High blood pressure could lead to serious health risks including stroke, heart disease, heart failure, and heart attack. It is one of the most common health ailments in the country with nearly 1 out of 3 adults that have this condition, but only half of those effected are actually treated. Besides lack of exercise and poor diet, your genes also play a role in the risk of getting hypertension. New studies were done by researchers who tested the genomes of hundreds of thousands of adult subjects, finding 107 genes linked to high blood pressure. About 30 of those genes were newly discovered, while over 50 were validated from a previous study. These findings bring hope to researchers that new medications can be produced targeting these newly discovered regions to prevent and treat patients at risk for high blood pressure and related, more severe illnesses.
I believe the findings of this research will benefit countless people since so many either suffer or are at risk of hypertension. It would be really great to see new medications produced soon, considering I know friends and relatives who are at risk with their heart health.
I too found this article really interesting! Linking genes to hypertension wold cause a ripple effect in the medical field-- in a good way! We could then better treat this incredibly common condition and ultimately diminish the the number of people who die every year of related diseases. After all, coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US.
ReplyDelete