High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a widespread health issue that poses severe risks if left unaddressed.
Imagine pumping too much air into a balloon, creating tension and the risk of bursting – a similar pressure build-up happens in the blood vessels of people with hypertension.
This condition can potentially lead to dangerous health problems like heart diseases and strokes.
For numerous individuals, the root cause of their high blood pressure remains a mystery, and managing it becomes a lifelong journey often involving continuous medication.
A Promising Discovery in Tiny Lumps
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London, Barts Hospital, and Cambridge University Hospital have taken a remarkable step towards addressing hypertension with a new approach.
The team has been exploring the role of small lumps located in hormone glands, which, interestingly, have been identified as a factor in high blood pressure for a small portion of the population.
These lumps are located in a gland known as the adrenal gland, and they produce a hormone named aldosterone. In about 5% of people with high blood pressure, removing these lumps has been shown to resolve the issue.
But finding these little lumps has historically been quite a challenging task. Only a few hospitals have been able to perform the complex tests needed to detect them, and even then, the tests often didn’t work as hoped.
However, the team’s innovative method, which involves a CT scan and a urine test, has shown success in identifying patients who could entirely stop taking blood pressure medications after receiving treatment.
Glowing Lumps and Lowered Pressure
Involving 128 participants, the study revealed that two-thirds of them had high blood pressure due to aldosterone, produced by a small benign lump in one of their adrenal glands.
Fortunately, these lumps were safely removable. The research team used a special kind of scan involving a harmless radioactive dye named metomidate, which sticks only to the problematic lumps.
This dye causes the lumps to “light up” temporarily, making them easy to identify as the source of the high blood pressure and allowing doctors to take action to resolve the issue.
The new test provides a quick, pain-free, and universally effective solution in stark contrast to the less reliable methods previously available.
Professor Morris Brown, one of the study leaders, highlighted the crucial role of the new injection in causing the lumps to glow briefly, which straightforwardly identifies them as the high blood pressure culprit, paving the way for effective treatment.
The contrast to earlier times is stark when most of these lumps remained unnoticed due to testing method limitations.
The Road Ahead: A New Dawn in Treating Hypertension
The team’s previous research had indicated that 5-10% of hypertension cases could be attributed to a genetic mutation in the adrenal glands, prompting them to overproduce aldosterone.
Aldosterone causes the body to hold onto salt, which in turn raises blood pressure.
Furthermore, individuals with excess aldosterone often do not react well to traditional blood pressure medications and have an increased risk of encountering heart attacks and strokes.
Professor William Drake, another key member of the research team, underscored the lengthy dedication and cooperative effort poured into the study, indicating the journey towards this discovery was a collective one, encompassing years of rigorous investigation and collaboration.
This groundbreaking research not only throws light upon a specific cause of hypertension in a subset of patients but also provides a new potential pathway for treatment, enhancing our overall understanding of high blood pressure and taking a step towards more targeted and effective treatments in the future.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about how diets could help lower high blood pressure, and 3 grams of omega-3s a day keep high blood pressure at bay.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies that beetroot juice could help reduce blood pressure, and results showing cinnamon could help lower high blood pressure.
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