:: Jun-Jul 2008

Welcome to our Monthly Online Newsletter!

View all Treatment articles in our Treatment Report . The most recent articles are listed on top (not in alphabetical order). Click on the Topic on our home page and then the subtopic - Treatment Report. Stay updated on drugs and their side effects, and various other treatments, including exercise, nutrition, and supplements.

Repeated Past Article:

Hypertension: Just Focus on Systolic Pressure in Over-50s “They point out that while systolic pressure rises with age, diastolic pressure increases until around age 50 and falls thereafter. "The use of diastolic pressure for diagnosis and risk stratification in our aging populations has thus become illogical," Williams et al state. They note that clinical trials and national surveys have consistently shown that systolic pressure is much more difficult to control than is diastolic pressure, with control rates for diastolic pressure approaching 100% but lagging at less than 50% for systolic pressure. "Thus, targeting diastolic pressure leaves most patients with uncontrolled systolic pressure. By contrast, if the focus of our treatment were on systolic pressure, there would hardly ever be a circumstance when diastolic pressure was not controlled," they observe. …The authors report that the risk of cardiovascular disease rises continuously as systolic pressure increases from 115 mm Hg, and most national and international guidelines advocate a target for systolic pressure treatment of below 140 mm Hg, and below 130 mm Hg for patients with diabetes and those at increased cardiovascular risk.“

New European Guidelines on Treatment of Hypertension

NGC - Essential hypertension. (2003)

NGC - Essential hypertension: managing adult patients in primary care. (2004)

NGC - Hypertension (2005)

NGC - Hypertension diagnosis and treatment. (2006)

NGC - Hypertension diagnosis and treatment. (2005)

NGC - Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: pre-eclampsia, eclampsia. (2005)

NGC - Medical management of adults with hypertension. (2005)

NGC - The fourth report on the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of high blood pressure in children and adolescents. (2004)

NGC - VHA/DoD clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis and management of hypertension in the primary care setting. (2004)

NICE - Hypertension (persistently high blood pressure) in adults (2004)

Featured site

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Hypertension

NIH - High Blood Pressure

NIH - Hypertension Tutorial

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Drug-induced hypertension

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia: Essential hypertension

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Hypertension

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Hypertension Image

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Untreated hypertension

NIH - NHLBI Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7)

Diet - Health

Fitness - Exercise

Diet - Health

Obesity-Associated Hypertension (Hypertension. 2005) "Obesity is strongly associated with hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Several central and peripheral abnormalities that can explain the development or maintenance of high arterial pressure in obesity have been identified. These include activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the renin-angiotensinÀaldosterone system. Obesity is also associated with endothelial dysfunction and renal functional abnormalities that may play a role in the development of hypertension."

Fitness - Exercise

Daily life activity and the risk of developing hypertension in middle-aged Japanese men. (Arch Intern Med. 2005) "BACKGROUND: Although previous studies suggest that physical activity may reduce the risk of hypertension, the role of daily life activity in the development of hypertension remains unclear. Ä CONCLUSIONS: Increased daily life activity is effective for the prevention of hypertension, and this benefit applies to men at either low or high risk of hypertension."