Blood Pressure News and Research

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Blood Pressure is the force of circulating blood on the walls of the arteries. Blood pressure is taken using two measurements: systolic (measured when the heart beats, when blood pressure is at its highest) and diastolic (measured between heart beats, when blood pressure is at its lowest). Blood pressure is written with the systolic blood pressure first, followed by the diastolic blood pressure (for example 120/80).

Natural options against weight gain, sugar cravings, and insulin resistance

The holidays have come and gone, but many of us may still be battling intense sweet cravings leftover from the season's festivities. Excessive sugar cravings can be a sign that your blood glucose levels are out of balance which, if left unchecked, can lead to insulin resistance and Metabolic Syndrome, also known as "Pre-Diabetes."

11 Jan 2012

Care for Asian-American heart attack patients gets better

Care for Asian-American heart attack patients improved between 2003 and 2008, according to a study published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.

11 Jan 2012

Canadians aren't consuming sufficient fruits and vegetables, Concordia study finds

Adults from 30 to 60 years old, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, aren't consuming the daily recommended levels of fruits and vegetables. Quebecers, however, eat more of nature's produce than their fellow Canadians.

11 Jan 2012

Physiological impact of hurt feelings

Working up your courage to ask someone to be your Valentine? Science is uncovering the reason why we fear social rejection: Not only does it dash our hopes, it actually puts the brakes on our heart. Specifically, learning that someone doesn't like you triggers a drop in heart rate.

11 Jan 2012

Statins may raise type 2 diabetes risk

A new study suggests statin medications used to lower cholesterol may raise the risk of diabetes to a slight extent. Study authors advise patients not to stop taking their medications without talking to a doctor, because statins' proven power to prevent heart attacks and strokes outweighs any potential increase in type 2 diabetes risk.

10 Jan 2012

Grief and heart attacks linked: Study

Researchers have found that grief might actually break ones heart. A new study shows that people grieving the death of a close loved one could have a heart attack risk that is 20 times higher than normal.

10 Jan 2012

Researchers use 3-D imaging to identify proteins involved in arterial stiffness

Human arteries - some smaller than a strand of hair - stiffen as a person ages. This stiffening is a factor in cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, because it contributes to the circulatory complications in disorders such as high blood pressure and diabetes. University of Missouri researchers have now used advanced 3-D microscopic imaging technology to identify and monitor the proteins involved in this stiffening process.

10 Jan 2012

Link between loss of loved one and heart attack

A person's risk of suffering a heart attack increases by approximately 21 times in the first 24 hours after losing a loved one, according to a study lead by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

10 Jan 2012

Delaying hypertension treatment in diabetic patients for up to a year is unlikely to be harmful

Confronted with a high blood pressure value in a diabetic patient, most doctors would treat aggressively with medications. According to new research, however, delaying drug treatment for up to a year is unlikely to be harmful. The delay allows doctors and their patients to focus on lifestyle changes such as salt restriction, weight management, and exercise.

10 Jan 2012

Cardio3BioSciences raises €3.1M in non-dilutive funding

The Belgian biotechnology company, Cardio3BioSciences, a leader in the discovery and development of regenerative and protective therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, today announces it has secured a total of €3.1 million in non-dilutive funding from the Walloon Region and the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme.

10 Jan 2012

Noise-cancelling headphones may reduce pain and anxiety of prostate biopsy

Tuning in to tune out may be just what's needed for men undergoing a prostate biopsy, according to researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute. The Duke team found that noise-cancelling headphones playing a classical melody may reduce the pain and anxiety of the often uncomfortable procedure.

9 Jan 2012

JHM, Healthways partner for innovative weight-loss program

Building on the success of recent Hopkins research showing obese participants were able to lose significant weight and keep it off for two years using telephone coaching and a specially designed website, Johns Hopkins Medicine is collaborating with Healthways to help bring the innovative weight-loss program to many more who could benefit from it.

9 Jan 2012

The sharpness of the brain dulls beyond 45: Study

Researchers from the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health in France and University College London in the UK studied more than 7,000 people over a 10-year period and show the brain's capacity for memory, reasoning and comprehension starts waning in middle age rather than in the 60s.

9 Jan 2012

Middle-aged adults with diabetes have time to learn how to control hypertension

A new study suggests that middle-aged adults recently diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension have time to try to learn how to control their high blood pressure without medications, but not too much time.

9 Jan 2012

Americans cutting costs by skipping prescription drugs

A Consumer Reports survey revealed that more Americans are ignoring their doctor’s advice and skipping prescription drugs or medical procedures to save money in 2011 than a year earlier.

8 Jan 2012

Trail of research that led to discovery of aspirin's role in prevention of first heart attack

Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., DrPH, the first Sir Richard Doll Research Professor as well as first recipient of an endowed chair in the new Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, has published a Citation Classic in the current issue of Clinical Chemistry. Hennekens was the founding principal investigator (PI) of the landmark Physician's Health Study and was the first to demonstrate that aspirin prevents a first heart attack.

7 Jan 2012

Study to determine user experience for several popular functions of My HealtheVet

Although personal health records are now securely accessible online to a large and growing number of individuals, little research has been conducted on opinions about their ease of use.

6 Jan 2012

Repeated episodes of depression contribute to inflammation

An important ongoing debate in the field of psychiatry is whether inflammation in the body is a consequence of or contributor to major depression. A new study in Biological Psychiatry has attempted to resolve the issue.

5 Jan 2012

Home-monitoring interventions may benefit patients with heart failure

Heart failure affects 5.8 million people in the U.S. alone and is responsible for nearly 1 million hospitalizations each year, most resulting from a build-up of body fluid in the lungs and other organs due to the heart's inability to pump effectively. The disease needs to be closely tracked in order to avoid such hospitalizations, and home-monitoring interventions may be especially useful, UCLA researchers say.

4 Jan 2012

Losartan may help prevent smoking-related COPD

Working with mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins have successfully used a commonly prescribed blood pressure medicine, losartan (Cozaar), to prevent almost all of the lung damage caused from two months of exposure to cigarette smoke. The treatment specifically targeted lung tissue breakdown, airway wall thickening, inflammation and lung over-expansion.

4 Jan 2012