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March 23, 2006

High Blood Pressure During Sleep More Harmful

According to a new study, differences in blood pressure levels among people at night may make an additional contribution to people's risk of heart disease, renal injury and stroke.

The Mayo researchers put ambulatory blood pressure monitors on 240 healthy people (all but two had normal blood pressure) and obtained blood pressure readings every 10 minutes for 20 consecutive hours.

The somewhat surprising finding was that differences in blood pressure levels among the participants in the study were as great or greater when they were sleeping as when they were busy with daytime activities.

Related: High Blood Pressure - An Elusive Threat: Excess weight can contribute to high blood pressure, which is one reason that exercising and dieting can help lower pressures. This same regimen helps to control diabetes, which can be worsened by high blood pressure.

Posted by Diabetologica at March 23, 2006 11:09 PM