Some of the complex secrets behind high blood pressure have been unlocked by scientists in a breakthrough that could save the lives of thousands of babies and adults.High blood pressure blights the lives of 16 million Britons. It doubles the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke and is blamed for more than 60,000 deaths a year in the UK alone.
Although it can be treated with pills, many patients stop taking them because of side-effects such as fatigue and nausea or simply because they feel healthy.
It can also prove fatal in pregnancy, where as part of a condition called pre-eclampsia it kills 50,000 otherwise healthy women and half a million babies around the world each year.
In landmark research, published in the prestigious journal Nature, researchers at Cambridge and Nottingham Universities have pinpointed one of the root causes of high blood pressure.
The breakthrough, the result of three decades of painstaking research, could lead to more effective blood pressure pills within 10 years
Post published in: Analysis