Spices and Hypertension: An Insight for Researchers

Author(s):  
Kavyanjana R. Nair ◽  
Arya V.S ◽  
Kanthlal S.K. ◽  
Uma Devi P.

: Hypertension is a global public health concern since it can lead to complications like stroke, heart disease and kidney failure. These complications can add to disability, increase healthcare costs and can even result in mortality. In spite of the availability of a large number of antihypertensive drugs, the control of blood pressure is suboptimal in many patients. Spices have been used as flavouring agent and to treat diseases in folk medicine since they are considered to be rich sources of phytochemicals especially polyphenols. Hence, during recent years there is renewed interest among researchers to explore natural sources, especially spices in an attempt to find cheaper alternatives with fewer side effects. Our aim is to review the relevant preclinical and clinical studies focused towards the potential use of spices in the management of hypertension. Studies conducted on the most common spices such as celery, cinnamon, cardamom, garlic, ginger, saffron, and turmeric, have been elaborated in this review. These spices may be lowering blood pressure via several possible mechanisms including antioxidant effect, increase in nitric oxide production, reduction in calcium ion concentration, modulation of renin angiotensin pathway etc.

Toxins ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasetti-Escargueil ◽  
Popoff

Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) is produced by the anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium Clostridium botulinum. As one of the most poisonous toxins known and a potential bioterrosism agent, BoNT is characterized by a complex mode of action comprising: internalization, translocation and proteolytic cleavage of a substrate, which inhibits synaptic exocytotic transmitter release at neuro-muscular nerve endings leading to peripheral neuroparalysis of the skeletal and autonomic nervous systems. There are seven major serologically distinct toxinotypes (A–G) of BoNT which act on different substrates. Human botulism is generally caused by BoNT/A, B and E. Due to its extreme lethality and potential use as biological weapon, botulism remains a global public health concern. Vaccination against BoNT, although an effective strategy, remains undesirable due to the growing expectation around therapeutic use of BoNTs in various pathological conditions. This review focuses on the current approaches for botulism control by immunotherapy, highlighting the future challenges while the molecular underpinnings among subtypes variants and BoNT sequences found in non-clostridial species remain to be elucidated.


Hypertension ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 1075-1083 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Azizi ◽  
Patrick Rossignol ◽  
Jean-Sébastien Hulot

Despite the availability of multiple antihypertensive drugs targeting the different pathways implicated in its pathophysiology, hypertension remains poorly controlled worldwide, and its prevalence is increasing because of the aging of the population and the obesity epidemic. Although nonadherence to treatment contributes to uncontrolled hypertension, it is likely that not all the pathophysiological mechanisms are neutralized by the various classes of antihypertensive treatment currently available, and, the counter-regulatory mechanisms triggered by these treatments may decrease their blood pressure–lowering effect. The development of new antihypertensive drugs acting on new targets, with different modes of action, therefore, remains essential, to improve blood pressure control and reduce the residual burden of cardiovascular risks further. However, the difficulties encountered in the conception, development, costs, and delivery to the market of new classes of antihypertensive agents highlights the hurdles that must be overcome to release and to evaluate their long-term safety and efficacy for hypertension only, especially because of the market pressure of cheap generic drugs. New chemical entities with blood pressure–lowering efficacy are thus being developed more for heart failure or diabetic kidney disease, 2 diseases pathophysiologically associated with hypertension. These include dual angiotensin II receptor-neprilysin inhibitors, soluble guanylate cyclase stimulators, nonsteroidal dihydropyridine-based mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, as well as sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors. However, centrally acting aminopeptidase A inhibitors and endothelin receptor antagonists have a dedicated program of development for hypertension. All these emergent drug classes and their potential use in hypertension are reviewed here.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Chen ◽  
Linlin Wang ◽  
Jianke Li ◽  
Guowei Shu

Hypertension has been rising health concern since it takes a major risk for cardiovascular disease. Synthetic antihypertensive drugs, including angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, effectively controls the high blood pressure but...


Author(s):  
Farhana Rahman ◽  
Nagasundaram Muthaiah ◽  
Krishna Prasanth ◽  
Arvind Singh ◽  
Uthra Satagopan ◽  
...  

Background : Hypertension is a global public health concern. Awareness and knowledge about the disease in a community collectively would allow adequate prevention, promote self-care practices, adherence to medication and ultimately effective management of hypertension. Aim: To ascertain the level of education associated with knowledge of hypertension and control of blood pressure. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey consisting of item questions about awareness and knowledge of hypertension. Hypertensive patients (n = 424) of both genders and more than 20 years of age were included in the study. Hypertensive patients were divided into two groups (school group and school pass-out group) to assess the level of knowledge. Chi-square test was performed to determine the assessment, and p-value < 0.05 were considered significant. Results: Out of 424 participants, 71.2% were school group and 28.7% school pass-out group. School pass-out group had significant knowledge about dangerous natural course of hypertension (p = 0.00069), hypertension can lead to death if untreated (p = 0.015), benefits of cessation of smoking (p = 0.03), advantage of limiting alcohol (p = 0.019) and performing regular exercise (p = 0.013) reduces blood pressure. School pass-out group had significant (p = 0.04) hypertension control compared to the school group. Conclusion: Educational status plays a vital role in increasing knowledge and improving the management of hypertension through better selfcare practices and strict adherence to medication. Community-based health education interventional programs targeting the lower socioeconomic group of a population would help to reduce the gap in awareness and effective control of hypertension.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei-Ke Zhang ◽  
Yuan Sun ◽  
Haolong Zeng ◽  
Qingxing Wang ◽  
Xiaming Jiang ◽  
...  

AbstractThe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has now spread to >200 countries posing a global public health concern. Patients with comorbidity, such as hypertension suffer more severe infection with elevated mortality. The development of effective antiviral drugs is in urgent need to treat COVID-19 patients. Here, we report that calcium channel blockers (CCBs), a type of antihypertensive drug that is widely used in clinics, inhibited the post-entry replication events of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro, while no in vitro anti-SARS-CoV-2 effect was observed for the two other major types of antihypertensive drugs, namely, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers. CCB combined with chloroquine showed a significantly enhanced anti-SARS-CoV-2 efficacy. A retrospective clinical investigation on hospitalized COVID-19 patients with hypertension as the only comorbidity revealed that the CCB amlodipine besylate therapy was associated with a decreased case fatality rate. The results from this study suggest that CCB administration to COVID-19 patients with hypertension as the comorbidity might improve the disease outcome.


2020 ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
M. G. Melnik

Purpose. To study the dynamics of blood pressure (BP) indicators under the influence of exogenously administered melatonin (Melatonin-SZ, Severnaya Zvezda, Russia) with various manifestations of desynchronosis of circadian BP rhythms (arterial hypertension – AH, high normal blood pressure) to determine the scheme of their effective compensation. Material and methods. The study included 101 patients with desynchronosis of circadian rhythms of blood pressure – 52 patients with hypertension, constituting the first and second groups, and 49 individuals with high normal blood pressure, representing the third and fourth groups. Patients of the second and fourth groups received conservative therapy, patients of the first and third groups combined it with melatonin. All patients underwent measurements of office blood pressure, home monitoring of blood pressure (ABPM), electrocardiography, 24-hour blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). Results and discussion. In patients of the first and third groups, compared with the traditional treatment groups, by the end of the observation period, a significantly (p < 0.05) decrease in office systolic blood pressure (SBP) / diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was established: in the first group compared with the second – 1.11 / 1.13 times, in the third group compared to the fourth – 1.43 / 1.58 times; significantly more (p < 0.05) pronounced decrease in SBP / DBP during DMAD – by 1.08 / 1.17 and 1.58 / 1.62 times, respectively, Significantly (p < 0.05) more pronounced decrease in average daily, average daily and average nighttime SBP / DBP during ABPM – by 1.13 / 1.20, 1.11 / 1.20, 1.23 / 1.25 and 1.47 / 1.31, 1.42 / 1.19, 1.54 / 1.41 times, respectively; reliably (p < 0.05) more frequent registration of the dipper rhythm type SBP / DBP – 1.6 / 1.4 and 1.6 / 1.4 times, respectively. In addition, the dynamics of patients in the first and third groups showed a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the mean daily and mean nighttime SBP / DBP variability (SBP in the first group by 27.3 and 41.3 %, respectively; DBP in the first group by 20.1 and 26.3 %, respectively; SBP in the third group by 13.5 and 25.2 %, respectively; DBP in the third group by 12.2 and 28.2 %, respectively). Conclusions. With various manifestations of desynchronosis of circadian rhythms of blood pressure (AH, high normal blood pressure), the prescription of melatonin (Melatonin-SZ, Severnaya Zvezda, Russia) at a dose of 3 mg per day 30–40 minutes before bedtime for a month against the background of non-drug therapy and antihypertensive drugs led to a significantly more effective decrease in blood pressure at its office measurement, DMAD, ABPM with an improvement in the circadian rhythm of blood pressure and normalization of blood pressure variability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 977-982
Author(s):  
Mohamed J. Saadh ◽  
Bashar Haj Rashid M ◽  
Roa’a Matar ◽  
Sajeda Riyad Aldibs ◽  
Hala Sbaih ◽  
...  

SARS-COV2 virus causes Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and represents the causative agent of a potentially fatal disease that is of great global public health concern. The novel coronavirus (2019) was discovered in 2019 in Wuhan, the market of the wet animal, China with viral pneumonia cases and is life-threatening. Today, WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. COVID-19 is likely to be zoonotic. It is transmitted from bats as intermediary animals to human. Also, the virus is transmitted from human to human who is in close contact with others. The computerized tomographic chest scan is usually abnormal even in those with no symptoms or mild disease. Treatment is nearly supportive; the role of antiviral agents is yet to be established. The SARS-COV2 virus spreads faster than its two ancestors, the SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), but has lower fatality. In this article, we aimed to summarize the transmission, symptoms, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and vaccine to control the spread of this fatal disease.


2016 ◽  
pp. 76-84
Author(s):  
Khoa Bao Chau Thai ◽  
Thi Hong Phuong Vo

Background: Hypertension is a common condition in the world as well as in Viet Nam. If hypertension isn’t treated well, it can cause many serious complications. Controlling target blood pressure will bring positive effects on reducing mortality rate and also disabilities caused by diseases related to hypertension. Objectives: (1) Analyzing the use of medicines in treating hypertension. (2) Evaluating the effects of medicine usage in treating hypertension at the hospital of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Materials and methods: 388 patients were diagnosed as having hypertension with inpatient care at the Cardiovascular Department of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy’s hospital, using cross-sectional descriptive study methods. Results: All antihypertensive drugs in the research were contained in the antihypertensive list recommended by Vietnamese Society of Cardiology. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor and calcium channel blocker were the two most popular drug groups (96.6% and 71.4%, respectively). The rate of using multi-therapy regimens was higher than the rate of using uni-therapy regimens in both initial therapies (64.7%>35.3%) and final therapies (61.9%>38.1%). The rate of patients having interactions between antihypertensive drugs and the other kinds of drugs was 7.5%. The rate of patients having reasonable prescriptions was 84.3%. Evaluating the effects of medicine usage in treatments showed that the rate of patients reaching target blood pressure before leaving the hospital was 67.3%. Most patients were evaluated as having good prognosis after treatment, up to 81.7%. Conclusions: All antihypertensive drugs in the research were contained in the antihypertensive list recommended by Vietnamese Society of Cardiology. The rate of using multi-therapy regimens was higher than the rate of using uni-therapy regimens. The rate of drug interactions was quite low; most patients were evaluated as having good prognosis after treatment. Key words: hypertension, antihypertensive drugs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document