Blood Pressure

A French study reported in the 12th January issue of Archives of Internal Medicine has found a strong correlation between blood pressure and outdoor temperature in a large sample of the elderly.(1) As a result, the investigators advise that, during periods of extreme temperatures, careful monitoring of blood pressure and antihypertensive treatment “could contribute to [...]

The air people breathe while walking in the park, working in the garden or shopping downtown may be unhealthy enough to seriously spike their blood pressure, a new study suggests. Cardiovascular researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center are the first to report a direct link between air pollution and its impact on high [...]

Working up a sweat could be the most important lifestyle change people with high blood pressure — or hypertension — can make in their daily lives. Yet, although patients who receive exercise counseling seem to listen, few physicians actually take the time to talk about physical activity with their patients, a large nationwide study finds. [...]

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have modified honeybee venom so that it can be used as a tool to study the inner workings of ion channels that control heart rate and the recycling of salt in kidneys. In general, ion channels selectively allow the passage of small ions such as sodium, [...]

Take a kidney out of the body and it still knows how to filter toxins from the blood. But all bets are off in the face of high blood pressure. “How does the kidney know how to do it and why does it break in hypertension?” says Dr. Edward W. Inscho, physiologist in the Medical [...]