White-coat and masked hypertension significantly increased the risk of having sustained high blood pressure 10 years later, according to a study published in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. In white-coat hypertension, a patient’s blood pressure is high at the doctor’s office but normal in everyday life. Masked hypertension refers to blood pressure that is normal when tested in medical settings but sporadically high when patients are out in the community. read more

Time and cost are enormous disincentives for the working poor when it comes to getting medical treatment. Time spent visiting the doctor is time you’re not at work generating income, and money spent on these visits is money that could otherwise be spent on your children’s education or reinvested in your business. These disincentives are strong enough that relatively minor, treatable ailments often go untreated and eventually develop into much more complicated, serious conditions that require mor

A new study by University of California scientists finds exposure to local traffic-generated pollution increases a pregnant woman’s risk of developing preeclampsia (pregnancy-induced hypertension) and/or having a premature baby. The study focused on a review of over 81,000 medical records that documented births in the Long Beach/Orange County area between 1997 and 2006. Having built a database capable of estimating what the pregnant women breathed within the three kilometres of their homes

High blood pressure plagues many people in today’s society. Sometimes it is idiopathic or caused by an underlying condition and there’s not much we can do about it, but for the most part it’s caused by today’s lifestyle. Many of us eat improper diets, don’t get enough activity and exercise, and many smoke, these are the main lifestyle factors in hypertension and in many other life threatening conditions. We don’t want to be on medication for our high blood pressure, and there are some simple

I don’t think we in health policy really understand how complex our systems are and what manner of challenges – some of which we created – present themselves in clinical care. It was Dr. Christine Sinsky who enlightened me. She said that just five years ago, a patient with a 143/82 blood pressure, 1.4 creatinin, 128 fasting blood sugar and 189 cholesterol was advised to exercise and lose weight. Today, that same person has hypertension, stage 3 kidney disease, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and is a