High blood pressure is a problem that affects many people around the world. Over a billion people have it.
Sometimes, people with very high blood pressure also have problems with their kidneys.
How High Blood Pressure Damages Kidneys
Researchers from the University of Virginia recently looked into why this happens. They wanted to know why high blood pressure can damage the kidneys.
They found out that the damage is often due to the thickening of the blood vessels in the kidney. This is because of special cells in the kidney called renin cells.
These cells usually make a hormone that helps keep our blood pressure in check.
However, if these cells don’t work properly, they can damage the blood vessels in the kidneys. These damaged renin cells make another kind of cell, known as smooth muscle cells, grow more than they should.
This makes the blood vessels in the kidney harder and less flexible. This means blood doesn’t flow through the kidney as it should.
Medications Might Be Making Things Worse
This is where the story takes a turn. The same researchers found that some medicines used to treat high blood pressure might be part of the problem.
Medicines like ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers are usually given to people with high blood pressure, heart problems, or after a heart attack.
The researchers discovered that if people take these medicines for a long time, their kidney blood vessels might get hard, too. They saw this in both mice they tested in the lab and in people.
What’s Next?
Now, this is a difficult spot. These medicines can save lives. So, the researchers say people should keep using them. But they also think we need to learn more about how these medicines affect our kidneys over a long time.
If you are worried about high blood pressure, you might want to know that eating early and not eating for long periods might help.
Also, there are recent studies that talk about other medicines for high blood pressure. There’s also research on how vitamin D might help people with diabetes have better blood pressure.
Dr. Maria Luisa Sequeira Lopez led this study. It was printed in a magazine called JCI Insight.
One thing is clear: it’s very important to know how our medicines work. This way, we can make sure they are helping us and not causing more problems.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about unhealthy habits that could increase high blood pressure risk, and eating eggs in a healthy diet may reduce risks of diabetes, high blood pressure.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and results showing 12 foods that lower blood pressure.
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