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For a lot of people suffering from high blood pressure the only long-term solution is daily pills and regular monitoring by your physician with alterations to your dose or changes in your pills as required. So how much better would it be if you could simply be vaccinated against high blood pressure and do away with your daily pills?

Close to one in three Americans are presently suffering from high blood pressure but, because of the complex mixture of pills frequently required for treatment, only some one third of these people in fact have their blood pressure problem under control. Nonetheless, this might be set to change in the not too distant future.

In a trial carried out earlier this year 72 patients (7 women and 65 men with an average age of just over 51) who were suffering from mild or moderate high blood pressure were given a low dose (100 micrograms) vaccine, a high dose (300 micrograms) vaccine or a placebo. This injection was then repeated after four weeks and at the end of three months.

Two weeks after the last injection it was found that the high dose vaccine patients were showing a drop of more than 5 mm Hg in their higher systolic blood pressure and nearly 3 mm Hg in their diastolic blood pressure reading.

Possible more notable, it was also discovered that the normal, and sometimes dangerous, peek in pressure which occurs in the early morning between 5 am and 8 am was also down markedly by 25 mm Hg systolic and 13 mm Hg diastolic.

The trial patients all tolerated the vaccine without difficulty and there were no safety issues during the course of the trial.

So exactly how does this vaccine work?

Presently blood pressure is treated with a variety of drugs which are designed to act in different ways. Two of the classes of drugs often used are angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (such as Lotensin, Prinivil, Mavik, Monopril, Aceon, Capoten, Vasotec, Accupril and Zestril) and angiotensin-2 (AT-2) receptor blockers (such as Atacand, Micardis, Avapro, Cozaar and Teveten). In both cases these drugs work by blocking the action of a molecule which causes the blood vessels to constrict and consequently to increase the pressure within the blood vessels.

The vaccine used in the trial, which is known as CYT006-ANgQb, works in the same manner as these two existing drugs and so could clearly provide an alternative for those patients whose blood pressure is presently treated with ACE inhibitors or AT-2 receptor blockers.

But what about those patients whose pressure is currently being treated with the alternatives of beta blockers (such as Sectral, Blocadren, Kerlone, Toprol XL, Corgard, Cartol, Lopressor, Betapace, Inderal, Ziac, Tenormin and Zebeta) or calcium channel blockers (such as Norvasc, Procardia, Cardizem, Sular, Isoptin, Calan, Lotrel, Nimotop, Adalat, Vascor, Tiazac and Verelan)?

Of course, it is early days yet and additional studies will be necessary before we see a vaccine in general use to control high blood pressure. If the researchers are correct however it is likely that this vaccine will be effective for the majority of sufferers, whatever the treatment currently being given.

Only time will tell, however this is without doubt a very encouraging development.

This Healthcare article is provided by Articleteller - The Free Article Directory http://www.articleteller.com

TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information on a wide range of topics including finding the best home blood pressure monitor and high blood pressure

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