|
|
Clue To High Blood Pressure
A Yale study might lead to cure
for early onset of hypertension, reports Biplab Das
Although we generally associate the old with hypertension, younger people, too, are not safe from its onslaught. But the reasons for such early onsets were so far in the dark.
Now, a Yale Medical School research team has narrowed in on a mutated part of a gene that gives rise to abnormal mineralocorticoid receptors, key proteins present in the kidney that maintain salt balance in the body. This work first highlights this receptor's foul play in hypertension and raises the possibility of future drugs that will cure hypertensive conditions of renal origin.
The team's search for the molecular basis of hypertension began two years ago. During this period, the Yale researchers led by geneticist Richard Lifton were handed the case of a 15-year-old boy afflicted with hypertension.
According to the report published in Science, the boy had an abnormal mineralocorticoid receptor owing to a single mutated base pair in a gene that codes for the receptor.
Normally, the steroid hormone aldosterone activates this receptor, triggering a cascade of molecular events that drives kidney cells to ferry salt and water back into the blood.
In case of a mutated version of the mineralocorticoid receptor, kidney cells
overperform, increasing salt and water content in the blood which, in turn, raises the blood plasma volume ultimately leading to high blood pressure.
But, the unexpected bonus of this research is that it has revealed that another steroid hormone, progesterone, also activates the mineralocorticoid receptor. Since progesterone levels shoot up during pregnancy, Lifton has conjectured that this hormone might contribute to hypertension in pregnant women.
|
|
4 FINDINGS ABOUT
HIGH BLOOD PRSSURE
1) High blood pressure (HBP) generally occurs among aged adults. But now a spate of evidence shows that young adults (between 20-39 years) are also affected by this disease. Apart from genetic defects in steroid hormone receptors, obesity, too, brings about HBP in childhood and adolescence. Though smoking is not a cause of hypertension, it aggravates the disease. Sodium overload in the blood is also another major contributing factor.
2) High blood pressure damages the walls of arteries, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, retinal bleeding or detachment, and kidney failure.
3) Eating less fat and oil, meat, sugar and alcohol and more fruit, vegetables, cereal foods and fish can help shed excess weight. Weight loss is a sensible first step in treatment. Salt-restricted diet should be resorted to in high blood pressure. Milk and bread, which contain large amounts of salts, are to be avoided.
4) Recent research findings have shown that high blood pressure results in a host of other diseases, ranging from breast cancer to congestive heart failure. |
|
|
|
