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Bob Schwadron; 212-468-3616
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AND HIGH CHOLESTEROL
ARE DOUBLE TROUBLE IN HIGH STRESS SITUATIONS
People With Both Conditions
At Double Jeopardy, Study Finds
NEW YORK, NY -- People with high cholesterol levels can
experience dangerous increases in blood pressure in response to
stress, according to a study in the June issue of the American Journal of
Hypertension.
Researchers found that blood pressure increases in people with
high cholesterol levels were significantly greater than those seen in a
group with normal cholesterol, when both groups were subjected to the
stress of performing a mental arithmetic test.
However, when those with high cholesterol were treated with
lovastatin, a medication used to reduce levels of cholesterol in the blood,
and rechallenged with the math test, the researchers found a far smaller
change in blood pressure.
The study was done at the State University of New York at
Buffalo and the Millard Fillmore Health Care System, Buffalo, NY. Authors
of the study are Bong Hee Sung, PhD, Joseph L. Izzo, Jr., MD, and
Michael F. Wilson, MD.
"This study underscores why we must continue to focus
attention on the aggressive treatment of those with both high cholesterol
levels and high blood pressure," says Michael Weber, MD, an editor of
the American Journal of Hypertension, the peer-reviewed journal of the
American Society of Hypertension. "Most patients with high blood
pressure also have high cholesterol levels and are at double jeopardy for
serious clinical events."
Dr. Weber said many physicians in the United States simply treat
high blood pressure alone and ignore cholesterol.
"This may not adequately address the full scope of the problem,"
he says. "Rather, physicians must now become more aware of the
importance of treating both hypertension and high cholesterol at the
same time in order to provide maximum protection against strokes, heart
attacks and other serious cardiovascular events."
Cholesterol is a major factor in the development of
atherosclerosis, the process by which thickening of the walls of the
arteries leads to the development of plaques that bulge into the center of
the arteries. Elevated cholesterol is not only a building block for arterial
disease; it affects how the arterial wall responds to stress by
exaggerating blood pressure increases during physical and mental
activity.
The investigators studied 33 people with normal cholesterol (13
men and 20 women) and 37 with high cholesterol (17 men and 20
women). They found that prior to taking the mental arithmetic test, the
people with hypercholesteremia (high cholesterol levels) had slightly
higher blood pressures than those with normal cholesterol.
Participants were asked to serially subtract threes and sevens
from a three-digit number during five minute periods and to make the
subtractions out loud and provide answers as quickly and as accurately
as possible. When incorrect answers were given, they were asked to
repeat the subtractions. Participants were monitored electronically
throughout the tests.
The authors of the study, "Effects of Cholesterol Reduction on
Blood Pressure Response to Mental Stress in Patients With High
Cholesterol," found the increase in blood pressure in the high cholesterol
group was significantly greater than in those with normal cholesterol.
"This was particularly true for systolic blood pressure, which
appears to be the most important type of blood pressure for predicting
clinical disease," Dr. Weber says. "The change in systolic blood pressure
during the mental arithmetic test was proportional to the level of
cholesterol."
The high cholesterol group, was treated with lovastatin,
(Mevacor*, Merck). After six weeks of this treatment, during which
cholesterol fell by an average of 26 percent, the mental arithmetic test
produced a far smaller change in blood pressure -- a change virtually
identical to the change previously observed in the group with normal
cholesterol levels.
The American Society of Hypertension is the largest US
organization devoted exclusively to hypertension and related
cardiovascular diseases. The organization is committed to alerting
physicians, allied health professionals and the public about new medical
options, facts, research findings and treatment choices designed to
reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
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