Study Finds Almost 1 in 5 Young Adults Has High Blood Pressure

WEDNESDAY, May 25 (HealthDay News) -- About 19 percent of U.S. adults aged 24 to 32 have high blood pressure, but many of them are unaware that they have the potentially life-threatening condition, new research reveals.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is associated with a slew of health problems, including coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and kidney failure. The study, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), found the risk for this condition among young adults is actually greater than previously thought.

Researchers analyzed the blood pressure readings of more than 14,000 young adults who took part in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health).

The findings, published in the current online edition of the journal Epidemiology, are a departure from previous study findings. In the recent U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), only 4 percent of young adults were found to be hypertensive.

"This fivefold increase in the incidence of high blood pressure in a younger, healthier population is the start of a trend of 'un-health' that we are about to see in our youth," said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She was not involved in the study.

"As 30 percent of people are overweight or obese, there is a rise in other issues associated with that, such as diabetes and, now high blood pressure," Steinbaum added. "With high blood pressure happening at this younger age, the chances that we will see heart developing earlier is likely."

The reasons for the difference between the new study findings and those from NHANES is unclear.

"We explored several possible explanations for the difference between this study and NHANES, including participant characteristics, where they were examined and the types of devices for measuring their blood pressure," Kathleen Mullan Harris, principal investigator of the new study, said in an NIH news release. "None of these factors could account for the differences in estimates between the two surveys."

The investigators also pointed out that the proportion of young people who had been previously diagnosed with high blood pressure was similar in both studies: 9 percent for NHANES respondents and 11 percent for Add Health respondents.

Whatever the reason for the disparity, the new data "are a call to action," Steinbaum said. "We need to remind our younger population the critical nature of the role of diet and exercise in staying healthy, and that it must begin as early in their lives as possible or it will have negative effects on their health."

More information

The American Heart Association has more on the prevention and treatment of high blood pressure.

SOURCE: Suzanne Steinbaum, M.D., preventive cardiologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; U.S. National Institutes of Health, news release, May 25, 2011Copyright

Blood Pressure Drug Helps Those With Mild Heart Failure

SUNDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) -- New Swedish research suggests that the drug Inspra reduces the threat of major cardiovascular complications among patients who have a mild form of heart failure.

This latest finding builds on earlier work that was published by the New England Journal of Medicine last fall. That study suggested that Inspra (eplerenone), an aldosterone antagonist, helps control cardiovascular complications among patients with a history of serious chronic heart failure.

Since far more people suffer from mild heart failure, this new finding could mean the drug might benefit a far broader group of patients, the researchers added.

The Swedish analysis makes an even stronger case for the use of Inspra in patients with mild heart failure because, in addition to reducing mortality, it also reduces the incidence of the irregular heart beat condition known as atrial fibrillation, study co-author Karl Swedberg, from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said in a news release from the European Society of Cardiology.

Atrial fibrillation "is a condition which both increases morbidity and complicates the care of patients with heart failure," he explained.

Swedberg and his colleagues were slated to present the findings Sunday in Gothenburg at the Heart Failure Congress 2011, organized by the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.

The study team noted that Inspra is currently approved for the control of high blood pressure as well as for the treatment of heart attack patients who experience congestive heart failure. It is not yet approved for the treatment of patients who experience mild heart failure. It is available generically in the United States, according to the news release.

Experts estimate that almost 6 million people in the United States suffer from heart failure.

The current finding stems from a re-analysis of a larger study that involved more than 2,700 heart failure patients being cared for at 278 different health centers.

Focusing specifically on those participants who had experienced mild (class 2) heart failure, the authors found that just 2.7 percent of those patients who were placed on a regimen of between 25 milligrams to 50 milligrams daily of Inspra for a little less than two years experienced atrial fibrillation.

This compared with 4.5 percent of those patients who were randomized to receive a sugar pill instead.

Dr. Byron K. Lee, director of the Electrophysiology Laboratories and Clinics within the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco, noted that exactly how Inspra seems to help heart patients is not well understood.

"It is unclear how eplerenone works to lower the risk of abnormal heart rhythms like atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter," he said. "However, there are many potential mechanisms. One possibility is that eplerenone may help maintain potassium levels. Patients with heart failure are often on high-dose diuretics that remove fluid at the expense of removing potassium. Thats why heart failure patients need to watch their potassium level vigilantly."

More information

For more on atrial fibrillation, go to National Library of Medicine.

SOURCE: Byron K. Lee, M.D., director, Electrophysiology Laboratories and Clinics, division of cardiology, University of California, San Francisco; European Society of Cardiology, news release, May 22, 2011Copyright