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We're talking about heart research this week on Healthwatch. Some cases of high blood pressure are linked to sodium intake. Patients with this kind of high blood pressure are often told to reduce the amount of salt they eat. Now researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered the mechanism that links salt consumption and high blood pressure.
The researchers found that a particular enzyme activates pores in kidney cells, allowing increased amounts of sodium to be released into the blood, which leads to high blood pressure. A tiny change in how much sodium is excreted by the kidneys and how much is returned to the body can make the difference between high blood pressure, normal blood pressure and low blood pressure. Dr. Bing-E Xu, the UT Southwestern pharmacologist who led the study, says knowing how this works in the body could help in the development of more effective treatments for high blood pressure.
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August 2005
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