blood pressure

November 13, 2023

Most can lower blood pressure by reducing salt, even those on BP drugs: study

New research shows nearly everyone can lower their blood pressure, even people currently on blood pressure- reducing drugs, by lowering their sodium intake.

By Bill Snyder
June 26, 2023

Magnesium deficiency and blood pressure

Dietary magnesium depletion in a mouse model activated inflammatory pathways and molecules that promote hypertension, suggesting that increased magnesium consumption may be beneficial for reducing the prevalence of hypertension.

By Leigh MacMillan
March 2, 2023

Sex-specific regulation of kidney signals

Links between estrogen signaling and sodium excretion by the kidney could help explain a reduced risk of hypertension in females versus males.

By Kelsey Pinckard
The study team included, from left, Raymond Harris, MD, J.P. Arroyo, MD, PhD, and Gautam Bhave, MD, PhD.
January 5, 2023

VUMC researchers upend dogma about vasopressin production

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered that vasopressin, which has long been thought to be produced only in the brain, is also produced in the kidney.

By Leigh MacMillan
May 19, 2022

Genetics and blood pressure

Including polygenic risk scores for blood pressure may improve predictive models to identify people at risk for treatment-resistant hypertension.

By Leigh MacMillan
Joseph Breeyear, left, Todd Edwards, PhD, and colleagues are studying how high blood pressure genes can improve heart surgery survival in children.
March 24, 2022

High blood pressure genes improve heart surgery survival in children

Vanderbilt researchers have found that children with a genetic makeup that predicts high blood pressure as adults are more likely to survive congenital heart defect repair surgery.

By Leigh MacMillan
October 14, 2021

Tea drinking and high blood pressure

Habitual tea drinking is associated with a slightly higher risk of hypertension in middle-aged and older Chinese adults, which warrants confirmation by long-term intervention studies, researchers say.
By Sarah E. Glass
May 25, 2021

Heat for hypertension in autonomic failure

Heat therapy could offer a novel nonpharmacologic approach for treating the overnight hypertension that affects patients with autonomic failure.
By Leigh MacMillan
April 29, 2021

Genetic ancestry and hypertension risk

Racial disparities in hypertension risk are due in part to genetic differences between ancestries, Vanderbilt investigators find in a study of participants in the Million Veteran Program.
By Bill Snyder
January 12, 2021

Mitochondrial stress and hypertension

Oxidative stress and toxic products called isolevuglandins in mitochondria play a role in endothelial dysfunction and hypertension — and getting rid of them with a special “scavenger” molecule has therapeutic potential.
By Leigh MacMillan
August 20, 2020

Salt, immune cells and hypertension

Excess dietary salt activates immune cells to induce inflammation and hypertension, supporting current recommendations for low sodium consumption.
By Leigh MacMillan
July 29, 2020

Kirabo receives award from American Heart Association

Annet Kirabo, DVM, MSc, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, is receiving the 2020 Harry Goldblatt Award for Early Career Investigators from the American Heart Association (AHA).
By Matt Batcheldor
July 27, 2020

Soy food, metabolism and the microbiome

Consumption of soy foods may shape the microbiome and protect against hypertension only in individuals with soy-responsive microbiota, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.
By Sarah E. Glass