Getting Blood Pressure Reading On A Smartphone?

Hypertension, or more commonly known as high blood pressure, is a growing worldwide problem. 45 percent of people in developed nations and 55 percent of people in developing nations have hypertension and do not even know it. Without appropriate control, hypertension can ultimately lead to heart disease, stroke and chronic kidney disease.

People with hypertension may not have any symptoms at all. So, the first step is to regularly check the blood pressure using sphygmomanometer or blood pressure monitor. The monitor can be manual or digital, battery-powered. The size of blood pressure monitor has been reduced since it was first made but they are still not small enough for users to carry around.

Good news is that, one can soon use a finger to touch a smartphone case to have instant and accurate blood pressure readings. Researchers from Michigan State University, University of Maryland, and Chonnam National University, Korea revealed in March 7, 2018 issue of ‘Science Translational Medicine’ that they developed a sensor that turns a smartphone into a device capable of checking a person’s blood pressure. Smartphones are very common nowadays, with 2.5-hour daily usage by average adult. The researcher argue that people are more apt to use a blood pressure monitor if it is embedded in a smartphone device.

According to researchers, they invented a special phone case, using high-tech 3-D printing, that contains an embedded optical sensor on top of a force sensor. The optical sensor is photoplethysmography (PPG), which is an inexpensive optical tool that measures blood volume changes, and the force sensor is a thin-filmed force transducer that measures applied pressure. PPG has already been used to measure heart rate. Some fitness trackers and even the Samsung Galaxy are equipped with PPG heart rate monitors.

When a user presses a finger onto the sensor, it provides measurable pressure on an artery in the finger in the same way that a blood pressure cuff squeezes an artery in the arm. That information is then fed to a smartphone app to convert the data to a real-time blood pressure reading, displayed on the phone. The usability of the device was tested on 30 people and found that about 90 percent could position their finger correctly and get consistent readings after only 1 or 2 attempts.

The new device could indeed help improve rates of blood pressure measurement, and lead to better blood pressure control so as to reduce the incidence of strokes and heart attacks. But as any other medical devices, more rigorous testing must be done before it can become standard and make available to the public for use.

Heart Disease Prevention - Excessive Salt Is Harmful Even Without Causing Hypertension

High intake of salt can, however, cause high blood pressure, which in turn would lead to other medical conditions, including heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease. Recent study warned that even if one does not develop high blood pressure from consuming too much salt, his or her blood vessels, heart, kidney and brain might still be damaged. Find out more at:

Heart Disease Prevention - Excessive Salt Is Harmful Even Without Causing Hypertension

Why Less White Rice Should Be Consumed?

I should cut down the consumption of white rice! That was the message I heard from my late father who was diagnosed with diabetes in his 40s. But he did not tell me why. Perhaps he thought I was too young to understand at that time. Anyway, I bore that message in my mind for all these years.

In a paper published on March 15, 2012 in the ‘British Medical Journal’ (BMJ), researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health reported that they found a link between higher consumption of rice and Type-2 diabetes.

The findings were the results of an analysis of 4 previously published studies, carried out in China, Japan, Australia and the United States. By following 350,000 people over a timescale from 4 to 22 years, researchers found that more than 13,000 people were found to develop Type-2 diabetes.

In the studies carried out in China and Japan, those who ate most rice were 55 percent more likely to develop the disease than those who ate least. The difference was, however, only 12 percent in the United States and Australia. Participants in the 2 Asian countries ate 3 or 4 servings of rice a day on average, compared to just 1 or 2 servings a week in the Western countries.

As the research was a meta-analysis of 4 original studies, the researchers admitted that they could not be 100 percent sure on what they had found, and their research did have some limitations, including lack of full details about what the volunteers ate in addition to rice.

Nevertheless, they did see a consistency across all these studies and there was biological plausibility highlighting the link between white rice consumption and Type-2 diabetes. Therefore, they suggested carrying out further study to gather more trial data in order to confirm their observations. Meanwhile, obesity and lack of exercise are also cited as the cause for Type-2 diabetes.

Being the most common form of diabetes, Type-2 diabetes is a disease in which high levels of sugar presented in the bloodstream either there is insufficient insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. When sugar builds up in the bloodstream instead of going into cells, it can lead to complications, including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, eye complications, and kidney disease.

Vitamin-B Therapy Benefit Diabetics?

Studies have shown that high doses of Vitamin-B do aid heart disease prevention. Meanwhile, many researchers also believed Vitamin-B therapy using folic acid, Vitamin B6, and Vitamin B12 could reduce diabetic kidney damage because Vitamin-B can help lower blood levels of homocysteine.

Homocysteine is an amino acid that induces clotting in the blood and damages the lining of arteries. It is also a strong risk factor for stroke and heart attack. Diabetics are known to have higher homocysteine levels, on average, than people without diabetes.

But, the findings of researchers from the University of Western Ontario and the Robarts Research Institute in London, Ontario seem to be quite different.

In their paper published in the April 28 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), they reported that patients with diabetic nephropathy might suffer rapid deterioration of their kidneys, if they were treated by high doses of Vitamin-B. They also pointed out that diabetics in addition to kidney function loss were affected by higher rates of heart attack and stroke than those who took a placebo.

Diabetic nephropathy is kidney disease or damage that is caused by a complication of diabetes. It affects the network of tiny blood vessels in the glomerulus, a structure in the kidney made of capillary blood vessels to filter blood.

To see whether Vitamin-B therapy would slow down the progression of diabetic nephropathy and prevent vascular events, the researchers conducted a clinical research in 238 patients with Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes. The placebo-controlled trial was conducted at 5 university medical centers in Canada between May 2001 and July 2007.

Patients were divided into 2 groups: one group received single tablet of Vitamin-B with folic acid (2.5 mg/d), Vitamin B6 (25 mg/d) and Vitamin B12 (1 mg/d) while the other group were prescribed with matching placebo.

After following the patients for an average period of 31.9 months, researchers found that those with Vitamin-B therapy had a faster reduction rate of kidney function, as compared with those who were on placebo treatment. In addition, those patients with diabetic nephropathy additionally had a higher rate of heart attack and stroke than patients who received placebo.

Would Vitamin Help Diabetics?

For people who are unable to get adequate amount of vitamins and minerals from their diet, taking vitamin supplements could be a feasible alternative to help them meet their nutrition requirements. The elderly, strict vegetarians, people on low-calorie diets and those that are malnourished are some good examples of this type of people.

How about diabetics? Would vitamin help control their condition? Most health organizations associated with diabetes do not advocate using vitamins. In fact, they usually warn against using large doses of vitamins or supplements, which could possibly cause adverse side effects.

In April 28, 2010 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers from the University of Western Ontario and the Robarts Research Institute in London, Ontario reported that patients with diabetic nephropathy would suffer rapid deterioration of the kidneys if treated with high doses of Vitamin B. Moreover, these patients are likely to face a higher risk of heart attack and stroke than patients who took a placebo.

Diabetic nephropathy is a progressive kidney disease because of longstanding diabetes mellitus, and it is a prime indication for dialysis in many Western countries. Even with the many treatments available right now, about 40 percent of the 21 million Americans who have diabetes still develop diabetic nephropathy.

Prior observational studies have shown that there is an association between high concentrations of plasma total homocysteine and the risk of developing diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy, and vascular diseases, including myocardial infarction and stroke. B-Vitamin therapy using folic acid, Vitamin-B6 and Vitamin-B12 is known to be capable of lowering the plasma concentration of homocysteine.

With an aim to developing a new approach to treatment, the researchers conducted a study to see if B-Vitamin therapy would actually slow progression of diabetic nephropathy and prevent vascular events in 238 patients with Type-1 or Type-2 diabetes. Meanwhile, the placebo-controlled trial was carried out at 5 university medical centers in Canada between May 2001 and July 2007.

Patients were prescribed with single tablet of B-Vitamins with folic acid (2.5 mg/d), Vitamin-B6 (25 mg/d), and Vitamin-B12 (1 mg/d), or matching placebo. After an average period of 31.9 months, patients with Vitamin-B were found to have a faster rate of reduction of kidney filtering and so the kidney function, as compared with those on a placebo course. For patients with the diabetic nephropathy, the risk of heart attack and stroke were also higher than those who took placebo.

Obesity Cannot Be Blamed for Bad Health?

Obesity or overweight has long been linked to medical disorders like diabetes that could eventually lead to heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke, or kidney disease. Evidence also showed that certain types of cancer are associated with weight gain.

The evidence linking obesity to diabetes and cardiovascular disease is very strong and it is known that Type-2 diabetes seldom occurs in people who are not obese or overweight.

Based on the standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO), a person who has a body mass index (BMI) of above 25 is considered overweight and those with BMI exceeding 30 are obese. BMI is defined as weight in kilos divided by the square of height in meters.

However, not all health experts agree on the arguments mentioned above. Instead, a minority of health experts, who are termed as the obesity contrarians, argue that there is no data proving why being fat would be dangerous. To them, being obese is not as severe a threat as is thought. They felt that the obesity epidemic has been absolutely been exaggerated.

A political science professor even claimed that there is no good causal connection between obesity and bad health. According to his opinion, blaming obesity for diabetes and heart attacks is like blaming lung cancer on bad health rather than on smoking. He explained that since other factors such as diet, exercise or genetic predispositions towards diseases are harder to measure than weight.

Other skeptics also criticize the over-projection on the rise in obesity. For example, the British government warns that nearly half of the Britain’s population will be obese by 2050. The skeptics believe that these projections are not based on good evidence because those who are obese are often lumped together with those who are overweight. To them, people, who are overweight, may be perfectly healthy.

It is true that people, who are thin, can get diabetes, hypertension, stroke and even heart disease while people, who are fat, are apparently healthy. Nevertheless, until health experts could derive sound evidence to prove that obesity is definitely bad for health, there will still be some obesity contrarians out there to advocate otherwise.

What do you think?

Would Higher Intake of Vitamin-D Reduce Mortality Rate?

There is no doubt that Vitamin-D is good for our health. Recent research (February 2009) from Johns Hopkins University even suggested that the likelihood of dying could well be reduced by consuming higher amounts of Vitamin-D!

Studies have found that people who had a deficiency in Vitamin-D would have a 26 percent higher chance of dying, and Vitamin-D would reduce the mortality rate from almost every type of cancer including breast, colon and prostate. Meanwhile, research also indicated that Vitamin-D would help prevent heart disease, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease.

In fact, a doctor of internal medicine in United States did find 80 percent of his patients lacked Vitamin-D to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus in their body. He regularly screened his patients during examinations by a simple blood test, which could check for levels that should remain at 30 nanograms per milliliter or more.

In general, people with insufficient amount of Vitamin-D may have muscle pain or a feeling of achiness. Those who have severe and long-term deficiency of Vitamin-D would eventually lead to rickets, which refers to softening or weakening of the bones.

Although sunlight does help our body produce Vitamin-D, long hours of exposure in direct sunlight would actually raise the risk of skin cancer. As such, doctors usually recommend people who are short for Vitamin-D to take food and supplements to make up the deficiency.

The recommended amount by the United States Department of Agriculture is 200 International Units (IU) per day for people up to the age of 50. Nevertheless, most health experts felt that the correct amount should be at least 400 IU.

People are advised to take supplements and eat more foods rich in Vitamin-D. For example, an 8-ounce glass of fortified milk contains about 100 IUs of Vitamin-D. Other foods like salmon and tuna, fortified cereals, nuts, orange juice and dairy products are all rich in Vitamin-D. Meanwhile, people can also take supplements that are rich in Vitamin-D3 such as cholecalciferol.

Are You Having High Blood Pressure Without Knowing It?

High blood pressure is also known as hypertension. It has been found by previous research that people with high blood pressure will be at a higher risk of getting heart disease, kidney disease, stroke and dementia.

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), high blood pressure is defined as being 140 over 90 mm of mercury or more. Mercury is the fluid used in the blood pressure gauges. The first number (140 mm), known as systolic, measures maximum heart pressure while the second (90 mm), known as diastolic, measures pressure when heart is in a resting phase (diastolic).

Many people who already have hypertension are just not aware of the condition. In fact, a recent study by Warwick Medical School in Britain and other institutes in Europe reported that more than half of people in 3 European countries who were diagnosed with high blood pressure did not know they had the condition. In addition, half of those who were aware that they had hypertension had managed to have their problems under control.

The findings were published in the International Society of Hypertension's Journal of Hypertension on November 12, 2008.

1,604 persons from Southwest London, Limburg in Belgium and Abruzzo in Italy, who participated in the study, answered questions regarding healthcare and lifestyle habits.

24 percent of the participants were found to have high blood pressure, yet only 44 percent of them were aware of their condition. Among these people, less than half had reduced their blood pressure to below 140 over 80 mm of mercury, the widely accepted benchmark of health.

According to the researchers, management of hypertensive problem is considered better in Britain than in many other European countries, partly because doctors in Britain have incentives to help patients reach targeted blood pressure. However, the incidence of high blood pressure is still rising, as too many patients are still not adequately treated.

How Adma Is Linked To Heart Risk in Diabetics?

Adma is the abbreviation for asymmetric dimethylarginine. It is a naturally occurring component of human blood plasma, and it can inhibit a compound that is capable of dilating blood vessels.

Diabetes has been identified as a risk factor for heart disease. A recent study by Steno Diabetes Center, Gentofte, Denmark found that people with Type-1 diabetes and kidney disease are at higher risk of heart-related events and progressive kidney disease because of the high blood levels of Adma.

In fact, previous research has already shown that high blood levels of Adma do reduce the ability of the blood vessels to widen, and this would lead to an increased risk of heart and blood vessel disease.

In the new study, researchers investigated how the value of Adma could be related to heart and kidney events in 397 Type-1 diabetic patients with diabetic kidney disease and 175 diabetic controls without kidney disease.

For patients with diabetics with kidney disease, those with Adma levels above the median were more likely (43.4 percent) to suffer a fatal or nonfatal major cardiovascular event such as heart attack than those with Adma levels below the median (19.4 percent).

Moreover, patients with Adma levels above the median also experienced a faster decline in their kidney function than those with lower Adma levels. Meanwhile, the researchers also indicated that patients with higher Adma levels were 3.2 times more likely to develop end-stage renal disease (the most advanced form of kidney disease) than those with lower levels of Adma.

The overall mortality was found to be 67 percent higher for patients with higher Adma levels than those with lower Adma levels.

If other future studies could also confirm similar finding, then Adma might be used by doctors to identify relevant Type-1 diabetic who are at particularly high risk of adverse heart and kidney-related events.

How To Save Some 2,000 Lives Each Year?

Why is British government willing to spend a huge amount of money for a national program of vascular checks for some 3 million people a year? Let us look at the statistics.

Every year, vascular diseases kill 170,000 people in England. Conditions such as stroke, diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease affect the lives of 4.1 million people and account for a fifth of all hospital admissions. According to the government estimates, earlier detection by health screening could actually prevent up to 9,500 heart attacks and strokes, and thus save the lives of 2,000 every year. Therefore, setting a national program of vascular checks is compelling.

On April 1, 2008, the Health Secretary of England announced a free health-screening program for people aged between 40 and 74 for the identification of those who are at risk of vascular diseases. This program, to be introduced in the 2009-2010 financial year, would cost the government 250 million pounds including any aftercare that results from the tests. The government believes that the benefits of a healthier population far outweigh the upfront costs. The program, when operational fully, aims to check 3 million people a year with a recall every 5 years.

Presently, only around a fifth of adults have the checks that cover cholesterol level, weight relative to height, blood pressure and smoking record. Those who are at risk will be given advice on lifestyle changes, such as stopping smoking and doing more exercise. In addition, those whose health is most seriously threatened will also be given medication.

In order to cover all parts of the population, including those most deprived, the government plans to offer the health checks in community centers, pharmacies and doctors' surgeries.

Though such program does draw some doubts in terms of its effectiveness, most still feel that the program would have positive results.