Shallow breather? Look for hypertension.Shallow breather? Look for hypertension Take a deep breath. Now exhale exhale /ex·hale/ (eks´hal) to breathe out. ex·hale v. 1. To breathe out. 2. To emit a gas, vapor, or odor. , pushing out every last bit of air you can. The larger the volume of air forced from your lungs, the lower your chance of developing hypertension. That's the conclusion drawn from a major new study showing that "forced vital capacity forced vital capacity n. Abbr. FVC Vital capacity measured with subject exhaling as rapidly as possible. forced vital capacity, n a measure of the maximum rate of exhalation. " -- a measure of how much air a person can breathe into and out of the lungs -- cosntitutes as strong an independent predictor of hypertension risk as any ever identified, says Joseph V. Selby of the Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care organization, based in Oakland, California, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney R. Garfield. (KP) Medical Care Program in Oakland, Calif. Selby's team identified 26,429 health-plan members who had undergone at least two "multiphasic" exams (KP's periodic comprehensive physicals, including a detailed questionnaire) and whose blood pressure tested normal in the first exam some 18 to 25 years ago. Of this group, aged 30 to 49 at the first multiphasic exam, 1,031 became hypertensive hypertensive /hy·per·ten·sive/ (-ten´siv) 1. characterized by increased tension or pressure. 2. an agent that causes hypertension. 3. a person with hypertension. by age 55. From the same starting population of 26,429, the researchers then selected a demographically matched sample of 1,031 men and women who did not develop hypertension by age 55. In comparing the two groups' medical records and multiphasic exam results, they found that forced vital capacity and blood levels of uric acid uric acid (y  r`ĭk), white, odorless, tasteless crystalline substance formed as a result of purine degradation in man, other primates, dalmatians, birds, snakes, and lizards. , a breakdown product of nucleic acid metabolism Nucleic acid metabolism is the process by which nucleotides are synthesized and degraded. Nucleic acid synthesis is an anabolic mechanism generally involving chemical reaction of phosphate, pentose sugar, and nitrogen base. , emerged as two of of hypertension's most predictive risk factors. The 20 percent whose initial uric acid levels were highest proved more than twice as likely to develop hypertension as the 20 percent with the lowest uric acid levels, the researchers report in the June AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY epidemiology, field of medicine concerned with the study of epidemics, outbreaks of disease that affect large numbers of people. Epidemiologists, using sophisticated statistical analyses, field investigations, and complex laboratory techniques, investigate the cause . And the 20 percent with the lowest lung capacity were 4.5 times more likely to become hypertensive than the 20 percent with the greatest lung capacity--even after the investigators accounted for recognized risk factors such as smoking, obesity, family history, adult weight gain and serum cholesterol. In fact, Selby says, these two factors are so "strikingly large" that they "suggest the possibility of a causal association," though he admits "we haven't a clue" to how they relate to hypertension. |
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