mm Hg, representing a mean 9 mm Hg reduction. Additionally, some favorable effects on diastolic blood pressure, blood lipids, lipoproteins, and oxidative stress markers were noted" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at Amazon.com.
• Has Hypertension Met Its Match? - Nutrition Science News, 4/01 - "These study results indicate that reducing sodium lowers blood pressure in people with or without hypertension. The researchers concluded that the recommended sodium intake, already substantially lower than the average intake, should be lowered further, and that more low-sodium products should be made available"
• Less Salt Is Often Still Too Much, Watch Out for High Salt Levels in Fast Foods, Processed Foods - WebMD, 1/3/01
• Vitamin E Supplements May Help Prevent Stroke In Men With Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 11/6/00
• HMB Pumps You Up While Lowering Cholesterol and Blood Pressure - WebMD, 8/18/00 - "These figures (for HMB) are just about what you would see by taking medications for hypertension or lowering cholesterol."
• Meditation may lower blood pressure - CNN, 7/24/00
• Vitamin C: A possible treatment for high blood pressure - CNN, 12/20/99 - "After one month, the average blood pressure of patients who took vitamin C [500 mg/day] dropped significantly more than that of patients in the placebo group, or 9.1 percent compared to 2.7 percent"
• Sidestep Heart Disease - Nutrition Science News, 3/99
• Potassium-Magnesium Citrate Effective In Correcting Thiazide-Induced Side Effects - Doctor's Guide, 11/13/98 - "Thiazide diuretics are commonly prescribed for hypertension and other medical conditions and are known to deplete stores of both potassium and magnesium. Depletion of either potassium or magnesium can cause frequent and sometimes serious complications, including muscle weakness, paralysis and cardiac arrhythmia. Further, magnesium depletion is probably under-diagnosed, with more importance placed on potassium depletion, but magnesium depletion, if left uncorrected, can result in potassium depletion"

Other News:

• Less Sleep Associated With High, Worsening Blood Pressure In Middle Age - Science Daily, 6/11/09 - "After excluding patients taking medication for high blood pressure and controlling for age, race and sex, the researchers found that individuals who slept fewer hours were significantly more likely to have higher systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure ... Each hour of reduction in sleep duration was associated with a 37 percent increase in the odds of developing high blood pressure"
• Blood-pressure-lowering Drugs Should Not Be Limited To People With High Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 5/19/09 - "Blood pressure lowering drugs should be offered to anyone old enough to be at risk of a heart attack or stroke (or who is otherwise known to be at risk), regardless of their blood pressure ... using any one of the main classes of blood pressure lowering drugs at standard dose reduced fatal and non-fatal heart attacks by about a quarter and stroke by about a third. Heart failure was also reduced by about a quarter. The reductions in disease were similar in people with and without clinical cardiovascular disease and regardless of blood pressure before treatment ... three drugs together, each at low dose to minimize side effects, could increase the preventive effect, reducing heart attacks by about 45% and stroke by about 60%"
• High Blood Pressure Could Be Caused By A Common Virus, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 5/16/09 - "A new study suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common viral infection affecting between 60 and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease"
• FDA Approves Triple Combination Pill for Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 4/30/09 - "has approved a once-daily triple combination pill consisting of amlodipine, valsartan, and hydrochlorothiazide (Exforge HCT) for the treatment of hypertension"
• Chronic Insomnia With Short Sleep Duration Is Significant Risk Factor For Hypertension - Science Daily, 4/9/09 - "participants with insomnia and an objectively measured, severely short sleep duration of less than five hours had a risk for hypertension that was 500 percent higher than participants without insomnia who slept more than six hours. People with insomnia and a moderately short sleep duration of five to six hours had a risk for hypertension that was 350 percent higher than normal sleepers"
• Heart Disease: Combined Treatment Is Best - WebMD, 3/23/09 - "Heart disease patients who achieve normal blood pressure and very low cholesterol levels with aggressive drug therapy do better than patients who achieve only one of these goals ... Patients who achieved LDL levels below 70 and systolic blood pressures of below 120 had the slowest progression, as measured by increase in plaque volume"
• Is It Really Only Our Kidneys That Control Blood Pressure? - Science Daily, 3/13/09
• High Systolic Pressure a Positive Sign in Chronic Heart Failure - Medscape, 1/5/09 - "In patients with chronic heart failure, higher systolic blood pressures paradoxically predict better survival ... The decrease in mortality rates associated with a 10 mm Hg higher systolic blood pressure was 13.0%...in the heart failure population ... in patients with cardiac disease but without chronic heart failure affecting systolic function, mean arterial blood pressure is largely determined by peripheral vasoconstriction, and higher systolic pressure indicates poor elasticity of the arteries ... In patients with heart failure, however, systolic pressure reflects the ejection fraction and cardiac output ... a higher blood pressure is associated with a decreased mortality as it serves as an indirect measure of cardiac function"
• High Blood Pressure May Make It Difficult For The Elderly To Think Clearly - Science Daily, 12/15/08 - "subjects whose average systolic blood pressure was 130 or higher saw a significant decrease in cognitive function when their blood pressure spiked ... study subjects whose average blood pressure was low or normal saw no change in their cognitive functioning – even when their blood pressure shot up"
• High Blood Pressure In The Doctor's Office May Not Predict Heart Risks - Science Daily, 11/26/08 - "Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, or measuring blood pressure at regular intervals throughout the day, is increasingly important in managing patients with this condition because of the possibility of a white-coat effect (when an individual only has high blood pressure at the physician's office)" - See Omron HEM-712C Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor with IntelliSense.  I preferred this one of the more expensive models from the same company because I hated the so called "Comfit cuff" plus I doubt if anyone uses the computer options or the ridiculous memory of past readings.
• Obesity Linked to Erectile Dysfunction - WebMD, 10/31/08 - "conditions related to obesity, particularly hypertension (or high blood pressure), are the most significant causes of obesity-related erectile dysfunction. Abnormal penile blood flow was found to be linked to high blood pressure"
• Blood Pressure and Fasting Plasma Glucose rather than Metabolic Syndrome Predict Coronary Artery Calcium Progression: The Rancho Bernardo Study - Diabetes Care. 2008 Oct 13 - "In older adults without known heart disease, blood pressure levels and fasting plasma glucose were better independent determinants of CAC progression than MetS itself"
• High Levels Of Uric Acid May Be Associated With High Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 8/26/08 - "In the study, half of the 30 teen-agers with newly diagnosed high blood pressure and higher than normal levels of uric acid in their blood underwent treatment with allopurinol twice a day for four weeks. The other half received a placebo (an inactive drug) on the same schedule. They then went without either drug for two weeks before receiving the opposite treatment for another four weeks ... blood pressures decreased to normal in 20 of the 30 teens when they were on allopurinol. By contrast, only 1 of the 30 teens had normal blood pressure when receiving placebo"
• Blood Pressure Response To Daily Stress Provides Clues For Better Hypertension Treatment - Science Daily, 8/14/08 - "Research shows that two-thirds of patients’ high blood pressure is not controlled despite the best efforts of their doctors. That is terrible ... Studies will explore fundamentals such as why about 30 percent of young healthy blacks and 15 percent of whites can’t effectively excrete sodium, a problem that raises blood pressure by increasing the body’s fluid volume. “We think there is a defect in their kidneys, in the normal mechanisms that allow them to excrete salt,” ... America’s current obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic also has them looking at insulin, glucose and cholesterol levels and whether fat exacerbates all the factors they are following, which they believe it does"

• Single Mechanism For Hypertension, Insulin Resistance And Immune Suppression - Science Daily, 6/30/08 - "spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) ... protein receptors on the surface of SHR cells become clipped off as the animals develop hypertension. They used a novel visualization technique to show that after several weeks of ingesting doxycycline in their drinking water, the SHR rats developed cells that again bristled with normal CD18 and insulin receptors. The animals' metabolic conditions simultaneously improved; blood pressure normalized and symptoms of immune suppression disappeared" - Note: I was taking Periostat (low dose doxycycline, 20 mg) for two reasons, the help prevent gum disease and to lower CRP.  Now I have a third reason.  See doxycycline at OffshoreRx1.com (you can use a pill cutter to quarter the pills).  See:

  • Low-dose Periostat (Doxycycline) Shows Benefits in Patients with Heart Failure - Doctor's Guide, 11/20/02 - "At six-month follow-up, sub-antimicrobial dose doxycyline significantly reduced CRP levels by 45.8 percent compared to baseline values (p<0.05). The drug was also associated with a 33.5 percent reduction in interleukin-6 and a 50 percent reduction in metalloproteinase ... The findings are exciting, since research is now showing that CRP is both a key marker of inflammation leading to future acute coronary events, but also that CRP itself may contribute to the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis"
    • Blood Protein Predicts Stroke Risk - HealthDay, 6/23/03 - "whether the substance [CRP] is an independent risk factor for these episodes or merely a reflection of narrowed and crumbling arteries hasn't been entirely clear ... New research now suggests that the molecule, called C-reactive protein (CRP), is indeed its own oddsmaker ... The cholesterol-fighting drugs known as statins have been shown to lower CRP by about 25 percent or so, Stein says. However, it's not clear that that effect reduces cardiovascular trouble or increases survival"
• Hypertension: Systolic Pressure Key - Medscape, 6/17/08 - "The diagnosis of hypertension in patients aged over 50 years should focus exclusively on the systolic blood pressure, rather than using both systolic and diastolic as is current practice, according to three experts in the field"
• 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 risk of AD ... this effect was almost entirely due to the effects of potassium-sparing agents"
• Blood Pressure Test? What to Do First - WebMD, 4/25/06
• Wait a Few Minutes: Blood Pressure Readings Lower when Patients Slow Down - Doctor's Guide, 4/20/06 - "systolic blood pressure can be an average of 14 points higher when taken immediately after arriving in the exam room and sitting on an examination table rather than sitting in a chair with your back supported and feet flat on the floor"
• Sustained Blood Pressure Treatment Lowers Dementia Risk In Elderly - Science Daily, 4/10/06 - "each year of treatment reduced the risk of developing dementia during the follow-up period by about 3 percent. Compared with men who were never treated for hypertension, the risk of developing dementia during the follow-up period was: ... 60 percent lower in those treated more than 12 years -- similar to the risk in a control group of 446 men with normal blood pressure"
• Skimpy Sleep May Up Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/3/06 - "Among people aged 32-59, those who reported getting less than six hours of nightly sleep in the original survey were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with high blood pressure"
• Loneliness May Drive Up Blood Pressure - WebMD, 3/29/06
• Prescribing Patterns Indicate Failure to Treat Hypertension and High Cholesterol at the Same Time - Doctor's Guide, 3/15/06 - "even though high blood pressure and high cholesterol are almost always linked, they are not being treated simultaneously"
• Hypertension Drugs May Cut Alzheimer's - WebMD, 3/13/06 - "People taking drugs for high blood pressure -- especially certain diuretics -- were less likely to have developed Alzheimer's"
• Aggressive Blood Pressure Lowering: Is It the Only Approach? An Expert Interview With Matthew R Weir, MD - Medscape, 1/12/06 - "It is sometimes said that ARBs and ACE inhibitors don't lower BP quite as much as the other classes of antihypertensive drugs -- is that correct? ... within the full dosing range within the package insert, large population studies clearly show that they are all the same in their antihypertensive effects. When intermediate doses of individual drugs are chosen, often there is less BP reduction. Using the recommended doses in large populations, you will see very similar degrees of BP reduction whether you are using a thiazide-type diuretic, a beta-blocker, an ARB, an ACE inhibitor, an alpha-blocker, or a CCB"
• Cola Drinks May Boost Blood Pressure - WebMD, 11/8/05
• No Link Found Between Caffeine Intake and Development of Hypertension in Women - Doctor's Guide, 11/8/05 - "When studying individual classes of caffeinated beverages, habitual coffee consumption was not associated with increased risk of hypertension. By contrast, consumption of cola beverages was associated with an increased risk of hypertension, independent of whether it was sugared or diet cola"
• Viewpoint: How Low Should Blood Pressure Go? - Medscape, 10/7/05 - "How low should the blood pressure go? A meta-analysis of 61 trials of blood pressure control demonstrated that mortality appeared to decrease proportionally with blood pressure, all the way down to a pressure of 115/75.[5] Future research might find even lower healthy thresholds for blood pressure. Until then, physicians should encourage patients to reduce their blood pressure to < 120/80"
• Brain May Benefit by Lowering Blood Pressure - WebMD, 9/7/05 - "lowering blood pressure may halt or slow the progression of brain abnormalities called white matter hyperintensities (WMH) ... WMH may be accompanied by dementia, depression, and trouble with walking"
• Newer Blood Pressure Drugs Beat Out Older Ones - WebMD, 9/6/05
• Blood Pressure Over Normal? Nip It in the Bud - WebMD, 8/4/05 - "If your blood pressure is notching above normal, it's to your heart's advantage to stop that trend as soon as possible"
• High Blood Pressure Often Uncontrolled - WebMD, 7/26/05
• Better Blood Pressure, Longer Life? - WebMD, 6/28/05 - "Men and women with normal blood pressure at age 50 lived five more years than those with higher blood pressure"
• Salt Kicks Hypertension Up A Notch - Science Daily, 6/7/05
• Men With Diabetes, Hypertension, or Hyperlipidemia More Likely to Be Hypogonadal - Doctor's Guide, 5/25/05 - "In men with a history of hypertension, 42% were hypogonadal"
• Erectile Dysfunction Seen in Men With Prehypertension - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/05
• Why Your Blood Pressure Isn't Dropping At Night - mercola.com, 5/18/05 - "If you're noticing your blood pressure levels aren't dropping at night, there's a real good reason, according to a new study: Your blood sugar levels are probably elevated"
• Combo Drug Controls Hypertension In Hard-to-treat Patients - Science Daily, 5/18/05 - "the combination pill of irbesartan (an angiotensin II receptor blocker) and a diuretic, hydrochlorothiazide ... the participants' systolic blood pressure (the top number) dropped an average of 21.5 points, from 154.4 to 132.9 points. Their diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) fell an average of 10.4 points, from 91.3 to 80.9" - Yeah, but what about impotence from the diuretic?
• Bedtime Dosing of Atorvastatin and Valsartan Together Improves Overall Anti-Hypertensive Effects - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/05 - "When valsartan was dosed by itself during the day, patients averaged a 9 mmHg fall in systolic blood pressure; daytime dosing of both valsartan and atorvastatin resulted in a 17 mmHg reduction in the 24-hour mean of systolic and diastolic BP"
• Multiple Blood Pressure Measurements in the Office Conquer "White Coat" Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/05
• Definition of Hypertension Could Change Again - WebMD, 5/16/05 - "The new definition released this weekend changes this; it classifies "normal individuals" as having normal blood pressure, loosely defined as a systolic pressure of 115 and a diastolic pressure of 75 PLUS no signs of heart disease or stroke, few if any risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and no apparent damage from high blood pressure to the kidneys or other organs"
• Blood Pressure Linked to Erectile Dysfunction - WebMD, 5/16/05 - "if a man's blood pressure is anything but normal, he may have a higher risk of erectile dysfunction ... Thirty-five percent had some degree of erectile dysfunction, compared with 14% of men without high blood pressure ... In men with high blood pressure, 20% of those taking no medication had erectile dysfunction, while 36% on one medication and 47% on more than one reported erectile dysfunction ... Men on older high blood pressure medications (diuretics, beta-blockers) had higher rates and more severe erectile dysfunction than men on newer medications (calcium antagonists, ACE inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers)"
• Timing May Affect Blood Pressure - WebMD, 6/16/05
• Both Beer, Red Wine Raise Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/18/05 - "Compared with the men who did not drink any alcohol, the red wine drinkers had a nearly a 2.5 point jump in their systolic blood pressure. Beer drinkers' blood pressure rose nearly two points"
• Hypertension: On The Pill? Tell Your Dentist - Science Daily, 12/23/04
• Alcohol Without Food Boosts Blood Pressure - WebMD, 12/21/04
• At-Home Blood Pressure Devices Get High Marks - WebMD, 12/21/04
• Drinking Without Food May Set You Up For High Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 12/17/04 - "even light to moderate alcohol intake outside of meals puts drinkers at risk for hypertension"
• Asthma, Emphysema Drug May Weaken Bones - WebMD, 12/16/04
• Blowing A Gasket - Time Magazine Cover Story, 12/6/04 - "Only about a third of all patients in treatment for high blood pressure have their numbers under control. Over the course of our lives, perhaps 90% us will develop a blood-pressure problem"
• System That Regulates Blood Pressure May Also Affect Aging - Science Daily, 11/22/04
• High Blood Pressure Related Decline in Cognitive Function Affects Adults Young and Old - Doctor's Guide, 10/5/04 - "To the extent that BP (blood pressure) effects on cognition are not reversible, it is important to prevent an increase in BP levels as early as possible in the life cycle"
• High Blood Pressure Harms Young Adult Brains - WebMD, 10/4/04
• More Guidelines, CCBs, ACEs, and ARBs, and Novel Predictors - Medscape, 9/14/04
• Top Blood Pressure Number Is Key in Seniors - WebMD, 8/31/04
• Under-Recognized Condition Important In Treatment of High Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 8/31/04
• Higher Blood Pressure, Less Emotion? - WebMD, 8/27/04
• 1 in 3 Adults Has High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 8/23/04
• The Deep-Breath Test and White-Coat Effect - Medscape, 7/19/04
• Higher Serum Aldosterone Levels Associated with Increased Blood Pressure and Increased Risk of Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 7/1/04
• Pravastatin Can Significantly Decrease Systolic Blood Pressure in Moderately Hypertensive Patients With Hyperlipidaemia - Doctor's Guide, 6/17/04 - "Pravastatin 10 mg/day and probucol 500 mg/day were used during each treatment period ... Systolic blood pressure (BP) decreased significantly by 4.7 mm Hg after pravastatin treatment"
• Job Strain and Marital Stress Can Raise Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 5/24/04 - "Job strain was significantly associated with higher 24-hour systolic blood pressure compared to those without job strain, resulting in an average 5 mm Hg elevation in blood pressure"
• A 15-Minute Sitting Period Needed for Accurate Office Blood Pressure Reading - Doctor's Guide, 5/20/04
• Why Is Hypertension in Chronic Kidney Disease Treated Differently than Other Hypertension? - Doctor's Guide, 4/30/04
• Home Blood Pressure Tests Predict Risk Better - WebMD, 3/16/04
• Blood Pressure Drugs Don't Discriminate - WebMD, 2/26/04
• Many Patients with White Coat Hypertension Remain Undetected Based On Ambulatory and Home Blood Pressure Monitoring - Doctor's Guide, 2/3/04
• White Coat Hypertension Associated with Greater Cardiovascular Risk - Doctor's Guide, 1/26/04
• Combination Blood Pressure Therapy Provides More Benefit Than Monotherapy - Doctor's Guide, 1/16/04 - "Combined treatment with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and calcium channel blockers (CCBs) appears to be more effective in reducing left ventricular mass than are high doses of individual agents"
• Antihypertensive Therapy Also Results in Improvements in Platelet, Endothelial and Haemorheological Function in High-Risk Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 1/8/04
• Insulin Resistance May Be an Important Factor in Nondipper Essential Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 12/5/03 - "This may suggest that insulin resistance plays an important role in the aetiology of nondipper essential hypertension"
• Systolic Better Than Diastolic Or Pulse Blood Pressure As Indicator Of Mortality Risk - Doctor's Guide, 11/4/03 - "Rising systolic blood pressure is the clearest indicator for increased risk of death compared to other blood pressure measurements ... Systolic pressure, which is the higher number and first number in a blood pressure reading, measures the force of blood in the arteries as the heart contracts to push blood through the body"
• NHLBI Study Finds Hostility, Impatience Increase Hypertension Risk - Intelihealth, 10/22/03
• Bad Attitude Raises Blood Pressure Risk - WebMD, 10/21/03
• Target Organ Damage Begins Before Hypertension is Diagnosed - Doctor's Guide, 10/13/03 - "optimal blood pressure (<120/80 mm Hg); normal pressure (<130/85 mm Hg); and high normal (130-139/85-89 mm Hg) ... Signs of target organ damage were seen in 7% of patients with optimal blood pressure, 13% of patients with normal pressure, and 23% of patients in the high normal group"
• Hypertension Reduces Task-Specific Blood Flow to Brain - Doctor's Guide, 10/3/03 - "people with high blood pressure "recruit less blood to the brain than people with normal blood pressure." He said the hypertension-associated changes are subtle and he likened them to premature aging of the brain ... blood flow between hypertensives and normotensives were most apparent in the posterior regions of the brain and the image results, "correlated to slightly worse scores -- perhaps a point or two lower -- on the memory tests.""
• Low-Dose Spironolactone Effective Add-On for Multi-Drug Resistant Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 10/3/03
• Joe Montana beats high blood pressure - USA Today, 9/30/03 - "according to the NIH's seventh report from the Joint National Commission, while approximately 34 million people take blood pressure medication, 47% do not have their disease under control ... The new JNC-7 guidelines advocate a much more stringent control of blood pressure ... According to the JNC-7, any blood pressure level above 115 over 75 increases your risk"
• High Blood Pressure Damages Organs - WebMD, 9/23/03 - "as blood pressure increased, so did the likelihood of kidney and heart damage. In fact: ... 7% of people with optimal blood pressure (less than 120/80) had some organ damage ... 13% with normal pressure (less than 130/85) had some damage ... 23% with high-normal pressure (130-139/85-89) had damage"
• High Blood Pressure Causes Memory Lapse? - WebMD, 9/23/03 - "some short-term memory lapses often attributed to aging may actually result from having high blood pressure"
• Selection of Antihypertensive Therapy Depends on Category of High-Risk Hypertensive Patient - Doctor's Guide, 9/16/03 - "Blood pressure (BP) goal for diabetics is less than 130/80 mm Hg, which may require 3 antihypertensive agents. Studies suggest that an acceptable regimen should include an ACE inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) (in those intolerant of ACE inhibitors) plus a thiazide diuretic, calcium channel blocker, (CCB) or beta-blocker ... For patients with renal disease, ARBs have proven effective in slowing renal disease in patients with diabetic nephropathy"
• Standard Blood Pressure Cuffs May Produce Inaccurate Readings In Obese Persons - Doctor's Guide, 8/19/03
• Insulin Resistance May Be a Common Cause of Treatment-Resistant Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 8/7/03 - "They suggest that hyperinsulinaemia may increase blood pressure by several mechanisms, including stimulating the sympathetic nervous system, increasing renal sodium re-absorption, activating the Na+/H+ countertransport, and enhancing vessel wall cell proliferation and reactivity"
• VALUE Trial Data Suggest Blood Pressure Goals and Treatment Algorithms Can Improve BP Control - Doctor's Guide, 7/31/03
• Low-Dose Antihypertensive Combinations May Increase Benefit Compared To Standard Doses Of Fewer Drugs - Doctor's Guide, 7/16/03 - "Combinations of two or three drugs at low dose are…preferable to one or two drugs at standard dose," Dr. Law and colleagues note. "Everyone at increased risk would benefit from using three drugs, apart from those with contraindications to a particular drug."
• Ambulatory Blood Pressure Readings Taken Over 24 Hours Predict Cardiovascular Events - Doctor's Guide, 7/1/03
• Primary Aldosteronism May Occur In As Many As 10% Of Hypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 6/23/03
• More Evidence that "White Coat Hypertension" is Not So Benign - Doctor's Guide, 6/10/03
• White Coat Hypertension May Not Be So Benign - Clinical Psychiatry News, 6/03
• Doctors Who Follow Algorithm Can Help Patients Reach Hypertension Treatment Goals - Doctor's Guide, 5/21/03
• One in Three Home Blood Pressure Monitors Inappropriate for Patients - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/03
• White-Coat Hypertension Not Uniform For Both Diastolic and Systolic Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/03
• Electronic Profiling System Helps Hypertensives Meet Blood-Pressure Goals - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/03
• Resistant Hypertensives Respond To Device That Guides Slow Breathing - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/03
• Age Not a Factor in Left Ventricular Hypertrophy Regression During Antihypertensive Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/03
• Black Hypertensives Need More Medications at Larger Doses to Achieve Blood Pressure Control - Doctor's Guide, 5/16/03
• Home Blood Pressure Monitors Inaccurate? - WebMD, 5/16/03
• Daily Checks Help Women Control High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 5/16/03
• Pre-hypertensive Classification an Opportunity to Control Blood Pressure Before Disease - Doctor's Guide, 5/16/03
• Exercise Study Uncovers Female Hypertension Risk Marker - Doctor's Guide, 5/15/03
• New US National Guidelines On High Blood Pressure Released - Doctor's Guide, 5/14/03
• Think You Have Normal Blood Pressure? - WebMD, 5/13/03 - "In new blood pressure guidelines just released today, experts have created a new category of "prehypertension," which now puts many more people -- who thought they had normal blood pressure -- at risk of heart disease ... If your systolic blood pressure is between 120 and 139 or your diastolic blood pressure is between 80 and 89, you have a new condition called "prehypertension." Some people in this range need drug treatment. Everyone in this range needs what doctors call "lifestyle modification." This means losing weight, eating a low-fat/low-salt diet, getting regular exercise, and drinking less"
• Europeans Have Much More Hypertension - WebMD, 5/13/03
• Alcohol Linked With High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 5/8/03
• Medications for Heart Failure - WebMD, 5/6/03
• Femhrt Increases Endothelial Dysfunction in Postmenopausal Non-Smokers - Doctor's Guide, 5/6/03 - "Femhrt subjects showed a statistically significant mean increase in vasodilation versus placebo in healthy women who never smoked ... Prempro and Evista showed no such endothelial benefits for this subgroup or the smoker group"
• Renin Substrate Levels Decrease with Transdermal Hormone Therapy and Increase with Oral Hormone Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 5/6/03 - "Oral Prempro (conjugated equine estrogen/medroxyprogesterone) appears to increase plasma levels of renin substrate (angiotensinogen) to a significantly greater extent than CombiPatch (estradiol/norethindrone) ... The problem is that increases in the renin substrate (RS) can trigger activity in [renin-angiogenesis-aldosterone system] that can lead, in turn, to higher blood pressure and, possibly, hypertension"
• Motivation Key to Blood Pressure Control - WebMD, 4/22/03
• Electrocardiograms Have Limited Value In Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 4/15/03
• Retinal Abnormalities Age-Related Macular Degeneration Associated With Hypertension, Pulse Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 4/10/03 - "Retinal abnormalities in older people without diabetes are related to hypertension. Higher blood and pulse pressure are also associated with an increased incidence of macular abnormalities, including wet and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD)"
• Patient Involvement in Blood Pressure Management Can Prevent Heart Failure - Doctor's Guide, 4/7/03
• Blood Pressure Rises Decades Before Diabetes Develops - Doctor's Guide, 4/7/03 - "Elevations in blood pressure precede the development of type 2 diabetes in middle age by 20 to 25 years"
• Morning Surge In Blood Pressure Associated With Stroke In Elderly Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 3/31/03
• Low Blood Lead Levels Associated With Hypertension In Middle-Aged Women - Doctor's Guide, 3/26/03 - "From a public health prospective, the most important and troubling implication of these findings is that lead appears to increase blood pressure in women at very small increments above 1.0 (mu)g/dL, well below what is considered deleterious in adults"
• Knowing Your Blood Pressure Could Help Save Your Life - WebMD, 3/24/03 - "30% of those with systolic readings of 140 mm Hg or higher did not understand that they had high blood pressure. And three-quarters of the respondents believed that their diastolic reading was the most significant number ... patients are not the only ones to underestimate the importance of high blood pressure. Many doctors, he says, are still reluctant to put older patients with moderately elevated systolic pressure on medication because they often complain of feeling weak or dizzy at the goal of 140 mm Hg. In the telephone survey, 40% of patients said their doctors did not recommend treatment unless systolic blood pressure was higher than 160 mm Hg"
• High Blood Pressure Causes More Eye Damage in Blacks Than Whites - WebMD, 3/24/03 - "In it, authors detail their investigation of retinopathy -- damage to small blood vessels in the retina, which causes vision loss and is one of the most easily detectable signs of damage caused by high blood pressure"
• Hypertension Linked With Enhanced Thrombogenic Activity Post-Infarction - Doctor's Guide, 3/17/03
• White Coat Hypertension Associated With Lower Homocysteine Levels Than Sustained Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 3/13/03
• New Blood Pressure Guidelines for Blacks - WebMD, 3/10/03
• Blood Pressure Reduction Only Transient After Weight Loss - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/03
• Low Blood Pressure and Risk of Dementia in the Kungsholmen Project: A 6-Year Follow-up Study - Archives of Neurology, 2/03 - "Subjects with very high systolic pressure (>180 vs 141-180 mm Hg) had an adjusted relative risk of 1.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0-2.3; P = .07) for Alzheimer disease, and 1.6 (95% CI, 1.1-2.2) for dementia ... high diastolic pressure (>90 mm Hg) was not associated with dementia incidence, whereas extremely low diastolic pressure (65 vs 66-90 mm Hg) produced an adjusted relative risk of 1.7 (95% CI, 1.1-2.4) for Alzheimer disease and 1.5 (95% CI, 1.0-2.1; P = .03) for dementia"
• Frequent Runny, Stuffy Nose May Boost High Blood Pressure Rate in Men - WebMD, 2/18/03 - "The abnormal breathing events caused by sleep apnea causes immediate consequences that lead to elevated blood pressure, including a drop in arterial blood oxygen ... Like snoring, rhinitis is characterized by "upper respiratory resistance" and may produce similar effects on blood pressure ... If you're a man who is prone to runny or stuffy nose -- whether year-round or during certain seasons -- the researchers suggest you pay particularly close attention to your blood pressure"
• Hypertension, Stalking the "silent killer" - Physician's Weekly, 2/17/03 - "If you¹re just hypertensive, the goal is 140/90; if you are diabetic and you have kidney disease, the goal is 130/85; and if you have kidney disease and also spill protein in your urine, then the goal is even lower at 125/75 ... Physicians need to be more aggressive about getting people into good blood pressure control ... you shoot for a goal; if you don¹t get it you increase the dose. If that doesn't work, then you add another drug, and then you increase that dose ... patients need more than one drug most of the time ... when you get very close using just one drug, both doctor and patient are less likely to add another medication to get to goal. There is some education we need to do"
• Blood Pressure Linked To Cognitive Performance In Elderly Men - Doctor's Guide, 2/11/03 - "Diastolic blood pressure at 68 years of age showed an inverse relationship to men's performance on verbal, spatial and speed assessments when tested at 81 years ... systolic blood pressure at 68 years showed an inverse relationship with spatial performance"
• Regular Alcohol Consumption Could Lower Cardiovascular Morbidity In Hypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 2/10/03 - "Regular consumption reduces concentrations of serum lipoprotein(a), a powerful predictor of organ damage ... Compared with teetotallers and occasional drinkers, however, median lipoprotein(a) concentrations were 21% lower in light drinkers (those consuming up to 20 grams of ethanol daily), 26% lower in moderate drinkers (21-50 grams daily) and 57% lower in heavy drinkers (over 50 grams daily)"
• Anti-hypertensive Therapy May Depend On Time Of Day - Doctor's Guide, 1/27/03
• Blood Pressure Control -- Timing Matters - WebMD, 1/24/03 - "Researchers found that the diuretic and calcium-channel blocker were effective around the clock. The beta-blocker was the least effective of the four drugs overall and it had no effect on blood pressure during the night or in the early morning hours. ACE inhibitors actually worked best while the study participants were sleeping, but had little effect on blood pressure during the day"
• People With Hypertension Accurately Self-Record Blood Pressure, But White Coat Effect Remains Influential - Doctor's Guide, 1/21/03
• Sodium Inhibitor Might Promote Hypertension In Insulin Resistance - Doctor's Guide, 1/20/03
• Some Born With High Blood Pressure Risks - Intelihealth, 1/9/03 - "people with fewer nephrons -- or filtering units -- in their kidneys were more susceptible to the condition"
• Reduced Blood Pressure Correlated With Leptin After Weight Loss In Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 1/6/03
• New Method Proposed for Assessing Salt Sensitivity - Doctor's Guide, 1/2/03
• BP Lowering May Halt Descent Into Dementia - Clinical Psychiatry News, 12/02 - "Dr. Hansson served as cochair of SCOPE, a 15-nation study in which 4,937 mildly hypertensive patients aged 70-89 were randomized to the angiotensin-receptor blocker candesartan or diuretic-based therapy. Serial Mini-Mental Status Exams (MMSEs) conducted during more than 18,000 patient-years of follow-up demonstrated that among individuals with a baseline MMSE of 24-28—indicative of normal to slightly impaired cognitive function—those in the candesartan arm had a mean 0.5-point decline in MMSE scores during follow-up, compared with a 6-point drop in those on a diuretic. The cognitive benefit was even more pronounced in patients over age 85"
• Biological Factors Predominate in Hypertensive Perimenopausal Women - Doctor's Guide, 12/16/02
• Hypertension Increases May Be Lower with Celecoxib than with Rofecoxib - Doctor's Guide, 12/12/02 - "Elderly patients with hypertension who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) for arthritis or other conditions may see fewer adverse effects on blood pressure with celecoxib than with rofecoxib"
• Two Antihypertensives Can Achieve Desired Effect In Most Patients - Doctor's Guide, 12/11/02
• Subjects With White Coat Hypertension Do Not Show Endothelial Dysfunction - Doctor's Guide, 12/4/02
• That Sense Of Urgency May Bring On Hypertension - Intelihealth, 11/21/02
• Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatories, Acetaminophen Associated With Increased Risk For Hypertension Among Women - Doctor's Guide, 11/19/02 - "A substantial proportion of hypertension in women may be due to the use of acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) ... Compared with nonusers, the relative risk of hypertension for women taking NSAIDs at least 22 days a month was 1.86 while the relative risk for those taking acetaminophen at least 22 days a month was 2.00, they reported ... Use of NSAIDs and use of acetaminophen were significantly associated with increased risk of hypertension, but aspirin use was not"
• White-Coat Effect Reversed In Patients With Highest Blood Pressure Levels - Doctor's Guide, 11/13/02
• Cardiovascular Remodeling More Prevalent In Isolated Systolic Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 11/5/02
• Study Gauges Risks To Heart - Intelihealth, 11/6/02 - "Untreated high blood pressure doubles a person's risk [of congestive heart failure] ... High blood pressure results when the arteries stiffen or narrow, forcing the heart to overwork and enlarge ... A 40-year-old man whose blood pressure is less than 140 when his heart contracts, the top number, has a 15% lifetime risk of developing heart failure, compared with a 28% risk for a 40-year-old man whose pressure tops 160"
• Inflammation May Increase Stroke Risk In Men With Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 11/1/02 - "The study found that men with systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) at or above 140 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and elevated levels of inflammation-sensitive plasma proteins (ISP) were four times as likely to have a stroke as were men who had normal blood pressure and normal ISP levels. Moreover, the inflammatory proteins predicted stroke risk for 10 or more years." - See my inflammation page for ways to reduce it.
• Patient Perceptions Vital In Continuing Antihypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 10/23/02
• Cholesterol, Blood Pressure Problems Outweigh Genetics for Alzheimer's Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/02 - "having a cholesterol level of 250 mg/dL or greater increased the risk for Alzheimer's disease by threefold, compared with cholesterol levels below that ... Systolic blood pressure (SBP) greater than 160 mm Hg increased the risk by 2.4, compared with SBP less than 140 mm Hg"
• Blood Pressure Medication Preserves Cognitive Function In Older African-Americans - Doctor's Guide, 10/14/02
• Blood Pressure Meds Help Heart and Mind - WebMD, 10/14/02
• Blood Pressure Drugs Keep Brain Healthy - KGTV.com, 10/14/02 - "the continuous use of medications to lower blood pressure reduced the risk of memory loss by more than one-third"
• Atorvastatin Shown to Decrease Heart Disease and Stroke in Patients with Hypertension And Low Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 10/11/02
• Researchers Halt Successful Study On Cholesterol, Blood Pressure - Intelihealth, 10/11/02 - "Researchers in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes trial were giving the cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin to patients who have normal or low levels of cholesterol but are at a risk of a heart attack or stroke because they have high blood pressure or other risk factors ... patients taking the prescription drug had significantly fewer strokes and heart attacks than those taking a placebo"
• Significant Blood Pressure Differences Between Arms May Indicate Increased Risk Of Morbidity And Mortality - Doctor's Guide, 10/10/02
• High Pulse Pressure May Help Identify Young Hypertensives At Higher Risk Of Cardiovascular Events - Doctor's Guide, 10/2/02
• Circulating Uric Acid Level Is Predictor Of Weight Gain And Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 9/30/02
• Treating To Lower Blood Pressure Goal Reduces Aortic Stiffness - Doctor's Guide, 9/30/02 - "Treating non-diabetic hypertensive patients to a target goal of less than 130/85 mm/Hg appears to significantly reduce aortic stiffness, while treating to a goal of less than 140/90 mm/Hg had no effect on aortic stiffness ... the findings suggest that clinicians should treat to "a low target rather than simply treating to a goal of less than 140/90 mm/Hg.""
• Super-Low BP May Reverse Heart Damage - WebMD, 9/27/02 - "the lower you go, the more likely you will be able the reverse the heart damage caused by high blood pressure ... lowering blood pressure to less than 130/85 reverses the arterial stiffness caused by high blood pressure"
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea Could Be Related To Resistant Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 9/27/02
• Sildenafil Improves Arterial Pressure and Compliance in Hypertensive Heart Transplant Recipients - Doctor's Guide, 9/27/02
• Among Treated Hypertensive Patients, Low HDL Predicts Ventricular Remodeling - Doctor's Guide, 9/26/02 - "While low HDL cholesterol levels are well known to be a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, it is unclear whether it plays a role in hypertensive heart disease ... The findings suggest that low HDL-C may play an adverse role not only in coronary heart disease but also in hypertensive heart disease" - See my HDL page for ways to raise it.
• Primary Care Drug Therapy for Hypertension Poorly Tailored to Individual Patients - Doctor's Guide, 9/24/02 - "The task of the primary care physician is to help the patient achieve a blood pressure level that puts cardiovascular risks at their lowest possible level ... They found that treatment achieved adequate blood pressure control in 16.5 percent of subjects at systolic/diastolic BP <140/90 mm Hg ... The doctors used beta-blockers with 51.6 percent of the patients, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors with 31 percent, diuretics with 23.5 percent, calcium channel blockers with 19.6 percent and methyldopa with 3.0 percent" - I can't figure out why the newer ARBs aren't more popular.  The following was in today's (9/25/02) JAMA (losartan is an ARB and atenolol is a beta-blocker) - Ben:
  • Effects of Losartan on Cardiovascular Morbidity and Mortality in Patients With Isolated Systolic Hypertension and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy: A Losartan Intervention For Endpoint Reduction (LIFE) Substudy - JAMA, 9/25/02 - "Blood pressure was reduced by 28/9 and 28/9 mm Hg in the losartan and atenolol arms. The main outcome was reduced by 25% with losartan compared with atenolol, 25.1 vs 35.4 events per 1000 patient-years ... Patients receiving losartan had reductions in the following without a difference in the incidence of myocardial infarction: cardiovascular mortality (8.7 vs 16.9 events per 1000 patient-years ... nonfatal and fatal stroke (10.6 vs 18.9 events per 1000 patient-years ... new-onset diabetes (12.6 vs 20.1 events per 1000 patient-years ... total mortality (21.2 vs 30.2 events per 1000 patient-years ... Losartan decreased ECG-LVH more than atenolol (P<.001) and was better tolerated"
• White Coat Effect Linked With Increased Blood Pressure Response To Physical Activity - Doctor's Guide, 9/18/02
• Strategies Outlined For Primary, Secondary Prevention of Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 9/18/02 - "The most recent evidence suggests that there are four primary prevention strategies for stroke: adequate blood pressure reduction, treatment of hyperlipidemia, antithrombotic therapy in atrial fibrillation patients and antiplatelet therapy in myocardial infarction patients"
• Low-Dose Acetylsalicylic Acid may Interfere With ACE Inhibition in Type I Diabetics - Doctor's Guide, 9/4/02 - "Low-dose acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, Aspirin) may increase systolic blood pressure in type 1 diabetic patients, especially in those taking angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors ... Compared to those not taking ASA, patients taking ASA had higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) (151 plus or minus 1 versus 134 plus or minus 1 mmHg; p<0.0001) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (84 plus or minus 1 versus 80 plus or minus 1 ... Similarly, in patients without CVD and not taking antihypertensive drugs (n=37), SBP was still higher in those taking ASA (142 plus or minus 3 mmHg) compared to the 1042 participants who were not taking it (128 plus or minus 1 mmHg)"
• Pulse Pressure Linked To Cardiovascular Mortality Among Type 2 Diabetics - Doctor's Guide, 9/3/02
• Adult Disease Theory Challenged - Intelihealth, 8/30/02 - "scientists conclude that the reported link between low birth weight and higher blood pressure later in life, an early cornerstone of the theory, may not be as strong as previously thought. Because of flaws in the studies, it may not exist at all"
• Aortic Pulse Pressure May Predict Extent Of Coronary Artery Disease - Doctor's Guide, 8/29/02
• Eplerenone Effective, Well-Tolerated For Reducing Blood Pressure In Patients With Mild-To-Moderate Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 8/28/02
• Increased Serum Ferritin Common in Hypertensive Men - Doctor's Guide, 8/21/02
• Short-term Use of Standard Antihypertensives May Decrease Psychomotor Performance but Improve Working Memory - Doctor's Guide, 8/20/02
• Adequate Blood Pressure Control Achievable Even In Extremely Challenging Populations Of Hypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 8/8/02
• Eplerenone May Be An Effective Add-On Therapy For Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 8/8/02
• Home Measurement Best for Accurate BP Monitoring - Medscape, 8/5/02
• White Coat Hypertension Can Skew Doctors Treatment Decisions - Doctor's Guide, 8/1/02
• Increased Inflammation May Play A Role In Vascular Dysfunction In Type 2 Diabetes - Doctor's Guide, 8/1/02
• Depression May Be A Modifiable Risk Factor For Poor Compliance With Antihypertensive Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 7/31/02 - "the investigators found that depression was significantly associated with non-compliance with [antihypertensive] therapy"
• At Least Two Years Of Sustained Blood Pressure Control Needed For Maximum Reversal Of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy - Doctor's Guide, 7/25/02
• Pravastatin Therapy May Help Protect Kidney Function In Patients With Well-Controlled Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 7/25/02
• FDA Approves Device for Reducing Hypertension - Medscape, 7/18/02
• Breathing Easy Lowers Blood Pressure - WebMD, 7/17/02
• Exercise Benefits Patients With White Coat Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 7/10/02
• Hypertension In Pregnancy Associated With Greater Adverse Outcomes For Type 1 Diabetics - Doctor's Guide, 6/20/02
• Baroreflex Sensitivity May Prove Sensitive Marker for Cardiovascular Risks - Doctor's Guide, 5/30/02
• Decrease In Nocturnal Blood Pressure Not Related To Cardiovascular Remodelling In Hypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 5/27/02
• Systolic Plus Diastolic BP Offers Better Risk Assessment In Men - Doctor's Guide, 5/23/02
• Increased Risk Of Coronary Heart Disease Related To Ascending Aortic Pressure Waveform - Doctor's Guide, 5/22/02
• Married Life Affects Blood Pressure - WebMD, 5/17/02
• Caffeine's Effect on Blood Pressure - WebMD, 5/17/02 - "Thirty minutes after the caffeine was given [250 mg of caffeine (the equivalent of 2-3 cups of coffee)], there was a big jump in the stiffness of their arteries, said Vlachopoulos. The effect peaked after 60 minutes and remained significant for at least three hours ... This led to an 11 point jump in systolic blood pressure -- the top number -- and an 8 point jump in diastolic blood pressure -- the bottom number"
• Drug Algorithm Helps Clinicians Control Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/02
• Doxazosin Gastrointestinal Therapeutic System (GITS) Effective for Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/02
• Diastolic Function Differs Between Male and Female Hypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 5/14/02
• Hypertensive "Non-Dippers" May Experience Disturbed Sleep - Doctor's Guide, 5/9/02
• Obesity Prompts High Blood Pressure in Kids - WebMD, 5/7/02
• Hypertension Linked With Higher Cancer Mortality - Doctor's Guide, 5/2/02
• Beating High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/19/02 - "By requiring healthcare providers to increase treatment if the participants were not at goal, the study found that 90% of the patients were able to get their diastolic (bottom blood pressure number) under 90 mmHg, and 60% got their systolic (top number) under 140 mmHg. That success rate is several times higher than the national average of only 27% of patients aged 18-74 with high blood pressure who reach their blood pressure goals"
• Socioeconomic Problems Associated With Developing Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 3/25/02
• No Link Seen Between Hypertension And Headache - Doctor's Guide, 3/25/02
• High Blood Pressure Kills Sex - WebMD, 3/21/02 - "the problem may not be with blood flow alone. New research suggests plummeting levels of the male hormone testosterone could partly be to blame"
• Systolic, Not Diastolic, Blood Pressure Best For Assessing Cardiovascular Risk - Doctor's Guide, 3/19/02 - "Systolic blood pressure is a good predictor of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease in hypertensive men ... In contrast, measurements of diastolic blood pressure are of little value in predicting cardiovascular risk"
• Patients Need More Education About Effects of Increased Systolic Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 3/19/02 - "hypertensive patients were usually aware that they had high blood pressure, they frequently did not understand the importance of increased systolic blood pressure levels ... Improved recognition of the importance of systolic blood pressure is a major public health challenge in the prevention and treatment of hypertension ... Thirty-two percent of patients correctly identified systolic blood pressure as the "top" number of their reading"
• Systolic, Not Diastolic, Blood Pressure Has More Impact On Staging - Doctor's Guide, 3/18/02
• Abnormal Low-Density Lipoprotein Particles Predominate In Untreated Hypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 3/13/02
• Coffee Intake and Risk of Hypertension: The Johns Hopkins Precursors Study - Archives of Internal Medicine, 3/26/02 - "After adjustment for the variables listed above, however, these associations were not statistically significant ... Conclusion  Over many years of follow-up, coffee drinking is associated with small increases in blood pressure, but appears to play a small role in the development of hypertension"
• Post-Exercise Blood Pressure Reduction Clinically Relevant In Elderly Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 3/12/02 - "They also experienced a 22-hour post-exercise blood pressure reduction. This result shows that low-intensity exercise is clinically relevant in elderly patients with hypertension"
• A Little Alcohol Keeps Blood Pressure Down - WebMD, 3/11/02
• Middle Aged at Risk for High BP - WebMD, 2/26/02
• Variability Of Office Diastolic Blood Pressure Predicts Myocardial Infarction - Doctor's Guide, 2/26/02
• Docs Undertreating High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 2/25/02
• Healthy Heart: The Ugly Truth About Hypertension - Intelihealth, 2/20/02 - "the real goal isn’t to get your blood pressure under 140/90 mm Hg. “Optimal” blood pressure is below 120/80 mm Hg ... If the numbers are about 130/85, they should recognize that they have a problem"
• Blood Pressure Drugs Relax Heart, Reduce Heart Failure Risk - Doctor's Guide, 2/12/02
• Blood Pressure Drugs Help the Heart - WebMD, 2/11/02 - "It's the first time researchers have documented structural changes in the heart's main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, and improved heart function through the use of blood pressure-lowering (antihypertensive) medications ... The patients received one of two blood pressure-reducing drugs -- either Cozaar, or Tenormin (atenolol), a beta-blocker ... After a year, the participants were examined again, and researchers found the treatment reduced blood pressure by an average of 23 mmHg systolic and 11 mmHg diastolic. Heart size was also reduced by an average of 10%, which led to improved blood flow into the heart's main pumping chamber ... At the start of the study, only 15% of the participants had normal blood flow into the left ventricle, but after a year of treatment with blood pressure-lowering medications that number grew to about 26%. In addition, researchers found an improvement in the heart's ability to relax, and stiffness was reduced"
• Pulse Pressure a Better Predictor of Mortality than Mean Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 1/28/02
• Amlodipine and chlorthalidone equally effective for stage I isolated systolic hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 1/28/02
• Mother's Diet During Pregnancy May Influence Child's Blood Pressure Later In Life - Intelihealth, 1/17/02 - "Pregnant women who consume a diet rich in animal protein and low in carbohydrates may be more likely to have children with elevated blood pressure later in life"
• Under-Controlled Hypertension Paves Way For Other Ills - Doctor's Guide, 1/16/02
• White Coat Effect Accounts For A Quarter Of Resistant Hypertension Cases - Doctor's Guide, 12/27/01
• 'White-Coat' High Blood Pressure Damages Heart - WebMD, 12/12/01 - "Compared with people who had normal blood pressure, those with white-coat high BP did, in fact, have evidence of damage to their heart. Their hearts were bigger and thicker and even showed signs of less-effective function ... the real question is whether or not to treat people with white-coat blood pressure problems ... Marvin Moser, MD, says that the final answer is not in yet. But in an editorial accompanying the study, he writes that since we know the great benefits of treating high blood pressure and the treatments are not complicated or dangerous, it's a good idea to treat white-coat high blood pressure"
• Left Ventricular Changes Seen in Isolated Office Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 12/10/01
• Study Suggests Blood Pressure That's High Only At Doctor's Office Is Not Harmless - Intelihealth, 12/10/01
• Hormone Replacement Therapy Can Reduce Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 12/6/01
• Getting Vigilant About High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 11/27/01 - "High systolic blood pressure is a powerful predictor of strokes, heart attacks, and death, and must be treated aggressively"
• Increased Prevalence Of Hypertension In Population Exposed To Regular Aircraft Noise - Doctor's Guide, 11/13/01
• Nephrectomy May Improve Blood Pressure Control - Doctor's Guide, 11/13/01
• Study Issues Blood Pressure Warning - Intelihealth, 11/1/01 - "a reading a few points below the official benchmark for high blood pressure significantly increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes ... The lower your blood pressure, the better off you are"
• Is High-Normal Blood Pressure a Medical Misnomer? - WebMD, 10/31/01 - "the risk of heart attack, stroke, or heart failure was roughly twice as high for people with blood pressure readings that were in the high-normal range, compared to people with levels considered to be optimal ... High blood pressure is defined in adults as a systolic pressure (top number) of 140 or higher and a diastolic level (bottom number) of 90 or more ... roughly 13% of adult Americans have high-normal blood pressure, defined as systolic pressure between 130 and 139 and a diastolic pressure of 85 to 89. Those with lower levels have readings considered to be either normal (between 120 and 129 systolic/80 to 84 diastolic), or optimal (a systolic level less than 120 and a diastolic level less than 80)"
• Tackling High Blood Pressure Important for Young and Old Alike - WebMD, 10/15/01 - "Most of the time, doctors think treating systolic hypertension is useless in older patients if they have additional risk factors [for heart disease or stroke] ... We have demonstrated very clearly that this is not true. The patients who often aren't treated are exactly the ones who should be treated"
• Is Your Job Killing You? Maybe - WebMD, 8/15/01 - "The new findings boost a growing body of evidence suggesting that work-related stress including long hours, low reward, hectic pace, and lack of social support can increase a person's risk of heart disease by increasing their blood pressure"
• Is Your Blood Pressure Under Control? - WebMD, 8/15/01
• Discontinuation of Antihypertensive Drugs Due to Adverse Events: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis - Medscape, 8/01
• Young men at risk for high blood pressure - USA Today, 6/24/01
• Statins May Be Effective For Controlling Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 6/21/01 - "statin treatment caused a significant (p<0.05) lowering of ambulatory systolic blood pressure (SBP) on the 24-hour (-4 mm Hg), daytime (-5 mm Hg), and nighttime (-3 mm Hg) measurements compared to baseline"
• Quinopril and L-Arginine Improves Endothelial Function In Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 6/21/01
• Candesartan Shown Equivalent To Enalapril In Regressing Left Ventricular Hypertrophy - Doctor's Guide, 6/19/01
• Calcium Antagonist, Lacipidine, Reduces Plaque Progression Compared To Atenolol - Doctor's Guide, 6/19/01
• Replacing Estrogen Via Skin Patch Decreases Nerve Activity, Blood Pressure in Postmenopausal Women - Doctor's Guide, 6/19/01 - "administering replacement estrogen via a skin patch is superior to oral estrogen replacement therapy in lowering blood pressure and sympathetic nerve activity - the neural control of blood pressure - in postmenopausal women"
• Blood Pressure Drugs Cut Stroke Risk - Intelihealth, 6/17/01 - "giving stroke patients blood pressure pills and diuretics could halve the chance of their suffering another stroke"
• High Blood Pressure, Cholesterol Linked to Alzheimer's - WebMD, 6/14/01 - "The message is to treat hypertension and hypercholesterolemia early."
• Opinion: The Time Has Come to Emphasize Beta-Blockers for Heart Failure, In Many Patients, They Can Actually Help Heal the Heart - WebMD, 5/30/01 - "probably the most surprising and most useful advance for heart failure in the past several years is a pill that has been around for decades -- the beta-blocker"
• Erectile Dysfunction More Common In Hypertensive Male Smokers - Doctor's Guide, 5/21/01
• Older People Benefit From Antihypertensive Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 5/20/01 - "across all clinical trials, treatment of hypertension in older adults reduces the risk of all types of major cardiovascular events, alone and in the aggregate, and even significantly reduces all- cause mortality"
• Sildenafil For Erectile Dysfunction Effective, Well-Tolerated In Men With Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 5/20/01
• Irbesartan Slows Kidney Disease In Diabetics - Doctor's Guide, 5/20/01
• Lowering High Blood Pressure Can Reverse Some Dementia in the Elderly, Improves Memory and Thinking Limited by Vascular Dementia - WebMD, 5/18/01 - "At 12 weeks, both thinking and memory improved by 15% to 40%, and there were similar improvements in gait and other movements, says Jacobson. These improvements were still present at six months"
• White Coat Hypertension Linked To Insulin Resistance - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/01
• Blood Pressure Control Improves Cognitive Function In Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/01 - "When the tests were repeated at 12 and 24 weeks, patients averaged a 15-40 percent improvement in the areas of executive function, memory, concentration and information processing, as well as spatial skills and some motor function"
• Home Blood Pressure Monitoring May Provide More Accurate Assessment of Overall Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/01
• Under-Treatment of Hypertension Contributing to Chronic KidneyDisease in United States - Doctor's Guide, 5/15/01 - "Hypertension is a leading factor in developing kidney disease. While the majority of people in the study were treated for hypertension, only 11 percent reduced their blood pressure to recommended levels"
• Fast Medication Adjustment, Team Approach Yields Lasting Hypertension Control - Doctor's Guide, 4/23/01
• Blood Pressure Control May Be Key In Preventing Cardiovascular Disease In Diabetics - Doctor's Guide, 4/20/01
• Long-Term Blood Pressure Control Decreases Incidence Of Diabetic Retinopathy - Doctor's Guide, 4/6/01 - "DR affects 70-100 percent of patients with diabetes ... the results of this study highlight the importance of using multiple agents in order to achieve and sustain a satisfactory reduction in BP in patients with diabetic renal disease"
• Antihypertensive Control Needed To Delay Progression Of Diabetic Neuropathy - Doctor's Guide, 4/6/01 - "Proper control of blood pressure is the single most important factor in delaying the progression of diabetic neuropathy ... majority of such patients require more than a single antihypertensive agent to achieve adequate BP control (£ 130/80)"
• Angiotensin II Antagonist Telmisartan Fights Stiffening Arteries In Hypertensive Diabetics - Doctor's Guide, 4/6/01 - "not only effectively lowered blood pressure compared with placebo, but also significantly decreased arterial stiffness"
• Black Hypertensive Patients Benefit From Combined Angiotensin II Antagonist + Thiazide - Doctor's Guide, 4/6/01 - "The combination gave a mean reduction from baseline of 13.3 mmHg, compared with only 4.6 mmHg for telmisartan 80 mg alone and 5.2 mmHg for HCTZ alone (p<0.01). The active treatments produced no more side-effects than placebo did"
• Air Pollution Increases Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/2/01 - "We've learned that increasing concentrations of particulate air pollution affects several cardiovascular health [factors], such as blood pressure"
• High-Normal Serum Creatinine Concentration Is a Predictor of Cardiovascular Risk in Essential Hypertension - Archive of Internal Medicine, 3/26/01
• Ace Inhibitor Aceon (Perindopril) Reduces Systolic And Diastolic Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 3/21/01
• Hormone Replacement Best For Blood Pressure If Taken Within Five Years Of Menopause - Doctor's Guide, 3/19/01
• Diet, Weight Loss, and Drugs Are Keys to Achieving Control of Hypertension - WebMD, 3/15/01 - "High blood pressure that is not controlled can lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, and other serious consequences ... the best ways to reduce high blood pressure ... is a diet high in vegetables and fruits and complex carbohydrates ... the optimal goal should be blood pressure lower than 120 over 80"
• Viagra (Sildenafil Citrate) Safe, Effective For Men Taking Antihypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 3/6/01
• Blood Pressure, Older Mothers Studied - Intelihealth, 3/4/01 - "Babies born to older mothers tend to have significantly higher than usual blood pressure"
• Are Putters Using Blood Pressure Drugs to Shoot Better? - WebMD, 2/23/01 - "beta-blockers may be giving some golfers an unfair advantage by calming their nerves as they get set to swing.  Beta-blockers reduce the heart rate and the heart's output of blood. These drugs also may reduce the anxiety"
• Cognitive Effects Seen With Mild Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 2/19/01 - "But even in these young, high functioning, mild hypertensives you can find differences and deficits in cognitive function of about 4 Intelligence Quotient (IQ) points."
• Study Shows New Link Between Salt Sensitivity And Risk Of Death - Doctor's Guide, 2/15/01
• RespeRate Medical Device Non-Pharmacologic Treatment For Hypertension Now Available in US - Doctor's Guide, 1/18/01
• A Water Pill a Day Can Keep a Stroke Away, Study: People With High Blood Pressure Need to Be on a Diuretic - WebMD, 1/8/01 - ""If I had high blood pressure, I would take a diuretic as a first-line treatment drug," says study author Bruce M. Psaty, MD, PhD. He is a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle."
• Study: Diuretics Help Stop Strokes - Intelihealth, 1/8/01
• Blood Pressure Drug Appears to Prevent Migraines, May Work as Well as Other Migraine Drugs Currently Available - WebMD, 1/5/01
• Study: Reducing salt really does lower blood pressure - CNN, 1/3/01
• Lower Blood Pressure Means Less Chance of Dementia, Study Finds Thinking Skills Fall in People With High BP - WebMD, 12/14/00
• FDA Approves Micardis HCT (Telmisartan/Hydrochlorothiazide) For Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 11/21/00
• High Blood Pressure in Pregnancy May Have Hormonal Culprit - WebMD, 10/17/00
• Atacand HCT (Candesartan Cilexetil-Hydrochlorothiazide), Anti-Hypertensive, Now Available In US - Doctor's Guide, 10/26/00
• Could Therapy Help High Blood Pressure? Repressed Emotions May Trigger Condition, Doctor Says - WebMD, 10/23/00 - "I suspect that nearly 25% of those unexplained cases are due to repressed emotions"
• FDA Approves Atacand HCT (Candesartan Cilexetil HCl) For Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 9/6/00
• Popular Blood Pressure Medicine May Do More Harm Than Good - WebMD, 8/30/00
• Study: Popular blood pressure drugs less effective than cheaper alternative - CNN, 8/29/00
• Omapatrilat Effective In Salt Sensitive Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 8/25/00
• Doxazosin Effective In Men With Hypertension And Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia - Doctor's Guide, 8/24/00
• Irbesartan Improves Quality Of Life In Hypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 8/24/00
• Amlodipine Lowers Nighttime Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 8/22/00
• Lowering Your Blood Pressure May Help You Keep Your Wits - WebMD, 8/2/00
• Valsartan Effectively Lowers Blood Pressure in African Americans on High-Salt Diets - Doctor's Guide, 7/18/00
• Atacand (Candesartan Cilexetil) Significantly More Effective Than Cozaar (Losartan) In Lowering Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 7/11/00
• Weight Loss, Activity Ease Pressure - Intelihealth, 7/10/00
• High Blood Pressure Harms Women's Sexual Function, Too - WebMD, 6/28/00
• Even Modest Weight Loss Lowers Blood Pressure in Obese Patients - WebMD, 6/10/00
• Even Slightly High Blood Pressure Can Be a Headache -- Literally - WebMD, 6/11/00
• Causes and Control of Inaccurate Blood Pressure Measurement - Doctor's Guide, 5/23/00
• White Coat Hypertension Also Seen In Children - Doctor's Guide, 5/23/00
• Lipid Lowering Drugs Seem to Have Benefits in Hypertension Control - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/00 - "A combination of lipid-lowering statins and an anti-hypertensive drug is more effective than an anti-hypertensive drug alone in reducing blood pressure among high-risk patients"
• Atacand(Candesartan) Effective Antihypertensive, More Tolerable Than Norvasc(Amlodipine) - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/00
• Unique Mechanism of Action of Omapatrilat May Offer Benefit Over Antihypertensive Lisinopril - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/00
• Blood Pressure Blunders: Many Measurements Are Off the Mark - WebMD, 5/19/00
• Quality Of Life Improved With Switch to Diovan (Valsartan) - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/00
• Large Blood Pressure Benefit From Reduced Dietary Sodium - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/00
• Controlling blood pressure lowers risk of stroke - CNN, 5/17/00
• Older People Respond Better Than Younger People to Antihypertensive, Plendil (Felodipine) - Doctor's Guide, 5/15/00
• Men and Women Respond Differently to Antihypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 5/9/00
• Systolic blood-pressure reading should define hypertension, experts say - Doctor's Guide, 5/5/00
• Battle of the High Blood Pressure Drugs - WebMD, 4/18/00
• Study Supports Link Between Sleep Apnea, High Blood Pressure - Intelihealth, 4/12/00
• Study links snoring to hypertension - CNN, 4/11/00
• Disordered Breathing Linked To High Risk Of Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 4/11/00
• Chlorthalidone Superior To Doxazosin As First-Line Antihypertensive - Doctor's Guide, 4/4/00
• Common blood pressure drug increases the risk of diabetes - CNN, 3/29/00
• Depression And Anxiety Increases Likelihood Of Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 3/23/00
• Most Older Patients With Hypertension Have Uncontrolled Systolic Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 3/15/00
• Age A Key Factor In Progression To Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 3/15/00
• Diastolic Blood Pressure Better Predictor Of Coronary Risk In Younger Patients - Doctor's Guide, 3/15/00
• Cozaar (Losartan Potassium) And Hyzaar (Losartan Potassium/hydrochlorothiazide) Effective For African-Americans With Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 3/13/00
• Teveten (Eprosartan) May Have Unique Effect on Sympathetic Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 3/13/00
• More Efficient Blood Pressure Treatment Would Cut Heart Disease By Two-Thirds - Doctor's Guide, 3/10/00
• Diovan (Valsartan) Reduces Systolic Hypertension In The Elderly - Doctor's Guide, 3/3/00
• Study Finds ACE Inhibitor Quinapril Effective For Opening Blood Vessels - Doctor's Guide, 1/3/00
• Newer And Older Hypertensive Treatments Equally Effective In Older Patients - Doctor's Guide, 11/19/99
• Nearly 19 Million Hypertensive Patients May Have Significant Drug-Tolerability Problems - Doctor's Guide, 11/10/99
• Omapatrilat Shows Promise In Hypertension Management - Doctor's Guide, 11/9/99
• Pets curb dangerous rises in blood pressure - CNN, 11/8/99
• Antihypertensive Teveten Tablets Now Available In The U.S. - Doctor's Guide, 10/18/99
• Aceon® Tablets Available In U.S. For 24-Hour Control of Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 10/7/99
• Researchers Link Hypertension And Osteoporosis - Doctor's Guide, 9/17/99
• New Study Confirms Importance Of Systolic Blood Pressure - Doctor's Guide, 9/16/99
• Atacand More Effective Than Cozaar In Reducing Diastolic BP - Doctor's Guide, 8/17/99
• Hypertension The Most Significant Risk For Diabetics - Doctor's Guide, 6/21/99
• Youth Stress Key Predictor Of Later Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 6/17/99
• Trial And Error Helps Patients Find Best Blood Pressure Treatment - Doctor's Guide, 6/11/99
• Avalide Available In U.S. For High Blood Pressure Treatment - Doctor's Guide, 5/14/99
• Study: Medications do lower blood pressure - CNN, 4/21/99
• Verelan PM Launched In The U.S. For Essential Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 3/22/99
• Estrogen Replacement Lowers Blood Pressure Of Older Women With Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 3/17/99
• Depression Linked To Reduced Blood Pressure Control - Doctor's Guide, 3/5/99
• Morning Coffee Boosts Blood Pressure, Stress Hormones Throughout The Day - Doctor's Guide, 3/5/99
• Middle-age health risks can age brain, study finds - CNN, 3/5/99
• Micardis Available In U.S. For Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 2/22/99
• Study: Many high blood pressure patients lack proper treatment - CNN, 12/31/98
• Study Shows Hypertension Management Needs Improvement - Doctor's Guide, 12/31/98
• White-Coat Hypertension Not Serious Health Threat, Study Says - Doctor's Guide, 11/2/98
• High blood pressure: Newest research explores prevention, treatment - CNN, 9/21/98
• Sodium Sensitivity Puts Hypertensives At High Risk Of Cardiovascular Events - Doctor's Guide, 12/12/97
• Pulse Pressure Serves As Marker For Heart Disease Death - Doctor's Guide, 12/8/97
• Study Links Between Calcium Blockers And Brain Damage, Memory Loss - Doctor's Guide, 12/2/97
• New Drug [PrDiovan(tm) (valsartan) Puts The Brakes On Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 12/2/97
• NHLBI Releases New High Blood Pressure Guidelines - Doctor's Guide, 11/6/97

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