(RxWiki News) Doctors have known for a while that people with high levels of uric acid can also have high blood pressure.
Researchers recently compiled data taken from 18 studies and set out to establish if excessive uric acid can cause high blood pressure. Elevated uric acid frequently leads to gout.
"High uric acid levels can lead to high blood pressure."
Peter Grayson MD, a rheumatologist at the Boston Medical Center and lead investigator, explains that the results of this study showed that people with elevated uric acid levels are at an increased risk for the future development of high blood pressure.
This does not mean that uric acid alone elevates blood pressure. It may mean, though, that drugs used to treat high uric acid may be able to prevent high blood pressure or lower high blood pressure once present.
The researchers found that participants in this multiple study review with high uric acid were 40 percent more likely to develop high blood pressure than participants without high uric acid.
Study participants most likely to have high uric acid develop into high blood pressure were women, blacks, and people who developed high levels of uric acid earlier in their lifetimes.
The Study
- Searched major electronic databases using specific medical terms associated with hyperuricemia and high blood pressure and evaluated hypertension studies that measured the impact of serum uric acid levels data from 55,607 participants, which included 13,025 participants with high blood pressure
- Conducted analysis of 18 studies lasting at least a year and composed of at least some participants in each study who did not have high blood pressure at the beginning of the study in which they participated
