Vitamin D may lower blood pressure in African-Americans

Brigham and Women's Hospital study could have widespread public health benefits

2013-03-14

(Press-News.org) Boston – High blood pressure, a risk factor for heart attacks, heart failure and stroke, is 40 percent more common in African-Americans than in other American ethnic groups. In a new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), along with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers show that vitamin D supplementation may help African-Americans lower their blood pressure. The study publishes online in the March 13, 2013 edition of the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.

"This study may explain and help treat an important public health disparity," said the study's lead author, John Forman, MD, a physician in the Renal Division and Kidney Clinical Research Institute at BWH. "More research is needed, but these data may indicate that vitamin D supplementation lowers blood pressure in African-Americans."

To conduct the study, 250 African-American adult voluntary research participants were divided into four groups. Three of the groups received a three-month regimen of daily vitamin D supplementation at various doses that ranged between 1,000 and 4,000 units. The fourth group received a placebo. Participants in the placebo group saw their systolic blood pressure rise, but participants in the supplementation group had their systolic blood pressure decrease by one to four points, with those who received the highest dose benefiting the most. Systolic blood pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading; it measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats.

"The gains were modest, but significant," said Forman. "If further research supports our finding, widespread use of vitamin D supplementation in African-Americans could have significant public health benefits."

### This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program, an American Society of Clinical Oncology Career Development Award and Pharmavite LLC.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

US lifespans lags other high-income countries, tied to mortality rates under age 50

2013-03-14

Higher mortality rates among Americans younger than 50 are responsible for much of why life expectancy is lower in the United States than most of the world's most developed nations. The research, by Jessica Ho, a University of Pennsylvania doctoral candidate in demography and sociology, found that excess mortality among Americans younger than 50 accounted for two-thirds of the gap in life expectancy at birth between American males and their counterparts and two-fifths between females and their counterparts in the comparison countries. The study, "Mortality Under Age ...

Foundations of carbon-based life leave little room for error

2013-03-14

Life as we know it is based upon the elements of carbon and oxygen. Now a team of physicists, including one from North Carolina State University, is looking at the conditions necessary to the formation of those two elements in the universe. They've found that when it comes to supporting life, the universe leaves very little margin for error. Both carbon and oxygen are produced when helium burns inside of giant red stars. Carbon-12, an essential element we're all made of, can only form when three alpha particles, or helium-4 nuclei, combine in a very specific way. The ...

UI study of Midwest finds increase in heavy rainfalls over 60 years

2013-03-14

Heavy rains have become more frequent in the upper Midwest over the past 60 years, according to a study from the University of Iowa. The trend appears to hold true even with the current drought plaguing the region, the study's main author says. The fact that temperatures over the country's midsection are rising, too, may be more than coincidence.The hotter the surface temperature, which has been the trend in the Midwest and the rest of the world, the more water that can be absorbed by the atmosphere. And the more water available for precipitation means a greater chance ...

Video game 'exercise' for an hour a day may enhance certain cognitive skills

2013-03-14

Playing video games for an hour each day can improve subsequent performance on cognitive tasks that use similar mental processes to those involved in the game, according to research published March 13 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Adam Chie-Ming Oei and Michael Donald Patterson of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Non-gamer participants played five different games on their smartphones for an hour a day, five days of the week for one month. Each participant was assigned one game. Some played games like Bejeweled where participants matched three identical ...

Series of studies first to examine acupuncture's mechanisms of action

2013-03-14

WASHINGTON — While acupuncture is used widely to treat chronic stress, the mechanism of action leading to reported health benefits are not understood. In a series of studies at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC), researchers are demonstrating how acupuncture can significantly reduce the stress hormone response in an animal model of chronic stress. The latest study was published today in the April issue of Journal of Endocrinology. "Many practitioners of acupuncture have observed that this ancient practice can reduce stress in their patients, but there is a ...

Brain stent offers alternative to shunt for fixing potentially blinding vein narrowing

2013-03-14

A team of interventional neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins reports wide success with a new procedure to treat pseudotumor cerebri, a rare but potentially blinding condition marked by excessive pressure inside the skull, caused by a dangerous narrowing of a vein located at the base of the brain. The Johns Hopkins team's latest study, to be published in the Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology online March 14, is believed to be the first to show how directly lowering pressure inside the vein alleviates the condition and improves vision. The study report on ...

Garbled text messages may be the only symptoms of stroke

2013-03-14

DETROIT – Difficulty or inability to write a coherent text message, even in patients who have no problem speaking, may become a "vital" tool in diagnosing a type of crippling stroke, according to new research at Henry Ford Hospital. The case study focused on a 40-year-old man visiting the metro Detroit area on business who showed signs of "dystextia," a recently coined term for incoherent text messaging that can sometimes be confused with autocorrect garble. But in his case, the man saw nothing wrong with the garble. The patient had no problem with a routine bedside ...

Rapid hearing loss may be a symptom of rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

2013-03-14

DETROIT – Rapid hearing loss in both ears may be a symptom of the rare but always-fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and should be considered a reason for clinicians to test for the disorder. That was the conclusion of Henry Ford Hospital researchers after encountering a 67-year-old patient who had been progressively losing hearing in both ears for two months and was eventually diagnosed with the disease. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or CJD, is often confused with so-called "mad cow disease," and though they are in the same family of disorders, are not the same. However, ...

Sleepwalkers sometimes remember what they've done

2013-03-14

Three myths about sleepwalking – sleepwalkers have no memory of their actions, sleepwalkers' behaviour is without motivation, and sleepwalking has no daytime impact – are dispelled in a recent study led by Antonio Zadra of the University of Montreal and its affiliated Sacré-Coeur Hospital. Working from numerous studies over the last 15 years at the hospital's Centre for Advanced Studies in Sleep Medicine at the Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal and a thorough analysis of the literature, Zadra and his colleagues have raised the veil on sleepwalking and clarified the diagnostic ...

Texas is number one in nation for fines from illegal immigration audits

2013-03-14

Texas is number one in nation for fines from illegal immigration audits Article provided by Goldstein & Scopellite, PC Visit us at http://www.lawyersdallas.com In 2011, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had its most productive year for audits conducted and fines issued in the pursuit of identifying and punishing employers who hire illegal individuals; who are classified as those who entered the country illegally; who do not have work authorization; or who arrived legally but have not fallen out of their legal status. To avoid prosecution, ...

Researchers from MARE ULisboa discover that the European catfish, an invasive species in Portugal, has a prolonged breeding season, enhancing its invasive potential

Vitamin D may lower blood pressure in African-Americans

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: