Hypertension is a disease that not only implies a risk of damage to the heart and blood vessels of organs such as brain and kidneys, but can precede diabetes.
The relationship between these evils is not only due to common mechanisms, but the link that both establish with sugar, said Enrique Hong Chong, the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav).
The main mechanisms that generate hypertension in patients with a predisposition to present diabetes, is the hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system.
In addition, the hormonal system that helps regulate blood pressure, body volume, salt retention, and abdominal obesity, the scientist explained in a statement from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN).
"The popular belief that consuming salt in large quantities determines the increase in blood pressure is successful, but recent studies have shown that sugar is a risk factor, not only for diabetes, but also to shoot tension," he said.
The consumption of sugary drinks and bread treats increase blood pressure because nitric oxide concentrations decrease in blood, a substance that regulates the increase in the diameter of blood vessels and their absence contracts the arteries and increases the risk of arterial hypertension, he mentioned.
In diabetics that need insulin, hypertension usually diagnoses years after the beginning of the disease, once renal function begins to deteriorate.Meanwhile, in patients with metabolic syndrome the diagnosis of hypertension is done at the same time or even before diabetes, the academic said.
Hong Chong's investigation reveals that the administration of glucose or fructose in large quantities applied to rats increased the activity of the hormonal system that regulates blood pressure, which caused increased blood pressure, triglyceride elevation, and uric acid, indicationswhich are described as part of the metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and arterial hypertension, have oxidative stress, because from this there are substances where oxygen acts in harmful way by injuring various tissues.
"Despite being a change that happens for hours, if the consumption of sugars is continuous, a reinforcement in the body is generated to alter it," added Hong Chong.