PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Eating more fruits & vegetables to reduce dietary acid lowers blood pressure and improves kidney and heart health in patients with hypertension

Findings from a five-year interventional randomized control trial of patients with hypertension in The American Journal of Medicine provides further evidence of the benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption

2024-08-06
(Press-News.org) Philadelphia, August 6, 2024 – Doctors recommend making fruits and vegetables a foundational part of the treatment of patients with hypertension. Diets high in fruits and vegetables are found to lower blood pressure, reduce cardiovascular risk, and improve kidney health due to their base-producing effects. A new study in The American Journal of Medicine, published by Elsevier, details the findings from a five-year interventional randomized control trial.

Despite ongoing efforts to improve hypertension treatment and reduce its adverse outcomes with pharmacological strategies, hypertension-related chronic kidney disease and its cardiovascular mortality are increasing. Heart disease is the number one reason that patients with chronic kidney disease die.

The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables reduces blood pressure and is the recommended first-line treatment for primary hypertension. Nevertheless, this diet is under-prescribed, and when prescribed is under-implemented despite supportive epidemiological data. The DASH diet and others generally high in fruits and vegetables are associated with lower blood pressure, lower risk for and progression of chronic kidney disease, lower cardiovascular disease risk indicators, and lower cardiovascular disease mortality.

Lead investigator of the study Donald E. Wesson, MD, MBA, Department of Internal Medicine, Dell Medical School – The University of Texas at Austin, says, "As a nephrologist (kidney doctor), my acid-base laboratory studies ways by which the kidney removes acid from the blood and puts it into the urine. Our animal studies showed years ago that mechanisms used by kidneys to remove acid from the blood can cause kidney injury if the animals were chronically (long term) exposed to an acid-producing diet. Our patient studies showed similar findings: that is, an acid-producing diet (one high in animal products) was kidney-harmful, and one that is base-producing (one high in fruits and vegetables) is kidney-healthy. Other investigators showed that a diet high in fruits and vegetables is heart-healthy. We hypothesized that one way that fruits and vegetables are both kidney- and heart-healthy is that they reduce the amount of acid in the diet and therefore the amount of acid that kidneys have to remove from the body."

To test this hypothesis, a study was designed in which participants with hypertension, but not diabetes, and very high levels of urine albumin excretion (macroalbuminuria) were selected. Patients with macroalbuminuria have chronic kidney disease, a high risk for the worsening of their kidney disease with time, and a high risk to subsequently develop cardiovascular diseases. In a randomized control trial over a five-year period, investigators divided the cohort of 153 patients with hypertension into three groups:

Study participants adding 2-4 cups of base-producing fruits and vegetables in addition to their usual daily food intake Study participants prescribed NaHCO3 (acid-reducing sodium bicarbonate, which is common baking soda) tablets in two daily doses of 4-5 650 mg tablets Study participants receiving standard medical care from primary care clinicians The results of the study show that both fruits and vegetables and NaHCO3 improved kidney health, but only fruits and vegetables, and not NaHCO3, reduced blood pressure and improved indices of cardiovascular disease risk.

Co-investigator Maninder Kahlon, PhD, Department of Population Health, Dell Medical School – The University of Texas at Austin, explains, "Importantly, fruits and vegetables achieved the latter two benefits with lower doses of medication used to lower blood pressure and reduce cardiovascular disease risk. This means that one can get the kidney health benefits with either fruits and vegetables or NaHCO3, but we get the blood pressure reduction and reduced cardiovascular disease risk with fruits and vegetables, but not with NaHCO3. This supports our recommendation that fruits and vegetables should be ‘foundational’ treatment for patients with hypertension, because we accomplish all three goals (kidney health, lower blood pressure, and reduced cardiovascular disease risk) with fruits and vegetables, and we can do so with lower medication doses.

The research team emphasizes "foundational" because many clinicians begin hypertension treatment with drugs and then add diet strategies if blood pressure is not properly controlled. The findings from its studies support the opposite: treatment should begin with fruits and vegetables and then add drugs as needed.

Dr. Wesson concludes, "Dietary interventions for chronic disease management are often not recommended and even less often executed because of the many challenges to get patients to implement them. Nevertheless, they are effective, and in this instance, kidney and cardiovascular protective. We must increase our efforts to incorporate them into patient management and more broadly, make healthy diets more accessible to populations at increased risk for kidney and cardiovascular disease.”

The researchers also advise patients with hypertension to ask their clinician to measure a urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) to determine if they have underlying kidney disease and an increased risk for subsequent cardiovascular disease.

 

 

 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Rising toll of serious injuries linked to expanded Mexico-US border wall crossing

2024-08-06
The expansion of the Mexico-US border wall crossing has been accompanied by a rising toll of serious injuries, with poor discharge care and a lack of appropriate interpreting facilities adding up to a “humanitarian and health crisis,” suggest researchers in the open access journal Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open. Thirty eight different nationalities and 21 languages other than Spanish were represented among those attempting to cross one segment of the wall in 2021 and 2022, say the researchers. The Mexico-US border wall was extended by 50 miles and raised to a height of 30 feet in Southern California, construction ...

Interplay of sex, marital status, education, race linked to 18 year US lifespan gap

2024-08-06
The interplay of a quartet of sex, marital status, education, and race is linked to an 18 year lifespan gap for US citizens, and while no one factor is more influential than any of the others, the more of these influential factors a person has, the higher their risk of an earlier death, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Open. But a simple scoring system based on these characteristics can help overcome this complexity to identify those most at risk, say the researchers. Individual risks and genetic factors explain part of the differences in health and death, but the evidence increasingly points to the role of social determinants—the ...

Arizona State University research site designated UNESCO World Heritage Site

Arizona State University research site designated UNESCO World Heritage Site
2024-08-05
At the edge of the south coast of South Africa, Arizona State University professor Curtis Marean and his research teams have been teasing out the secrets of our earliest modern human ancestors in caves at Pinnacle Point for over 25 years. In late July, the site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Olympic gold medal of heritage, which is only given to sites of “outstanding universal value” to all of humanity.  In 1999, while conducting reconnaissance on the south coast ...

Association between osteoporosis and telomere shortening

Association between osteoporosis and telomere shortening
2024-08-05
“We sought to identify an association between osteoporosis and LTL shortening in an independent prospective cohort.” BUFFALO, NY- August 5, 2024 – A new research paper was published on the cover of Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 14, entitled, “Association between osteoporosis and the rate of telomere shortening.” A shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is reported to be associated with age-related diseases, including osteoporosis. Many studies ...

DRI’s STEM education team receives EPA grant to support microplastics education for Nevada students and communities

2024-08-05
Reno, Nev. (August 5, 2024) – DRI’s STEM Education Team has received a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to support environmental education in Nevada’s schools. The $100,000 grant will fund the production of additional educational kits known as Greenboxes that raise awareness and understanding of the prevalence and role of microplastics in the environment. “DRI is honored to be awarded this EPA grant, and we are eager to continue our outreach to underserved rural and urban communities across Nevada,” said DRI STEM Education Program Manager Emily McDonald-Williams. “Middle school students ...

Sex bias in pain management at emergency departments new study reveals

Sex bias in pain management at emergency departments new study reveals
2024-08-05
New study reveals a significant sex bias in pain management at emergency departments, showing that female patients are consistently less likely to receive pain medication prescriptions compared to male patients with similar complaints. This bias persists across different ages, pain levels, and physician sex, indicating a systemic issue. Female patients' pain scores are less frequently recorded, and they spend more time in the emergency department than male patients. The findings highlight the need for urgent policy interventions and training for healthcare ...

Child Mind Institute paper reveals next frontier in reproducible brain imaging for neuroscience discovery

2024-08-05
New York, NY (August 5, 2024) — The Child Mind Institute has released a paper detailing their pioneering study in the journal Nature Human Behaviour titled, "Moving Beyond Processing and Analysis-Related Variation in Resting State Functional Brain Imaging." The research identifies significant challenges in the reproducibility and standardization of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) used to understand brain function and behavior — and proposes concrete solutions to move the field towards results that translate into real world impact. Along with a diverse team of international collaborators, ...

Hospital pneumonia diagnoses are uncertain, revised more than half the time, study finds

Hospital pneumonia diagnoses are uncertain, revised more than half the time, study finds
2024-08-05
Pneumonia diagnoses are marked by pronounced uncertainty, an AI-based analysis of over 2 million hospital visits has found. More than half the time, a pneumonia diagnosis made in the hospital will change from a patient’s entrance to their discharge—either because someone who was initially diagnosed with pneumonia ended up with a different final diagnosis, or because a final diagnosis of pneumonia was missed when a patient entered the hospital (not including cases of hospital-acquired pneumonia). The study describing the new results publishes August 6th in Annals of Internal Medicine. Barbara Jones, MD, MSCI, pulmonary and critical care physician ...

Cancer screening estimated to cost $43 billion a year in the United States

2024-08-05
Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 5 August 2024     Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet      @Annalsofim     Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.      ----------------------------     1. ...

Researchers receive 9.5 million grant to study relationship between polyphenol intake, Alzheimer’s prevention, and the brain-gut-microbiome system

2024-08-05
UCLA Health researchers, in collaboration with researchers from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, have received $9.5 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with support from European funding agencies — The Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Public Health Agency Health & Social Care (HSC) — to study the effects of polyphenols on cognitive health and the brain-gut microbiome system. The proposal, named MAEVE, stands for “Microbiota mediated flavonoid metabolites for cognitive health.” In this interdisciplinary and multicenter study funded through the Tripartite US-Ireland Research & Development Partnership Program, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New study reveals polymers with flawed fillers boost heat transfer in plastics

Signs identified that precede sudden arrhythmic death syndrome in young people

Discovery of bacteria's defence against viruses becomes a piece of the puzzle against resistance

Pre-eclampsia is associated with earlier onset and higher incidence of cardiovascular risk factors

Warwick astronomers discover doomed pair of spiralling stars on our cosmic doorstep

Soil conditions significantly increase rainfall in world’s megastorm hotspots

NK cells complexed with bispecific antibody yield high response rates in patients with lymphoma

Planetary health diet and mediterranean diet associated with similar survival and sustainability benefits

Singapore launches national standard to validate antimicrobial disinfectant products

Molecular stool test could improve detection of tuberculosis in adults with HIV

Suspected fibrocartilaginous embolus in Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus)

Enhancing heat transfer using the turbulent flow of viscoelastic fluids

Exercise as an anti-ageing intervention to avoid detrimental impact of mental fatigue

UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’

New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening

Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition

CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand

Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch

New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed

New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations

Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency

How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads

Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids

Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria

Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options

Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity

[Press-News.org] Eating more fruits & vegetables to reduce dietary acid lowers blood pressure and improves kidney and heart health in patients with hypertension
Findings from a five-year interventional randomized control trial of patients with hypertension in The American Journal of Medicine provides further evidence of the benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption