The Mystery of Uncontrolled High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is like a quiet storm that wreaks havoc inside your body. It puts a strain on your blood vessels and can lead to serious health problems like heart disease.
Even though doctors often prescribe medication and lifestyle changes to manage it, these approaches don’t work for everyone. Some people still struggle with high blood pressure, which can be really frustrating.
The Game-Changing Scan
Scientists have come up with a breakthrough: a new kind of body scan that could significantly change how we treat high blood pressure.
Conducted by a research team from Queen Mary University of London and other places, the scan identifies and helps remove tiny lumps, known as nodules, in a hormone gland in the body.
These nodules make a hormone called aldosterone, which can cause your blood pressure to rise. And guess what? These nodules are present in about 1 in 20 people with high blood pressure!
Before this, it was a big challenge for doctors to find these nodules. They had to use a tricky test that involved inserting a catheter, and it was only available at a few hospitals.
Plus, it often didn’t work very well. But this new scan is different. It uses a special dye that sticks to the troublesome nodule. Once the dye is in place, the nodule lights up during the scan, making it easy to spot.
What’s really cool about this scan is that it’s quick, it doesn’t hurt, and it works every time. The researchers tested it on 128 people with high levels of aldosterone in their blood.
For two-thirds of these folks, the scan showed that the extra aldosterone was coming from a nodule in their adrenal gland, which is the hormone-producing gland located on top of each kidney.
From Diagnosis to Treatment
But the good news doesn’t stop there. Once the nodules are found, doctors can actually remove them. The study showed that doing so helped many patients to lower their blood pressure significantly.
Even better? Some people could completely stop taking their blood pressure medicines after the treatment.
In a test of 24 patients who had normal blood pressure after treatment, the scan and a simple urine test correctly identified 18 of them as candidates who could stop medication.
Until now, tests to identify these nodules were not only difficult but also not widely available. As a result, 99% of people with these nodules never even knew they had them.
This new scan could change all of that and give hope to people who have been struggling to control their high blood pressure.
The research behind this scan was led by Professor Morris Brown and has been published in the respected journal, Nature Medicine.
While the scan is not yet available everywhere, the hope is that it soon will be, offering a new way to tackle this common and often stubborn health issue.
Final Thoughts
High blood pressure is a serious concern for many, and this new scan offers a ray of hope.
However, always remember to consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your treatment. With advancements like this, the future of high blood pressure treatment looks promising.
If you care about high blood pressure, please see recent studies about nutrient that could strongly lower high blood pressure, and results showing this novel antioxidant may help reverse blood vessels aging by 20 years.
For more information about blood pressure, please read studies about blood pressure drug that may increase risk of sudden cardiac arrest, and these teas could help reduce high blood pressure.
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