High blood pressure is one of the most common health conditions in the world.
It affects hundreds of millions of people and greatly increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease, and heart failure. Many people have no warning signs, which is why it is often called the “silent killer.”
Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries. If this pressure stays too high for many years, it can slowly damage blood vessels and make the heart work much harder. Like overfilling a balloon, too much pressure can eventually weaken the system.
For most people, doctors cannot find one clear reason for high blood pressure. This is known as essential hypertension, and treatment usually involves taking medicine for life along with healthy lifestyle changes. However, new research suggests that some patients may have a hidden cause that can actually be treated.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London, Barts Hospital, and Cambridge University Hospitals have discovered that tiny growths in the adrenal glands may be responsible for high blood pressure in some people. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine.
The adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys and produce several important hormones. One of these hormones is called aldosterone. It helps control the amount of salt and water in the body, which affects blood pressure.
If the body makes too much aldosterone, it holds on to extra salt and water. This increases the amount of blood flowing through the body, causing blood pressure to rise. Some people develop small non-cancerous growths, called adenomas, that produce too much aldosterone without the body’s normal controls.
The researchers believe this hormone problem may affect around one in every twenty people with high blood pressure. Until now, finding these tiny growths has been very difficult. The usual test requires blood samples to be taken from veins near the adrenal glands, a complex procedure available at only a small number of hospitals.
The research team developed a much simpler way to find the problem. They used a special CT scan together with a dye called metomidate. The dye attaches to the cells that make aldosterone, causing the tiny hormone-producing growths to briefly light up during the scan.
The study included 128 people whose high blood pressure was linked to excess aldosterone. The new scan showed that about two-thirds of the patients had a small growth in one adrenal gland producing the extra hormone.
After the growth was found, doctors removed it with surgery. For many patients, this solved the problem. Their blood pressure returned to normal, and they no longer needed long-term blood pressure medicine.
Professor Morris Brown said these growths are often so small they cannot be seen on ordinary scans. The new imaging method makes them much easier to find. Professor William Drake said the discovery was the result of many years of research and teamwork, including work completed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier studies by the same researchers showed that genetic changes in the adrenal glands can cause excess aldosterone production. People with this condition often respond poorly to standard blood pressure medicines and have a greater risk of heart disease and stroke.
The researchers believe many people around the world may have this treatable condition without knowing it. They estimate that before this new scan became available, about 99 percent of these cases were never diagnosed.
Although most cases of high blood pressure cannot be cured, this research offers hope for a group of patients with a hidden hormonal cause. A simple scan followed by targeted surgery could allow some people to control their blood pressure without needing lifelong medication.
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 health information, 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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