by Renneth Grey

Created on: October 15, 2008

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is another disease that plagues many Americans in the 21st century. According to the University of Maryland Medicare Center, "50 million Americans are affected with high blood pressureone in four adults." This has led many pharmaceutical companies to study this disease. One such company is The Clinical Trial Center located in Jenkintown, PA.

Clinical Trial Research Center Study Coordinator, Peter Pressman mentions that, "hypertension is known as the silent killer. If it goes untreated, hypertension has the ability to blow out the kidneys, due to the amount of pressure on the body."

One of the leading groups of people that are suffering from hypertension is African Americans. Medical news writer Juliette Savin in her article Higher blood pressure among African Americans indicated that, "44% percent of African Americans have high blood pressure."

Based on research, "I think African Americans have a higher rate of hypertension due to a few reasons. Some of them are genetics, access to treatment, and diet. This makes the studying hypertension within this demographic very complex," says Study Coordinator Pressman.

While many are able to accept social economics disparities and diet as the cause of the hypertension phenomenon among blacks, some find genetics debatable. A team of medical professional from the Loyola University School of Medicine in Illinois, "compared standardized surveys of blood pressure from black populations in Nigeria, Jamaica, and US, and white populations of Canadaand 5 European countries. The study showed that there is a wide variation in the prevalence of hypertension with both racial groups when viewed internationally. In populations of African origin it ranges from 14%-44%, while in white populations it goes from 27% to 55%," says Medical news writer Savin in her article.

Researchers from other medical institutions found evidence supporting the possibility of genetics contributing to hypertension. Washington School of Medicine Gwen Erison wrote an article entitled Hypertension in African Americans linked to two genomic regions.Erison mentions that researches were able to find, "the excess African Ancestry among the people with chromosome 6 and one on chromosome 32 that stood out the strongest in association to high blood pressure in African Americans."

Study Coordinator Pressman supports this saying, "genetics is one of the difficult aspects of the hypertension." This should come at no surprise because genetics unchangeable. While Pressman does believe that genetics plays a role in hypertension he also believes that socio-economic and diet contributes to hypertension as well.

In many African American communities nation wide the access to fast food is widespread. Due to income status among people in the African American community fast food is often the preferred lifestyle. "At Mc Donald's you can go and get a whole meal for $5, whereas at the supermarket you can barely get anything for the same amount," says Pressman.

Socio-economic factors also play a role in African Americans of low income obtaining treatment for hypertension. "When I was a nurse at Temple University Hospital, many of the patients did not have access to a doctor or medicine. As a result of this, their hypertension went untreated. Here, at this Clinical Trial center we provide patients free available treatment and medical attention regardless of ailment," says Study Coordinator Pressman.

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