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HealthDay Reporter

Insomnia is nobody's friend,but new research indicates thatthose with high blood pressurewho struggle to get enoughsound sleep are twice as likely tohave a resistant case of hyper-tension as those who sleep well.

Studying more than 230 pa-

tients with hypertension, scien-tists from the University of Pisain Italy also found that womenscored far higher than men onmeasures of poor sleep quality,and most participants slept sixor fewer hours per night. Theparticipants had an average ageof 58.

"There are a number of stud-ies demonstrating a relationshipbetween hypertension risk andinsomnia and short sleep dura-tion, but no one correlated poor

sleep quality with hypertensionseverity [before]," said study au-thor Rosa Maria Bruno, a doc-toral student and research

fellow at the Institute of ClinicalPhysiology-National Council ofResearch in Pisa.

"The results ... suggest thatinsomnia in resistant hyperten-sive patients, particularlywomen, could be clinically rele-vant not only for quality of lifebut also for cardiovascularhealth and should not be disre-garded," she added.

The study is scheduled to bepresented Friday at the Ameri-can Heart Association's HighBlood Pressure Research meet-ing in Washington, D.C.

About 75 million Americanshave diagnosed high blood pres-sure, with 50 million takinganti-hypertensive drugs. Butmedications don't sufficientlycontrol the condition a majorrisk factor for heart disease in20 percent to 30 percent of thosecases, according to the heart as-

sociation.High blood pressure is consid-ered resistant if patients aretaking three or more hyperten-

sion medications but still logblood pressure readings higherthan 140/90 mmHg.

Although short sleep durationwas highly prevalent in all studyparticipants, women were foundto suffer disproportionately frompoor sleep quality and depres-sive symptoms. About 12 per-cent of participants hadexperienced previous cardiovas-cular events, while 8 percenthad diabetes and 15 percentwere smokers.

Bruno said the research didn'tanalyze potential reasons whybad sleep may lead to resistanthypertension and didn't es-tablish a cause-effect relation-ship between the two but thatsleep and cardiovascular disor-ders are tightly linked. Sleepproblems also are related to obe-sity and diabetes, which con-tribute to resistance toblood-pressure-lowering drugs,she said.

"We can't exclude that livingwith a chronic disease, like re-sistant hypertension, may act asa chronic stressor, causing dis-ruption of sleep," Bruno said.

Dr. Balu Gadhe, an internalmedicine specialist with Care-More Medical Group in Cerri-tos, Calif., said the researchhighlights the need for goodsleep habits, including gettingregular exercise to promotepeaceful slumber.

"We are all wired up in day-to-day life, where we have mul-tiple stressors in our lives. Our

body reacts to those stressorsby releasing hormones ... andother chemicals into our bodiesthat make the organs workharder," he said. "If we're notgetting good sleep, we're notgetting rest for those organs,

and eventually, they'll start mal-functioning. That's the bottomline, and the only way to do it isnot just by getting enough hoursof sleep but good quality sleep."

Research presented at scien-tific meetings has not been peer-

reviewed or published, so resultsshould be considered prelimi-nary.

More information:A list of the top 10 things to

know about resistant hyperten-sion can be found at the Ameri-can Heart Association.

SOURCES: Rosa MariaBruno, Ph.D. student, Univer-sity of Pisa, and research fellow,Institute of Clinical Physiology,National Council of Research,Pisa, Italy; Balu Gadhe, M.D.,internal medicine specialist,CareMore Medical Group, Cerri-tos, Calif.; Sept. 21, 2012, pres-entation, American HeartAssociation High Blood PressureResearch meeting, Washington,D.C.

Last Updated: Sept. 21, 2012Copyright 2012 HealthDay.

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