Detection of individuals prone to develop hypertension in their future life

Abstract

Hypertension is a global burning health problem. Early detection of proneness to hypertension may help an individual to lead a healthy life by altering the life style (by diet restriction, exercise etc.). Subjects at high risk of future hypertension e.g. the persons of hypertensive family and/or having high resting heart rate etc. show blood pressure hyper-responsiveness to stress. Elevated blood pressure due to sympathetic stimulation prevailed longer time in susceptible persons. In the present study sympathetic stimulation exerted through cold pressor test (hand immersion up to the wrist in 4 degrees C water) resulted in elevation of blood pressure and heart rate in all young male normotensive individuals (age 18-35 years, n=72). Nevertheless, blood pressure and heart rate returned to baseline, following 5 minutes of withdrawal of the stressor, in case of volunteers from normotensive families. On the other hand, the subjects whose parents, either or both were reported to be hypertensive showed elevated diastolic blood pressure even after 5 minutes of withdrawal of the said stressor- indicating that the autonomic nervous system in them was not competent enough for lowering the diastolic pressure quickly to baseline as observed in the volunteers from the normotensive families. The present study revealed that the young subjects who showed greater and prolonged responsiveness to diastolic blood pressure due to sympathetic stimulation through cold pressor test are prone to develop hypertension in future.