Refractory Hypertension and Kidney Failure: Focusing on the Social Determinants of Health

The role of dietary salt in metabolism and energy balance: Insights beyond cardiovascular disease

Dietary salt (NaCl) is essential to an organism's survival. However, today's diets are dominated by excessive salt intake, which significantly impacts individual and population health. High salt intake is closely linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially hypertension, through a number of well-studied mechanisms. Emerging evidence indicates that salt overconsumption may also be associated with metabolic disorders. In this review, we first summarize recent updates on the mechanisms of salt-induced CVD, the effects of salt reduction and the use of salt substitution as a therapy. Next, we focus on how high salt intake can impact metabolism and energy balance, describing the mechanisms through which this occurs, including leptin resistance, the overproduction of fructose and ghrelin, insulin resistance and altered hormonal factors. A further influence on metabolism worth noting is the reported role of salt in inducing thermogenesis and increasing body temperature, leading to an increase in energy expenditure. While this result could be viewed as a positive metabolic effect because it promotes a negative energy balance to combat obesity, caution must be taken with this frame of thinking given the deleterious consequences of chronic high salt intake on cardiovascular health. Nevertheless, this review highlights the importance of salt as a noncaloric nutrient in regulating whole-body energy homeostasis. Through this review, we hope to provide a scientific framework for future studies to systematically address the metabolic impacts of dietary salt and salt replacement treatments. In addition, we hope to form a foundation for future clinical trials to explore how these salt-induced metabolic changes impact obesity development and progression, and to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms that drive these changes, with the aim of developing novel therapeutics for obesity and CVD.

Effects of Carvedilol on Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, and Blood Lipids in Elderly Patients with Refractory Hypertension

Refractory hypertension seriously affects the life safety of patients. To investigate the effect of carvedilol combined with conventional antihypertensive therapy on blood pressure, blood sugar, blood lipids, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications in elderly patients with refractory hypertension, a total of 80 elderly patients with refractory hypertension who were admitted from June 2019 to September 2021 were selected as the retrospective research objects and divided into the observation group and the control group according to the random number table method, 40 cases in each group, and the control group received conventional antihypertensive therapy. On this basis, the observation group was treated with carvedilol, and the effects of blood pressure, blood sugar, blood lipids, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications were analyzed in the two groups. After treatment, the systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, adrenal medulla (AM), and endothelin (ET) of the observation group were significantly lower than those of the control group, but the heart rate and NO of the observation group were significantly higher than those of the control group. After treatment, the fasting blood glucose, insulin, triacylglycerol (TG), cholesterol (CHO), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) of the observation group were significantly higher than those of the control group, but the ISI and HDL-C of the observation group were significantly lower than those of the control group. After treatment, the levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, UAER, BUN, and SCr in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group. The TC of the observation group was lower than that of the control group. Combination therapy has a remarkably stable, sustained, and safe antihypertensive effect on patients with refractory hypertension.