Good news for people with a specific type of high blood pressure
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is like an invisible enemy.
You may not feel anything, but over time it can damage your body.
Think of your heart as a pump, and your blood vessels are the tubes that carry blood throughout your body.
When your heart pumps blood too hard, it creates high pressure in your blood vessels, just like too much water flowing through a garden hose.
Over time, this high pressure can damage your blood vessels and heart, leading to heart attacks and strokes.
What is primary aldosteronism?
There’s a type of high blood pressure that has a fancy name: primary aldosteronism.
This is a condition in which the adrenal glands, small glands at the top of your kidneys, produce too much of a hormone called aldosterone.
This hormone controls the amount of salt and water in your body. When you have too much aldosterone, your body stores too much salt, which can lead to high blood pressure.
Why is salt a big deal?
You might think salt is just something we add to our food to improve flavor, but it does more than that. When we eat too much salt, it can cause our bodies to retain more water.
This extra water increases our blood pressure. In people with primary aldosteronism, the body is already storing too much salt due to the extra aldosterone.
That means if you eat too much salt, your blood pressure can rise even further.
How is primary aldosteronism treated?
Doctors often prescribe drugs called mineralocorticoid antagonists for people with primary aldosteronism. These medicines can help lower the amount of aldosterone in the body. However, these drugs alone cannot eliminate the increased risk of heart problems in people with primary aldosteronism.
The Salt CONNtrol test: what did it do?
In light of all this, scientists wondered: Could eating less salt help people with primary aldosteronism? To find out, they conducted a study called the Salt CONNtrol study.
In this study, 41 people with primary aldosteronism were asked to reduce their daily salt intake.
What did you find?
Here’s the great news: Blood pressure dropped in study participants who ate less salt. In addition, they felt less sad and depressed.
Even better, there were no bad side effects from cutting back on salt.
How did you do that?
You might think that eating less salt is difficult. After all, many of our favorite foods are high in salt. But the people in this study had a secret weapon: a smartphone app.
This app helped them stay motivated to keep their salt intake down.
What does that mean?
dr Christian Adolf, one of the scientists involved in the study, was very enthusiastic about the results.
He said: “Our study shows that if you have the right tools like our smartphone app, it’s possible to eat less salt, and it can really help lower blood pressure in people with primary aldosteronism.”
So the next time you sprinkle some salt in your meal, think about it: a little less salt could be really good for your body, especially if you have a condition like primary aldosteronism.
The Salt CONNtrol study showed us that even small changes, such as B. less salt, can have great benefits for our health.
If you are concerned about blood pressure, please read studies showing that drinking coffee can keep high blood pressure in check and what blood pressure readings are indicative of dementia and risk of stroke.
You can find more information about blood pressure in current studies unhealthy habits that could increase the risk of high blood pressureand results showing how to halve the risk of heart attack in people with high blood pressure.
The study was published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.
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