2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure: A Report of the American College of Cardiology ...
Hypertension News
Apr. 11, 2024 — A drug approved to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension may be effective at managing hypertension and end-organ damage in patients with sickle cell disease, according to a new study. An early phase ...
Dec. 4, 2023 — A study suggests that the response of immune system cells inside the protective covering surrounding the brain may contribute to the cognitive decline that can occur in a person with chronic high ...
Nov. 13, 2023 — An intensive three-year intervention to lower the top blood pressure number to less than 120 mm Hg was more effective at preventing death, heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular events in ...
Nov. 13, 2023 — Nearly everyone can lower their blood pressure, even people currently on blood pressure-reducing drugs, by lowering their sodium intake, reports a new study. It found 70-75% of all people, ...
Nov. 2, 2023 — A study found that participants in a mindfulness-based blood pressure reduction program improved health behaviors that lower blood pressure. When people who had elevated blood pressure participated ...
Oct. 24, 2023 — Newly published research proves that it's possible to treat high blood pressure by using specially engineered Lactobacillus paracasei to produce a protein called ACE2 in the gut, reducing gut ...
Oct. 19, 2023 — New findings point to 2 additional probiotics as potential treatments for high blood ...
Oct. 16, 2023 — The link between high blood pressure and a range of health problems is well known, and researchers have now found that fluctuating blood pressure can be just as risky and a potential precursor to ...
Oct. 2, 2023 — Getting enough sleep has never been more difficult in today's fast-paced environment. Yet new research highlights why getting a good night's sleep is critical to staying healthy. Their ...
Sep. 27, 2023 — An estimated 80 percent of older adults in the U.S. Have high blood pressure. Maintaining healthy blood pressure can protect against serious conditions like heart failure, heart attacks, and strokes. ...
Sep. 7, 2023 — An analysis of data from a long-running study of more than 11,000 adults from four diverse communities in the United States has found that adults who had high blood pressure while both seated upright ...
Sep. 7, 2023 — An analysis of electronic health records for more than 60,000 adults in the United States found that systolic, or top-number, blood pressure rose slightly during the winter compared to summer months. ...
Aug. 15, 2023 — Arterial stiffness is a novel cause of premature heart damage among adolescents, according to a new follow-up ...
July 31, 2023 — An analysis of data from seven studies involving more than 19,000 adults in the United States, Korea and Japan found a clear association between increases in systolic (top-number) blood pressure and ...
July 13, 2023 — Expanding home blood pressure monitoring among US adults with hypertension could substantially reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and save healthcare costs in the long term, according to a ...
June 26, 2023 — Novel research found that apparent resistant hypertension (aRH) prevalence was lower in a real-world sample than previously reported, but still relatively frequent -- affecting nearly 1 in 10 ...
Apr. 7, 2023 — High blood pressure in early adulthood is associated with worse brain health in late life, according to a new study. Men, compared to women, may be more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of high ...
Mar. 23, 2023 — High fitness levels may reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease in men with high blood pressure, according to a 29-year ...
Mar. 22, 2023 — If you live near a busy road you might feel like the constant sound of roaring engines, honking horns and wailing sirens makes your blood pressure rise. Now a new study confirms it can do exactly ...
Mar. 14, 2023 — Scientists have found that inhibiting a gene essential to making DNA can significantly reduce the destructive cell proliferation and disease progression in pulmonary ...
Mediterranean Diet Tied To Lower Hypertension Risk, 20 Years' Worth Of Data Show
Many factors can contribute to developing hypertension, including following an unhealthy diet.
Some recommendations the American Heart Association makes for a healthier diet include consuming whole grains, a variety of fruits and vegetables, and incorporating healthy proteins.
Recently, researchers in Greece decided to take a closer look at the cardiovascular benefits of the Mediterranean diet, since many of its features line up with these heart-healthy guidelines.
Looking at data spanning 20 years, the researchers found that people who consistently followed a Mediterranean-style diet had a lower risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure) than those with the lowest adherence to the diet.
The study appears in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hypertension affects nearly half of all adults in the United States.
It occurs when someone's blood pressure is 130/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or higher. When left untreated, hypertension can lead to heart disease, stroke, and even kidney disease.
Some ways in which people can reduce or manage hypertension include making lifestyle changes, such as adjusting their diets and exercising more. Doctors often prescribe medications such as ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers to treat hypertension.
With dietary changes in mind, some diets — such as the Mediterranean diet — focus on consuming more plant-based foods. The Mediterranean diet promotes eating vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes, healthy oils, and moderate amounts of fish and seafood.
While the hallmarks of the diet should lead to a reduction in hypertension, up to now there have been no long-term studies on this subject.
This led researchers from the School of Health Sciences and Education at Harokopio University of Athens, in Greece, to conduct a study that lasted 20 years to see what benefits adhering to the Mediterranean diet can have.
The study began in 2002 and lasted through 2022. The researchers invited 4,056 people living in Greece to participate, and of that group, 3,042 signed up.
The average age of the participants at the beginning of the study was 41 years, with men making up 44% of the group and women making up 56%. One of the requirements for participating was that participants could not be hypertensive at the beginning of the study.
The researchers collected a variety of information on the participants at the beginning of the study. They made sure the participants did not have cardiovascular disease, checked glucose and cholesterol levels, checked their body weight and blood pressure, and conducted an interview to gauge their dietary and lifestyle habits.
To see how well the participants followed aspects of the Mediterranean diet at the beginning of the study, they assigned them a MedDietScore, scoring positively based on consuming the following food groups:
The participants received points based on these food groups. Higher scores indicated better adherence to the diet. Participants could lose points for consuming "non-Mediterranean" foods or food groups, including full-fat dairy products, poultry, and red meat.
Over the next 20 years, the researchers followed up with the participants to assess their MedDietScore, check their vitals, and look for the development of hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
The researchers included 1,415 participants in their final sample. They found that participants who closely followed the Mediterranean diet had the lowest risk of developing hypertension.
Participants in the group who had the lowest MedDietScore – and therefore did more poorly at adhering to the diet – had hypertension rates of 35.5% at the end of the study. The middle group had a hypertension rate of 22.5%.
In comparison, the group with the highest MedDietScore, who adhered to the Mediterranean diet the best, had a hypertension incidence rate was 8.7%.
The scientists also analyzed what differences adhering to the Mediterranean diet had over time. Diet adherence in the study was measured using a longitudinal change in the MedDietScore from the initial assessment in 2002 to a follow-up in 2012.
The researchers were interested in seeing what difference sticking close to the diet consistently, rather than inconsistent adherence, might have.
According to the study paper, "[c]ompared to subjects who were consistently away from the Mediterranean diet, only those who were consistently close exhibited a 46.5% lower 20-year [hypertension] risk."
Overall, the study results emphasize the importance of eating habits in reducing the risk of developing hypertension. It also shows that the Mediterranean diet can be instrumental in lowering hypertension risk.
Cheng-Han Chen, MD, a board-certified interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA, not involved in this research, spoke with Medical News Today about the study.
"In this long-term prospective study, stronger adherence to a Mediterranean diet was found to be associated with a lower incidence of developing hypertension," noted Chen. "These results support the use of the Mediterranean diet as a heart-healthy eating pattern that can be beneficial to heart health."
While Dr. Chen mentioned that a top strength if the study was how long it lasted, he also pointed out a key weakness.
"This study was conducted in a homogeneous population (specifically Greek adults), and it is not certain that the results would translate to a more diverse population," he noted, implying that the findings may not apply to other populations.
Still, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Mediterranean-type diets bring a variety of health benefits, so opting for this type of dietary pattern is likely to be a positive choice for wellbeing.
However, since some people may find sticking to the Mediterranean diet difficult, Chen said that incorporating at least some aspects of the Mediterranean diet could be beneficial to heart health.
Chen advised that:
"These include eating a diet rich in plant-based foods, healthier monounsaturated fats, lean meats, whole grains, beans, vegetables, and nuts. Foods to avoid are those that are highly processed, higher in saturated fat, and with high sodium."
John P. Higgins, MD, a sports cardiologist at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), also spoke with MNT about this study. Like Chen, he was not involved in this research.
"This study adds to the data that lowering blood pressure and preventing development of permanent high blood pressure is possible with a healthy diet," commented Higgins. "In this case, the Mediterranean diet can reduce your risk of developing blood pressure."
Like Chen, Higgins said that the study "needs to be reproduced in different populations" to ensure that the results are not only applicable to the Greek population.
The doctor also pointed out that some elements of the diet "improve vascular function – specifically, they boost production of nitric oxide (NO) from the blood vessel wall, which in turn results in vasodilation [the expansion of blood vessels]."
Some foods Higgins highlighted as heart-healthy include bananas, strawberries, and foods higher in polyphenols, such as dark chocolate, tea, and coffee.
Higgins also recommended that people concerned about heart health use a salt substitute when cooking.
"Switch out table salt or cooking salt (NaCl) with a salt substitute like Morton Salt Substitute (potassium chloride salt substitutes) — this not only has no sodium but also has potassium that can actually lower blood pressure," he said.
Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Her Symptoms Were Getting Worse. Then She Joined A Clinical Trial
Heather Kauffman, 49, says she entered a clinical trial for a new drug to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in 2021 with a dose of cautious optimism.
Her physician, Dr. Vallerie McLaughlin, a leading expert in pulmonary hypertension at the University of Michigan Medical School, first approached her two years earlier with the possibility of enrolling in the phase III STELLAR study for a new drug to treat PAH.
Kauffman's work schedule made it hard for her to commit to the study, but when her day-to-day health continued to worsen, she agreed to do it.
For Kauffman, PAH (a rare form of pulmonary hypertension that can be life threatening) has been a throughline stretching across her whole life. During childhood, her younger brother, BJ, passed away at just five years old from the condition.
By the time she was diagnosed at the end of 2017, it was a grim discovery to learn she and BJ shared the same disease, bringing with it personal fears over her own health.
Flash forward to 2024, and Kauffman describes her experience in the STELLAR trial to be, well, "stellar."
The drug, sotatercept, was designed to treat adults with PAH to increase exercise capacity, improve WHO functional class (FC), and reduce the risk of clinical worsening events.
The Merck-manufactured drug – an injectable administered every three weeks that is sold under the brand name Winrevair – was just approved in March by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to a release.
This first-in-class activin signaling inhibitor marks a significant milestone in tackling the condition. Along with the recent FDA approval of Opsynvi, which is a daily tablet that combines existing drugs macitentan and tadalafil, it's currently a promising period for PAH treatment.
Sotatercept marks the first time in nearly a decade that a brand-new PAH treatment has been approved.
"I had told [Dr. McLaughlin] from the very beginning, 'my brother passed away in 1982, there was nothing for him, there was nothing that they could do,'" Kauffman told Healthline. "So, I had told her that I would like to be part of research…and be part of anything that would further the research of this disease."
PAH is a condition that causes a narrowing of the blood vessels in your lungs, resulting in impaired blood flow throughout the lungs.
People living with PAH will develop high blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries that need to transport blood deficient in oxygen from the heart to the lungs, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Those with PAH will see their hearts overexert themselves as they try to work in overdrive to pump blood to the lungs. This can have a negative domino effect on your overall health. When left untreated, the condition is fatal.
The condition is very rare. Only 500 to 1,000 people are diagnosed with PAH annually in the United States.
When asked to put in context how PAH differs from other forms of pulmonary hypertension, Dr. Kristin Highland, a specialist in pulmonary medicine at Cleveland Clinic who was also part of the sotatercept clinical trial, explained that there are various features that overlap between the different groups that fall under the wider pulmonary hypertension umbrella. PAH is classified as "group 1."
Highland told Healthline that "group 2" pulmonary hypertension is the most common type, known as "post-capillary," with pressures elevated on both the right and left sides of the heart. PAH, along with groups 3 and 4, are considered pre-capillary forms of pulmonary hypertension, meaning that "left-side of the heart, and left-sided pressures, are normal."
All groups have abnormalities of lung blood vessels, and PAH "is a diagnosis of exclusion," meaning doctors will cross out associations with the other groups (like group 3 being the result of pulmonary disorders like chronic hypoxia or group 4 resulting from blood clots that break off elsewhere in the body, lodge in the lungs, and then fail to dissolve, for two examples) to derive a PAH diagnosis.
"In PAH, the lesion is confined to the pulmonary arteriole with abnormalities of all layers of the blood vessel that results in a vasculopathy, or thickening and narrowing, of the blood vessel, which then increases the resistance in the pulmonary vascular bed leading to pulmonary hypertension, or increased pressure in the lung," Highland added. "This eventually culminates in the right heart failing in its ability to pump blood through the lungs."
Highland explained that one challenge that comes from this condition is that PAH can often be misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed due to the fact that symptoms can resemble those of other conditions.
She said there is often a delay in diagnosis that stretches more than two years.
While living with PAH, Highland said patients often subconsciously "slow down" in response to their symptoms. This means the condition might be missed entirely by a doctor until someone does something out of character, like go on an arduous hike.
"When patients are breathless at rest, they have extremely advanced disease," Highland explained. "Common things being common, patients are usually diagnosed with asthma, COPD, left heart failure, being obese, and out of shape."
She said that as the disease advances, the right heart becomes further strained, and the individual might experience fatigue, chest pain, swelling of the stomach or lower extremities, dizziness, or fainting, among other symptoms. Highland noted that fainting may "indicate the right heart is really struggling."
Thinking back to the time right before her diagnosis, Kauffman said she thought her symptoms were tied to anxiety because her husband had just been deployed to the Middle East. She would experience shortness of breath, and her heart would race.
She noticed just going to work seemed to expend a lot of oxygen, and she would even have to sit in the car and take a break before heading in to the office.
She went to the urgent care and ultimately was admitted to the ER. She was diagnosed with PAH three days later.
She calls it "fate" and a "series of fortunate events," given the reality that most people go two or three years before a diagnosis.
According to the release, Winrevair will be available in specialty U.S. Pharmacies by the end of April.
When asked how significant it is to have this new treatment available on the market, McLaughlin, Kauffman's doctor who enrolled her in the trial, said it's exciting to have this new drug. Everything in the past 30 years targeted "the same three pathways," she explained, and "this is the first agent that really has the potential to reverse remodel the disease."
"I think this is a huge step. It's really exciting to have a drug that starts getting at the underlying molecular issues with the disease and might have some anti-proliferations and reverse modeling," McLaughlin added. "The breadth of the trial positivity was incredible…We are very excited about what it really marks, which is more advancements, right? We are learning more and more about PAH every day, and to have companies invest in our space and develop drugs with novel mechanisms of actions is really fantastic."
She said there are currently "a number of other clinical trials" taking place, and she expects more PAH medications will be available in the near future.
Highland pointed out that the first FDA-approved drug PAH, epoprostenol, wasn't available until 1996. That means there were countless other people like Kauffman's brother BJ who were living with this disease with no treatment in sight. Before that first drug's approval, Highland said the expected survival of someone with PAH was under three years.
"The available therapies for PAH since then have focused on vasodilation, although most of these drugs have pleiotropic effects. The three classes of drugs have focused on augmenting the prostacyclin pathway or the nitric oxide pathway or blocking the endothelin pathway," Highland added. "Patients usually need to be on combination therapy. Patients also often need to be on diuretics and oxygen. Pulmonary rehabilitation is also very beneficial."
Highland added that while this is an encouraging time, survival for PAH is estimated to be at just 86% at the one-year marker, 67% at the three-year marker, and only 54% at five years, according to a French registry. Highland stressed that this reality for people diagnosed with PAH means "additional and more effective therapies are needed."
Since being on the drug, Kauffman said she's noticed a "night and day" difference in managing her symptoms. She recalls going in for her first shot in August 2021, and she just knew she had received the drug and not the study's placebo.
"Immediately that night, my breathing changed. It wasn't, like, drastic, but I felt different, and then, the next day, I slept for like 22 out of the 24 hours," she recalled. "For each shot, things were getting better and better."
Once on the medication, Kauffman said she was walking farther and able to do more. Her daughter plays travel softball, and she was able to go with her on weekends and participate with the other parents and families.
However, Kauffman emphasized this is not a cure. She is also on other medications with side effects that give her extreme leg pain, which she said brings her more discomfort than PAH at the moment.
"I'm no longer thinking like I'm not going to be here. I'm looking forward to things," Kauffman said of past fears that she might not have many years left with her family. "My daughter is going to be 16, and it's just things like that. I'm just super hopeful. I just feel better."
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