Does High Uric Acid Cause Hypertension?
High uric acid is commonly called hyperuricemia. For a long time, this has been known as a starting point for gout. Hyperuricemia often, but not always, lead to gout.
Scientists also suspect links between hyperuricemia and hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease. A recent study by Eswar Krishnan, and others, has looked at this possible connection in more detail.
The results of Hyperuricemia and Incidence of Hypertension Among Men Without Metabolic Syndrome have recently been published in the journal of the American Heart Association. This project studied over 3000 men with high uric acid, but normal blood pressure.
After 6 years, results showed that these men had, on average, much higher blood pressure readings than equivalent subjects without high uric acid levels. The results also showed that risk of hypertension increased as levels of uric acid increased.
The study conludes that there is a link between hyperuricemia and hypertension. It is not clear what this link is. The results are adjusted for obvious factors such as weight, but there may be some other factor that could explain the results.
Until we know what the link is, it is too early to confirm that hyperuricemia causes hypertension. However, common sense tells me that if there is a link, then anyone with high uric acid levels should arrange regular blood pressure tests.
Got a Sore Point?
Entries (RSS)
hi gud pm, my father in on allupurinol and is hypertensive..his pb now is normal but im so muh worried when he keeps on complaining for 8days already since his cardio check-up along wid his uric, that he’s experiencing numbness in his extremities and now on the face.