Category: Blood Pressure

A drink that is linked to high blood pressure and increased risk of heart problems.

Energy drinks can cause an abnormal heartbeat and increased blood pressure within a few hours of drinking.

A study shows that consumption of energy drinks can put young and healthy people at risk of increased irregular heart rhythm and fatal heart conditions as well as high blood pressure.

Irregular heartbeats are caused by an abnormality in electrical signals to the heart that can lead to cardiac arrhythmia and sudden death.

Energy drinks are a fast growing global industry and their market value is estimated to be $83.4 billion by 2024.

Nearly 30 percent of American teenagers from 12 to 17 years old  regularly consume energy drinks.

There is an increasing number of patients, especially teenagers, who have been admitted to emergency rooms for problems linked to caffeinated energy drinks.

Professor Kate O’Dell, study co-author, said:

“Energy drinks are readily accessible and commonly consumed by a large number of teens and young adults, including college students.

Understanding how these drinks affect the heart is extremely important.”

For this reason, in this trial a group of  young healthy adults were given two bottle of commercially available caffeinated energy drinks or a placebo.

Less than four hours after drinking them, there was abnormality of heart electrical activities resulting in an increase QT interval by 6 or 7.7 milliseconds more than those on placebo drinks.

The QT interval is a measurement of the electrical activities of the heart.

If the QT interval is too long or short, it can potentially cause life-threatening arrhythmia.

In addition, participants’ blood pressure was increased by 5 mm Hg after consuming energy drinks.

Each bottle was 16 fluid ounces containing between 152 and 160 milligrams of caffeine.

Energy drinks on the market such a Rockstar, Monster Rippers, Red Bull, Tesco Blue Spark, and Boost Energy Drink contain that amount of caffeine per 16 ounce (460 ml) can or bottle.

Although the energy drinks consumed by participants were high in caffeine, the researchers say a dosage of caffeine under 400 milligrams should not cause any electrocardiographic changes.

Instead, they think the heart rhythm disturbances are caused by an ingredient or combination of ingredients in the energy drinks.

B-vitamins, amino acid taurine (an amino acid), and glucuronolactone (found in plant gums and connective tissues) are other ingredients commonly used in energy drinks.

Professor Sachin A. Shah, the study’s first author, said:

“We found an association between consuming energy drinks and changes in QT intervals and blood pressure that cannot be attributed to caffeine.

We urgently need to investigate the particular ingredient or combination of ingredients in different types of energy drinks that might explain the findings seen in our clinical trial.”

The study is the largest controlled research of energy drink side-effects in the hearts of healthy people.

Professor  Shah added:

“The public should be aware of the impact of energy drinks on their body especially if they have other underlying health conditions.

Healthcare professionals should advise certain patient populations, for example, people with underlying congenital or acquired long QT syndrome or high blood pressure, to limit or monitor their consumption.”

The study was published in Journal of the American Heart Association (Shah et al., 2019).

The fruit is as effective as taking medication to lower blood pressure.

Eating one cup of blueberries per day lowers systolic blood pressure, research finds.

It could decrease the risk of heart disease by 20 percent.

The fruit is as effective as taking medication to lower blood pressure.

For the study, 40 healthy people were randomised to one of two groups.

One group was given a drink containing 200 grams (7 oz) of blueberries, the other had a control drink without blueberries.

Within two hours of consuming the blueberries, their blood pressure was reduced by 5 mmHg in the group who had been eating blueberries.

The effect was sustained for the whole 40 days of the study.

The researchers found that the beneficial effect is down to anthocyanins, which are antioxidants.

Anthocyanins improve the function of the endothelial cells, which act as a barrier between the blood and the body’s tissue.

The antioxidant is responsible for the pink, red, purple and blue colours of some fruits and vegetables.

Dr Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, the study’s first author, said:

“Although it is best to eat the whole blueberry to get the full benefit, our study finds that the majority of the effects can be explained by anthocyanins.

If the changes we saw in blood vessel function after eating blueberries every day could be sustained for a person’s whole life, it could reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease by up to 20%.”

The study was published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A (Rodriguez-Mateo et al., 2019).

A common complaint that increases brain aging, unless treated.

High blood pressure, at any age or for any duration, accelerates brain aging, a study finds.

People with high blood pressure are at greater risk of memory problems and difficulties concentrating and talking fluently.

Around half of all Americans have high blood pressure, which is simply treated with a combination of lifestyle changes and medication.

The cut-off for high blood pressure is around 120 to 130 mmHg (this is the top number on the reading).

Sometimes this range is known as ‘prehypertension’, but the study still found this level damaging to cognitive skills over time.

High blood pressure is problematic for young and old, explained Professor Sandhi M. Barreto, study co-author:

“We initially anticipated that the negative effects of hypertension on cognitive function would be more critical when hypertension started at a younger age, however, our results show similar accelerated cognitive performance decline whether hypertension started in middle age or at older ages.

We also found that effectively treating high blood pressure at any age in adulthood could reduce or prevent this acceleration.

Collectively, the findings suggest hypertension needs to be prevented, diagnosed and effectively treated in adults of any age to preserve cognitive function.”

The conclusions come from an analyses of over 7,000 people in Brazil who were tracked for almost four years.

The results showed that people’s cognitive skills declined if their blood pressure was over 121 mmHg and they did not take medication.

People with uncontrolled hypertension showed the worst declines in thinking skills.

Professor Barreto said:

“In addition to other proven benefits of blood pressure control, our results highlight the importance of diagnosing and controlling hypertension in patients of any age to prevent or slow down cognitive decline.

Our results also reinforce the need to maintain lower blood pressure levels throughout life, since even prehypertension levels were associated with cognitive decline.”

The study was published in the journal Hypertension (Teles De Menezes et al., 2020).

Taking blood pressure pills at the right time halves the risk of heart failure, heart attack and stroke.

Blood pressure pills are much more effective if taken at bedtime, an easy behaviour that could greatly reduce the risk of heart disease.

A study has found that, unlike patients who take their medications for high blood pressure in the morning, those who routinely take their pills before going to bed respond better to the treatment.

The researchers followed 9,000 patients for 6 years to see if taking anti-hypertensive medication at night or in the morning has a better effect on cardiovascular disease.

The risk of dying from or having a heart attack, stroke, and heart failure reduced by nearly half in patients who took their medications at bedtime.

These patients had a 66 percent lower risk of death from heart or blood vessel problems as opposed to those who took their medication in the morning.

Taking medications at bedtime also lowered the risk of:

• stroke by 49 percent,
• myocardial infarction, which is a type of heart attack, by 44 percent,
• heart failure by 42 percent,
• and coronary revascularisation by 40 percent.

Professor Ramón C. Hermida, the study’s first author, said:

“Current guidelines on the treatment of hypertension do not mention or recommend any preferred treatment time.

Morning ingestion has been the most common recommendation by physicians based on the misleading goal of reducing morning blood pressure levels.

The results of this study show that patients who routinely take their anti-hypertensive medication at bedtime, as opposed to when they wake up, have better-controlled blood pressure and, most importantly, a significantly decreased risk of death or illness from heart and blood vessel problems.”

The human body’s circadian rhythms or biological clock might have an impact on the absorption of anti-hypertensive drugs since they influence hormone production and digestion.

In this study, those who took their medicine at bedtime had considerably lower blood pressure during the day.

The bedtime treatment lowered their blood pressure even more at night in comparison to patients who were taking their drugs each morning.

Professor Hermida said:

“The findings — indicate that average blood pressure levels while asleep and night-time blood pressure dipping, but not day-time blood pressure or blood pressure measured in the clinic, are jointly the most significant blood pressure-derived markers of cardiovascular risk.”

The study was published in European Heart Journal (Hermida et al., 2019).