Cuts in Funding for Physician Training May Mean Fewer Physicians to Staff Community Health Centers Federal efforts to improve access to health care for underserved populations by expanding community health center capacity may be futile without continued federal support of Title VII primary care training grants.

The credit crunch is taking a dramatic toll on the nation's health, diet and fitness and is putting us at risk of a blood pressure 'ticking time bomb,' warns UK charity the Blood Pressure Association.

According to a paper published in the September issue of Archives of Neurology, anti-clotting therapy does not seem to increase the risk of bleeding or other adverse outcomes in patients who need therapy to reduce their blood pressure after suffering from stroke. Acute ischemic stroke occurs when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the brain. Patients with this condition also usually have hypertension (high blood pressure). Author Sheryl Martin-Schild, M.D., Ph.D.

A new mouse model has provided some surprising insight into XLF, a molecule that helps to repair lethal DNA damage. The research, published by Cell Press in the September 5th issue of the journal Molecular Cell, suggests that although XLF shares many properties with well known DNA repair factors, certain cells of the immune system possess an unexpected compensatory mechanism that that can take over for nonfunctional XLF.

New clinical data analysis confirms that the first-in-class direct renin inhibitor Rasilez® (aliskiren), known as Tekturna® in the US, provides significantly greater blood pressure reductions in obese patients with high blood pressure compared to the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) alone1.

Blood pressure in low-birth-weight children younger than 3 years of age not only can be measured but should be, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The findings appear in the September issue of Pediatrics.

United Therapeutics Corporation (Nasdaq: UTHR) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Lung Rx, Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review the New Drug Application (NDA) for inhaled treprostinil for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. The NDA will be subject to a standard review period of 10 months, with a targeted user fee deadline of April 30, 2009.

SunTech Medical's Advantage™ TMT blood pressure technology (OEM NIBP) was recently evaluated in an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) patient transport environment. The evaluation revealed that the SunTech OEM NIBP technology provided quicker and more reliable readings than the market leader. "SunTech's OEM NIBP technology is used by many of the world's leading EMS medical device manufacturers," states Kenny Andersen, Director of Product Management.

Treatment of hypertension has proven to reduce cardiovascular risk substantially, but a large proportion of people with hypertension in the general population are not even diagnosed or treated. As a risk factor for stroke, ischemic brain lesions and silent brain infarcts, general atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction and cardiovascular morbidity, hypertension may also be a risk factor for dementia related to cerebrovascular disease.

The need for long term studies to establish the best means of treating Diabetes, was underlined by Prof John Cleland from the University of Hull at the ESC Congress in Munich. Prof Cleland listed the latest treatment available for patients and voiced his concern about the side-effects and efficacy of available anti-diabetic drugs.

Researchers in Canada working on an international study, discovered that the angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) telmisartan, a newer type of drug for lowering blood pressure, showed a modest reduction in cardiovascular deaths, strokes and heart attacks in patients with heart problems and diabetes who can't tolerate the standard and more widely used angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.

An international study led by Canadian researchers has found that telmisartan, a medication used to lower blood pressure, reduced the outcome of cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke in people who are unable to tolerate a widely available and effective standard treatment. Dr. Salim Yusuf and Dr. Koon Teo, professors in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University and clinicians at Hamilton Health Sciences, led the study.

The Endocrine Society has released a new clinical practice guideline for the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with primary aldosteronism. The guidelines appear in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), a publication of The Endocrine Society. Primary aldosteronism (PA) refers to conditions in which production of aldosterone, a steroid hormone produced in the adrenal gland, is inappropriately high.

Patients with chronic smoker's bronchitis often suffer from increased pressure in the blood vessels supplying the lung (pulmonary hypertension). The blood pressure increases further during exercise and can lead to severe limitation of physical activity. In patients with other diseases causing pulmonary hypertension, for instance rheumatic or heart conditions, drug therapy has been shown to improve exercise capacity and decrease mortality.

Reducing levels of uric acid in blood lowered blood pressure to normal in most teens in a study designed to investigate a possible link between blood pressure and the chemical, a waste product of the body's normal metabolism, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "If you reduce uric acid, at least in some patients, you may be able to reduce blood pressure," said Dr.

Elevated cholesterol levels return to normal or near normal levels over time in four out of 10 children with uncontrollable epilepsy treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet, according to results of a Johns Hopkins Children's Center study reported in the Journal of Child Neurology. The study appears online ahead of print here.

The drug allopurinol, which lowers uric acid levels, appears to reduce blood pressure in adolescents with newly diagnosed hypertension, according to a preliminary report in the August 27 issue of JAMA. Hypertension is commonly associated with hyperuricemia (elevated blood level of uric acid, a by-product of normal chemical processes in the body and found in the urine and blood).

Your blood pressure changes from hour to hour, sometimes minute to minute. Standing up from a chair, watching an exciting show, eating a meal, or being stressed-perhaps because of a visit to the doctor-all influence your blood pressure. Blood pressure readings jump around so much that you are more likely to get an accurate reading if you check it at home rather than in the doctor's office, reports the September 2008 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter.

Taking 1000mg of a specific olive leaf extract (EFLA®943) can lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure in patients with mild hypertension (high blood pressure). These findings came from a 'Twins' trial, in which different treatments were given to identical twins. By doing this, researchers could increase the power of their data by eliminating some of the uncertainties caused by genetic variations between individual people.

According to a report published in the August 27 issue of JAMA, a drug that lowers uric acid levels, allopurinol, also seems to lower blood pressure in adolescents with newly diagnosed hypertension (high blood pressure). Hyperuricemia - a condition characterized by higher than normal blood levels of uric acid (a chemical found in urine and blood that results from normal bodily processes) - is commonly associated with hypertension.

Preeclampsia, a condition that causes high blood pressure and other problems in about 5% of pregnancies, can significantly increase risk of developing kidney failure later in life, according to a study published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine,

The incidence of strokes among diabetics in Northern Sweden declined between 1985 and 2003, according to a population-based study published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers also found that survival rates improved leading to a rapid decline in the number of fatal events among diabetic people.

Recent results from a text messaging campaign for calling hypertensive patients in for periodic blood pressure reading ran by the Lea Surgery in City & Hackney tPCT has delivered response rates of 76%. From searches made on their GP system, the surgery sent out a group text message to selected patients inviting them to call the surgery to make an appointment. Within three weeks of sending the text invitation, 149 out of 197 patients had had their blood pressure checked.

Teenagers who don't sleep well or long enough may have a higher risk of elevated blood pressure that could lead to cardiovascular disease later in life, researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers found the odds of elevated blood pressure increased 3.5 times for those with low sleep efficiency and 2.5 times for those with sleeping periods of less than 6.

US research reveals that teenagers who don't sleep enough or have poor quality sleep may be at higher risk of elevated blood pressure that could lead to cardiovascular disease in adulthood. The study is the first to examine links between high blood pressure and sleep quality in healthy adolescents. The research appears as a paper published online before print on 18th August in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association (AHA).