Blood pressure

High blood pressure: Global total almost doubles in 4 decades

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The largest study of its kind reveals that the number of people worldwide living with high blood pressure has nearly doubled in the last 4 decades. The huge international effort also reveals a stark contrast between rich and poor countries.

The number of people living with high blood pressure, or hypertension, worldwide has grown from 594 million in 1975 to over 1.1 billion in 2015 – mainly because of population growth and aging – says the study, published in The Lancet.

However, while average blood pressure is high and rising in less affluent countries, especially in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, it has dropped to an all-time low in high-income nations like Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The authors say the reason for this contrast is not clear, but they suggest a major factor could be that people in wealthier nations enjoy better health overall and eat more fruits and vegetables.

Earlier diagnosis and control of hypertension is also more likely to occur in wealthier countries. Taken together, these factors also help reduce obesity, another risk factor for high blood pressure.

Childhood nutrition could be another reason, suggests Majid Ezzati, a senior author of the study and a professor at the School of Public Health at Imperial College London in the U.K., who notes:

“Increasing evidence suggests poor nutrition in early life years increases risk of the high blood pressure in later life, which may explain the growing problem in poor countries.”

High blood pressure major global killer

Blood pressure is the pressure of the blood in the blood vessels. It is assessed from two numbers measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg): systolic pressure and diastolic pressure.

Systolic pressure is a measure of the heart pumping blood. Diastolic pressure – taken when the heart rests between beats – measures the resistance to blood flow in blood vessels.

High blood pressure is defined as 140 mmHg systolic and 90 mmHg diastolic pressure or higher. This is normally shown as 140/90 mmHg.

Recent research suggests that the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases like ischemic heart disease and stroke doubles with every 20 mmHg systolic or 10 mmHg diastolic increase in people of middle age and older.

“High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for stroke and heart disease, and kills around 7.5 million people worldwide every year,” says Prof. Ezzati.

The condition is caused by various factors, he and his colleagues note in their paper.

These include diet (for example, eating too much salt and not enough fruit and vegetables), obesity, lack of physical activity, plus environmental factors – such as air pollution and lead exposure.

‘Major health issue linked to poverty’

For the research, the World Health Organization (WHO) teamed up with hundreds of scientists from all over the globe and looked at changes in blood pressure in every country in the world from 1975-2015.

They pooled and analyzed data from nearly 1,500 population-based measurement studies involving a total of 19 million participants.

This showed that of the whole world, South Korea, the U.S., and Canada have the lowest proportion of people with high blood pressure. The U.K. had the lowest in Europe.

The research also shows that in most countries, there are more men with high blood pressure than women. Worldwide, there are 597 million men with high blood pressure, compared with 529 million women.

The figures for 2015 show that more than half of adults with high blood pressure in the world live in Asia, including 226 million in China and 200 million in India.

Prof. Ezzati says high blood pressure is no longer a problem associated with wealthy countries but with poor countries. He says their findings show it is possible to achieve substantial reductions in rates of high blood pressure – as seen in the data from more affluent countries over the last 4 decades. He adds:

“They also reveal that WHO’s target of reducing the prevalence of high blood pressure by 25 percent by 2025 is unlikely to be achieved without effective policies that allow the poorest countries and people to have healthier diets – particularly reducing salt intake and making fruit and vegetables affordable – as well as improving detection and treatment with blood pressure lowering drugs.”

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/314155.php

Water births ‘pose no extra risk’

Birthing pools have been used for some time in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In the US, they have gained popularity. However, safety concerns have caused controversy.

Immersion in water during labor is thought to have various benefits, including less need for pain medication and, theoretically, a smaller chance of vaginal trauma, as the perineum becomes more elastic and relaxed in water.

The water is believed to reduce stress hormones and decrease blood pressure, easing tension in the mother. For the baby to pass from the amniotic sac into the warm water may also be less stressful for the neonate, possibly reducing fetal complications.

One concern is the possibility of drowning. When babies are born, they have a “dive reflex,” which means they can block their throats when underwater. This should mean there is little chance of drowning. However, near-drownings have been reported due to the baby breathing in fluid from the tub.

There is also a small risk that water will enter the mother’s bloodstream, causing a water embolism. The fear of additional exposure to infection has also been voiced, although at least one study has indicated that this is unlikely.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics support laboring in water but not being immersed when the baby is born.

Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) studied data on nearly 17,000 women who gave birth in the US between 2004-2009. The majority were attended by Certified Professional Midwives.

The source of the data was the Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project (MANA Stats), and the midwives provided detailed reports on their cases from their medical records.

Of the 17,000 recorded cases, more than 6,500 of the deliveries were water births. These births were all attended by midwives, and they all took place either in a dedicated birthing center or at home. None of the water births analyzed were carried out in a hospital.

Source: medical news today

Health benefits of Jackfruit

Jackfruit, one of the tropical fruits available is both delicious to eat and even has a sweet taste. It is also rich in energy, dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins making it one of the most healthy summer treats to relish.

Jackfruit has many health benefits. Here are some:

Immunity: The fruit contains an excellent source of Vitamin C antioxidants which helps in building immune system in order to protect against common diseases such as cough, cold and flu.

Energy: It contains a good amount of carbohydrate, calorie and simple sugar like fructose and sucrose, providing a quick boost of energy. Also, it has no cholesterol content which makes jackfruit a healthier food option.

Maintains Blood Pressure: The good amount of potassium contained in the fruit helps to lower high blood pressure and also reduces the risk of stroke and heart attacks.

Improves Digestion: Jackfruit is good for digestion and prevents constipation because of the good amount of dietary fiber in it, making it bulk laxative.

Colon Cancer: The dietary fats contained in the fruit helps to clean toxins from the colon. Thus, it reduces the effects of toxin in the colon and protects from colon cancer.

Good for Eyes: Jackfruit contains Vitamin A, an important nutrient for eye health. It increases vision and protects from free radicals. As this fruit is a rich source of antioxidants, it is highly effective in preventing degeneration of the retina.

Source: zee news

An hour of moderate exercise a day may decrease heart failure risk

Exercising each day can help keep the doctor away.

In a new study reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure, researchers say more than an hour of moderate or half an hour of vigorous exercise per day may lower your risk of heart failure by 46 percent.

Exercising each day can help keep the doctor away.

Heart failure is a common, disabling disease that accounts for about 2 percent of total healthcare costs in industrialized countries. Risk of death within five years of diagnosis is 30 percent to 50 percent, researchers said.
Swedish researchers studied 39,805 people 20-90 years old who didn’t have heart failure when the study began in 1997. Researchers assessed their total- and leisure time activity at the beginning of the study and followed them to see how this was related to their subsequent risk of developing heart failure. They found that the more active a person, the lower their risk for heart failure.

They also found:
The group with the highest leisure time activity (more than one hour of moderate or half an hour of vigorous physical activity a day) had a 46 percent lower risk of developing heart failure.

Physical activity was equally beneficial for men and women.
Those who developed heart failure were older, male, had lower levels of education, a higher body mass index and waist-hip ratio, and a history of heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

“You do not need to run a marathon to gain the benefits of physical activity — even quite low levels of activity can give you positive effects,” said Kasper Andersen, M.D., Ph.D., study co-author and researcher at the Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. “Physical activity lowers many heart disease risk factors, which in turn lowers the risk of developing heart failure as well as other heart diseases.”

Study participants completed questionnaires that included information about lifestyle, physical activity, smoking and alcohol habits, and medication use. Researchers looked at total physical activity, which included job-related activities, and leisure activities. Participants’ self-reported leisure physical activity was divided further into three categories: light, such as casual walking; moderate, such as jogging or swimming; and heavy, such as competitive sports. Diagnoses, hospitalizations and deaths were verified using participants’ medical records.

“The Western world promotes a sedentary lifestyle,” Andersen said. “There are often no healthy alternative forms of transportation; in many buildings it is hard to find the stairs; and at home television and computers encourage sedentary behavior.

“Making it easier and safer to walk, bicycle or take the stairs could make a big difference. Our research suggests that everyone could benefit from getting out there and moving every day.”

Although the relationship between heart failure and exercise has not been broadly studied, the study’s findings reaffirm the importance of continued physical activity for all adults and support the American Heart Association’s recommendations of 150 minutes of moderately intense physical activity every week. For those who need to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol the association recommends 40 minutes 3-4 times per week.

In the United States, heart disease, a major risk factor for heart failure, remains the leading cause of death, claiming 380,000 lives every year. An estimated 5.7 million Americans have congestive heart failure and about half die within five years of their diagnosis.

Source: science daily

5 reasons why eating olives are a must

Almost everyone loves olives be it on your favourite pizza, sandwich or salad. Not only do they taste good but are loaded with a number of health benefits.

5 reasons why eating olives are a must

Here are a few reasons as to why olives are a must in your diet regularly:

  • -Olives are a rich source of vitamin E and monounsaturated fatty acids, which help reduce risk of heart disease by lowering blood press and LDL cholesterol.
  • -It has anti-inflammatory properties and hence helps in easing pain.
  • -Loaded with fatty acids and antioxidants, olives are an excellent food for your hair and skin.
  • -Eating olives help boost haemoglobin level in the body as it is a rich source of iron.
  • -Eating a cup of olives can help regulate blood pressure.

Source: zee news

Common blood pressure medication may pose risk to older adults

high bp

Adults over 65 who have recently begun thiazide diuretics are at a greater risk for developing metabolic-related adverse events, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

More than two-thirds of older adults have high blood pressure in the United States and thiazide diuretics are often recommended as the initial medication for these hypertensive patients. Thiazide diuretics primarily inhibit sodium transport in the kidney, leading to urinary loss of sodium and water, which decreases blood pressure. While the risks of this medication are well known, the risks are not well quantified in real-world clinical practice, where older adults who are treated may have a number of other illnesses.

The national observational study, undertaken by a team of researchers at UT Southwestern and the University of California, San Francisco, examined 1,060 adult veterans with hypertension who recently began taking a thiazide diuretic. The study compared them to a similar group of veterans who were not prescribed a thiazide diuretic. The findings were recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

During a nine month period, 14 percent of older adults prescribed a thiazide diuretic developed a metabolic adverse event, compared with 6 percent of adults not prescribed a thiazide diuretic. For every 12 adults who were newly prescribed a thiazide diuretic, one developed a metabolic adverse event that he or she would not otherwise have had.

The three metabolic adverse events that researchers assessed were hyponatremia (low sodium levels in the blood), hypokalemia (low potassium levels in the blood), and acute kidney injury (a 25 percent decrease in kidney function from the baseline value before the thiazide diuretic was started).

“Our research quantifies the risks of metabolic adverse events in older adults in real-world, clinical practice shortly after initiating thiazide diuretics,” said Dr. Anil Makam, assistant professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern and first author of the study. “From a clinical point-of-view, the implications of these findings help inform doctors of the risks associated with a common medication and their use in older adults.”

While the findings highlight that thiazide-related adverse events are common in this population, researchers were surprised to discover that only 42 percent of older adults who had recently begun taking a thiazide diuretic had laboratory testing to monitor for these adverse events within the first three months of beginning the medication.

“Our research suggests that thiazide-induced adverse events are common in older adults and greater attention should be paid to potential complications in prescribing thiazide diuretics to older adults, including closer laboratory monitoring before and after initiation of thiazides,” Dr. Makam said.

Source; science daily

BP reading above normal may up risk of stroke

A new study has found that any blood pressure reading higher than the normal 120/80 mmHg may increase the risk of stroke.

The meta-analysis looked at all of the available research on the risk of developing stroke in people with “prehypertension,” or blood pressure higher than optimal but lower than the threshold to be diagnosed with high blood pressure, which is 140/90 mmHg.

A total of 19 prospective cohort studies with more than 760,000 participants were included in the analysis, and participants were followed for time periods ranging from four to 36 years. From 25 to 54 percent of study participants had pre-high blood pressure.

The analysis found that people with pre-high blood pressure were 66 percent more likely to develop a stroke than people who had normal blood pressure.

The results were the same after researchers adjusted for other factors that could increase the risk of stroke, such as high cholesterol, diabetes and smoking.

The researchers determined that nearly 20 percent of strokes in the study population were due to pre-high blood pressure.

Considering the high proportion of the population who have higher than normal blood pressure, successful treatment of this condition could prevent many strokes and make a major difference in public health, study author Dingli Xu, of Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, said.

The study is published in the online issue of journal Neurology®.

Source: Daily news and analysis

7 Healthy reasons to go bananas!

If you thought bananas were just for training monkeys, think again! The health benefits of bananas are so vast and widespread that we wonder why the popular idiom an apple a day, keeps the doctor away was not switched to bananas!!

Banana is a huge source of energy and packs a potent nutritional punch that includes vitamins A, B, C and E along with minerals like potassium, zinc, iron, etc. Read on for some surprising health benefits of eating bananas. We promise you will never look at this fruit in the same way again.

1.Controls blood pressure
Research indicates that potassium keeps blood pressure under control. Bananas, being very rich in potassium and very low in sodium, help regulate blood pressure levels. The fruit not only aids in maintaining water balance in the body but also helps detoxify it thereby shielding you against heart attack and stroke.

2. Improves sex life
Yes, you heard it right! Bananas can actually spice things up in the bedroom! They are known to have aphrodisiac effects that help produce sexual hormones and also improve male libido. The humble fruit also regulates the secretion of serotonin which is responsible for that euphoric feeling during an orgasm.

3. More energy
Need proof of how bananas increase energy? Just watch a tennis player during a break from the game. You will notice more often than not, he’s eating a banana. The combination of natural sugars, balanced with potassium and soluble fiber provide good stable energy. And the best part, bananas contain only about 100 calories. They are a perfect way to satisfy your sweet cravings without compromising on your weight.

4. Smooth bowel movement
Constipated? Eat a banana. Yes, it’s that easy. Bananas have a certain type of fiber that helps assist bowel motility and eases out constipation. Ideally you should get about 14 grams of fiber in your diet for every 1,000 calories you consume. Believe me, it beats using any laxatives that might have chemicals or other synthetic substances! Bananas also help with other bowel problems such as diarrhea.

5. Good for eyes
Bananas have a lot of vitamin A, a fat-soluble vitamin that plays a vital role in protecting your eyes and normal vision. The compounds in bananas preserve the membranes that surround your eyes and are a component of one of the proteins that brings light into your cornea. Adequate daily intake of vitamin A not only slashes your risk of night blindness but is essential for everyday vision. One 6-inch banana has nearly 10 micrograms of vitamin A so adding the fruit to your diet will ensure good eye health.

6. Gives good sleep
Bananas promote sleep. This fruit is known to have a high level of tryptophan which gets converted to serotonin in the brain. This gives a soothing effect to the body which allows a person to sleep well. Bananas are also known to make you more alert and improve your concentration levels.

7. Get glowing skin
Besides having great health advantages when ingested, bananas when used externally are also quite beneficial. They have high moisture content, so are great for dry skin. Add bananas to your beauty regime for smooth, supple and glowing skin naturally.

Source; The med guru

Study suggests blood pressure should be measured in both arms

New research published in The American Journal of Medicine suggests that there is an association between a difference in interarm systolic blood pressure and a significant increased risk for future cardiovascular events, leading researchers to recommend expanded clinical use of interarm blood pressure measurement.

While blood pressure is a widely used medical metric, most measurements are taken only using one arm. Measuring interarm blood pressure involves taking two readings, one for each arm. Increased interarm systolic blood pressure differences are defined as 10 mmHg or greater, and while a link between interarm blood pressure and cardiovascular risk was suspected, little data existed to support the hypothesis until now.

This new study examined 3,390 participants aged 40 years and older from the Framingham Heart Study. All subjects were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline, but investigators found that participants with higher interarm systolic blood pressure differences were at a much higher risk for future cardiovascular events than those with less than a 10 mm Hg difference between arms.

“In this large prospective, community based cohort of middle-age men and women free of cardiovascular disease, an increased interarm systolic blood pressure difference was found to be present in nearly 10 per cent of individuals and is associated with increased levels of traditional cardiovascular risk factors,” explains lead investigator Dr Ido Weinberg, Institute for Heart Vascular and Stroke Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. “Furthermore, an increased interarm systolic blood pressure difference is associated with an increased risk for incident cardiovascular events, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.”

Researchers also found that participants with elevated interarm blood pressure difference were older, had a greater prevalence of diabetes mellitus, higher systolic blood pressure, and a higher total cholesterol level.

According to these findings, investigators suggest practitioners should consider including blood pressure readings in both arms in order to get the most accurate readings possible and detect any differences in interarm blood pressure.

“Even modest differences in clinically-measured systolic blood pressures in the upper extremities reflect an increase in cardiovascular risk,” says Dr Weinberg. “This study supports the potential value of identifying the interarm systolic blood pressure difference as a simple clinical indicator of increased cardiovascular risk.”

Source: India Medical Times

Eating vegetarian diets may help lower BP

A new study has revealed that eating a vegetarian diet is associated with lower blood pressure (BP), and the diets can also be used to reduce blood pressure.

Factors such as diet, body weight, physical activity and alcohol intake play a role in the risk of developing hypertension. Dietary modifications have been shown to be effective for preventing and managing hypertension.

The authors analyzed seven clinical trials and 32 studies published from 1900 to 2013 in which participants ate a vegetarian diet. Net differences in BP associated with eating a vegetarian diet were measured.

In the trials, eating a vegetarian diet was associated with a reduction in the average systolic (peak artery pressure) and diastolic (minimum artery pressure) BP compared with eating an omnivorous (plant and animal) diet.

In the 32 studies, eating a vegetarian diet was associated with lower average systolic and diastolic BP, compared with omnivorous diets.

The study was published in the journal JAMA.

Source: DNA India