A study by researchers at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, has determined that high blood pressure plays a part in millions of premature deaths each year in China. It is estimated that around 2.3 million cardiovascular deaths each year in China are attributed to high blood pressure, also known as hypertension.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is urging Congress to require packaged and restaurant food to reduce sodium content by half within ten years.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, along with an international team of collaborators, have identified common genetic changes associated with blood pressure and hypertension. The study, reporting online next week in Nature Genetics, breaks new ground in understanding blood pressure regulation and may lead to advances in hypertension therapy.

A high salt intake has been implicated in cardiovascular disease risk for 5000 years. But salt-sensitive Blood Pressure still remains an enigma. Now, investigators from Germany at the University of Erlangen, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and Regensburg, collaborating with researchers from Finland and Austria have shed new light on the relationship between salt intake, bodily processes, and blood pressure regulation.

Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday 22nd April: The specific impact of metabolic syndrome on mortality in hepatitis C patients has been revealed by new research to be presented on Sunday April 26 at EASL 2009, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Findings suggest that chronic insomnia is a major public health concern, and its diagnosis and appropriate treatment should become the target of public health policy

Children with high blood pressure are not as good at complicated, goal-directed tasks, have more working memory problems and are not as adept at planning as their peers without hypertension, according to recent research. If they are both hypertensive and obese, they are also more likely to have anxiety and depression.

A new study has identified the first common gene variants associated with an increased incidence of hypertension – a significant risk factor for heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.

Huijing Xia, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Eric Lazartigues, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, is the lead author on a paper reporting that a recently identified enzyme in the brain plays a critically important role in the central regulation of blood pressure.

A new clinical trial suggests that long-term use of candesartan, a drug currently used to treat hypertension, may significantly reduce the symptoms of genetic heart disease.

Results from the European study IMMIDIET, published today in the Journal of Hypertension, official journal of the European Society of Hypertension and International Society of Hypertension, confirm that elevated blood pressure, an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, is still a looming problem in Europe.

As a risk factor for high blood pressure, low levels of potassium in
the diet may be as important as high levels of sodium—especially among African Americans, according to research being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 41st Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.