Are probiotics another diet fad or a microbial health miracle? 
Probiotic is a blanket term for organisms like bacteria and yeast that may benefit health, particularly in the digestive tract. It’s hard to believe, but our bodies are already teeming with all kinds of bacteria, and providing the right environment for good bacteria to thrive is thought to help everything from damaged intestines to insulin sensitivity.
Your parents always told you to eat your vegetables, but new research adds a caveat—those veggies should be raw.
A study of more than 2,200 individuals from around the world has shown that those eating raw vegetables had lower blood pressure over a three year period than those eating cooked vegetables.
By Dr. Hala Yamout
Many physicians will recommend to their patients that they need to be “in shape.” What does that mean in terms of exercise? What’s enough and how much is too much?
Lifestyle modifications are the cornerstone of all guidelines written about blood pressure control. They are usually the first step in management and should be reinforced frequently. Dietary recommendations are discussed in detail, including how much salt is enough and what food groups are important. Exercise should be discussed just as thoroughly as its benefit on reducing cardiovascular disease is well known. In fact, reducing blood pressure through physical activity is thought to explain up to 27% of the improvement in cardiovascular disease.
Summer is here and fun in the sun means your body will produce more Vitamin D. New research says that could be good news for your blood pressure. The study, published in Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, showed that low levels of Vitamin D may be a cause of high blood pressure and that for each 10% increase in Vitamin D levels, there was an 8% decrease in the risk of developing high blood pressure.
By Beth Piraino, MD
If you were following the health news this week, you may have heard advice contrary to what we have always been told –too little salt is also no good and there’s no reason to toss your salt shaker. That might work for those who do not have heart disease, high blood pressure or kidney disease. For people with high blood pressure who are at risk for kidney disease or people who already have kidney or heart disease, large population studies such as this one do NOT point to safe advice.
Many people suffer from headaches, with migraines making up a particularly severe form that can greatly affect quality of life. Anecdotally, we’ve all heard about people who suffered migraines and later found out they had severe high blood pressure that damaged the kidneys. But what does the science show? Are migraines linked to high blood pressure? This possible connection has been a subject of interest for many years and the results are actually conflicting. What complicates this issue further is that some blood pressure medications can cause headaches, while others are used in its prevention.
By Alex Chang, MD, MS
A recent article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that rising blood pressure over time in 18-30 year old adults was associated with increased risk for atherosclerosis. In this study, blood pressure was measured at eight different exams with a cardiac CT scan done at the end of the 25-year time period to evaluate for calcification of the coronary vessels. Almost all young adults had normal blood pressure at the beginning of the study, but some steadily increased over time while others had stable blood pressure.
High blood pressure can commonly be managed and kept under control through a combination of healthy lifestyle and medication. By losing excess weight, cutting down salt, limiting alcohol intake, and exercising regularly, it may be possible to lower your blood pressure. Medications may also be needed and many effective medicines are available to treat high blood pressure. Doctors often recommend a combination of medications to combat hypertension. But sometimes, despite everyone’s best efforts, high blood pressure can be resistant to treatment. Resistant hypertension, as it is known, continues to be a challenge to physicians.
Last month, a new set of blood pressure guidelines were released by the 8th Joint National Committee on the Management of High Blood Pressure In adults, or JNC-8. These guidelines offer doctors information on when to treat high blood pressure in the elderly, those with diabetes as well as kidney patients. These guidelines replace the JNC 7 guideline from 2003. What do people with kidney disease need to know? The major change in the new guideline is that the target blood pressure for patients with kidney disease and hypertension is now less than 140/90 mm Hg based on the available evidence, whereas the JNC 7 recommended a treatment goal of 130/80 mm Hg. A review of randomized controlled trials in chronic kidney disease revealed only three studies that achieved the 130/80 target and the analysis did not find consistent benefit for the lower target.
Can you skip your workout and just take care of your daily exercise at work, if you have a job that involves physical activity? Not if you want to reduce your blood pressure, according to a new study. The study found that recreational exercise for four hours each week was linked to a 19 percent lower risk of developing high blood pressure. But the health benefit did not extend to those who had similar levels of physical activity during the course of their work. They had the same high blood pressure risk as those in less physically taxing jobs.
George L. Bakris, MD, is a member of the National Kidney Foundation’s Board of Directors. He is Director of the American Society of Hypertension’s Comprehensive Hypertension Center at the University of Chicago Medicine. Continue Reading →
The Pressure Point 