Tag Archives: blood pressure
Do It Yourself Screening for Kidney Disease
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th June 2022Chronic Kidney Disease is often asymptomatic. The commonest causes are diabetes and hypertension.There are a number of tests that clinicians use to both detect and measure the severity of impaired kidney function. Levey and colleagues examine the use of these tests in a review article in the June 2, 2022 issue of the New England…
› Read the full entry
Systolic Blood Pressure Control and Dementia
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th February 2019Dementia increases with age. About 50% of the population 85 years or older will experience some degree of cognitive impairment. Obviously, this problem places an enormous burden on those charged with the care of these patients and an economic load on all of society. There is no treatment currently available to retard cognitive decline in…
› Read the full entry
New Blood Pressure Guidelines – Think First
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th November 2017The press with an assist from the American College of Cardiology is trying to drive the American public crazier than it usually is. Here’s a quotation typical of those floating around the media: “Nearly half of Americans have high blood pressure under the new guidelines issued Monday by heart organizations and the medical community. The…
› Read the full entry
Salt, Science, and Politics
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 1st June 2016Salt is in the news again. Thomas Frieden the head of the CDC published an article in the JAMA innocuously titled Sodium Reduction—Saving Lives by Putting Choice Into Consumers’ Hands. It more closely resembles propaganda than science. It argues that reducing dietary sodium intake to 1200 mg/day or less will lower the incidence of hypertension…
› Read the full entry
More on Diabetes and Tight Blood Pressure Control
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th July 2010In May I commented on a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that failed to show a benefit in lowering systolic blood pressure below 130 mm Hg. Well, now there’s another such study. This one is in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Patients were categorized into 3 groups by their average…
› Read the full entry
Diabetes and Blood Pressure Control
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th May 2010It’s been standard clinical practice for some time to aim for a lower blood pressure in diabetic patients with hypertension compared to hypertensive patients with normal glucose metabolism. Like so much in medicine this approach was based on surmise rather than evidence. The thinking went along these lines. Diabetics are at greatly increased risk for…
› Read the full entry
Hypertension in the Very Old
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th April 2008Virtually all physicians treat their hypertensive patients who are 80 years old or more. The evidence for the effectiveness of this treatment in very old patients has up till now been lacking. The New England Journal of Medicine has published a paper, Treatment of Hypertension in Patients 80 Years of Age or Older, that shows…
› Read the full entry
