Thanks to an expensive and extended PR campaign, most Americans know that blood pressure is an important indicator of their cardiovascular health. Higher is not better. But a new survey Web-published recently discovered that 75% of adults with high blood pressure are not at all familiar with another "number" that may be even more important in determining their chances of a stroke or heart attack. Only one in four has any inkling of the function and critical role of the body's renin system, even though 89% of those surveyed told the pollsters they wanted to understand what was causing their high blood pressure. Medical News Today reported the survey results.
Many things impact blood pressure. And lower BP isn't always better, though the greater public health risk is the high and rising number of people with above-normal BP. Salt is among those factors. So is renin. Renin? That's what three-fourths the respondents said. Only 2% said they were very familiar with the role the renin system plays in their body, though one quarter (25%) consider themselves at least somewhat familiar. Ominously, even after respondents were given descriptions about the role the renin system plays in the body, only 23% were able to correctly describe it (by regurgitating the information they had just received. No wonder so many people uncritically embrace the proposition that lowering dietary salt will improve their health. They just don't understand what's going on in their bodies.
Renin is a key regulator of BP. It's a proteolytic enzyme produced in the kidney that plays a major role in the release of angiotensin which the body secrets to tighten up blood vessels to keep BP up if the body senses it is falling to an unhealthy level. Many anti-hypertensive drugs block renin activity.
Renin levels are associated with a 430% increase in heart attack incidence according to a study published back in 1989. Fifteen years earlier, the foremost investigator into renin's role, Dr. John Laragh, landed on the cover of Time magazine for his pioneering work. But that was more than 30 years ago and the government's PR blitz on salt has buried those insights.
What does this have to do with salt? Salt reduction triggers elevated levels of renin. Didn't read that on the NHLBI website, huh? It's true. Reducing intakes of dietary sodium prompts the kidneys put crank up their production of renin, increasing your odds of a heart attack. The government knows this (I personally notified FDA Commissioner David Kessler back in 1989), but it's another "inconvenient truth" it prefers to ignore. It is one of the "unintended consequences" of salt reduction that, in sum total, negate any health benefit of lowering dietary salt to reduce BP.
Well, now at least you can add yourself to the 23% who are at least "somewhat familiar" with the crucial BP role of renin.
The survey was sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and conducted by Harris Interactive. It included more than 2,400 US adults ages 18+ of whom more than 700 reported elevated blood pressure. In releasing survey results, RealAge.com declared: "The results of this survey reinforce the need for education, particularly around the renin system. Targeting the renin system is a key to regulating blood pressure. Our hope is that by helping the public better understand the physiology of high blood pressure, we can motivate those with the condition to adapt a healthier lifestyle and ask their physicians about treatment options that target a key source of blood pressure."
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