Hypertension Can Increase Cancer Risk Exposure
Hypertension is a state where a person experiences an increase in blood pressure above normal or chronic (long periods). According to a recent study that people who has hypertension included in the group having a higher risk of cancer.
These findings said lead researcher Dr. Mieke Van Hemelrijck that will be poured in the 2011 European Congress Multidisciplinary. This research has involved approximately 289,454 men and 288,345 women and the analysis results show that people with hypertension, especially men have 10-20 percent higher risk of getting cancer.
Dr. Van Hemelrijck along with his team from the Cancer Epidemiology Group at King’s College London, UK has analyzed the relevant data regarding blood pressure, cancer incidence, and mortality risk in a prospective study that included seven groups of participants in Norway, Austria and Sweden. Having observed for approximately 12 years, it is known that as many as 22,184 men and 14,744 women have been diagnosed with cancer. Even the 8724 men and 4525 women die from the disease. Overall, the risk of cancer can increase by 29 percent in men.
The researchers also have found that there are some other complications of hypertension such as disease, oral cancer, colorectal, lung, bladder, kidney, melanoma and skin cancer increased in men. Increased cancer risk will also appear in women with hypertension, although not very significant. Increasing cases in women with hypertension appear to cases of liver cancer, pancreas, cervix, endometrium and melanoma.
The researchers adjusted their results by taking into account age, gender, body mass index, smoking and errors due to inaccuracy in the measurement of blood pressure.
Dr. Van Hemelrijck also said that as an observational study, this study could not demonstrate that hypertension is a major cause of the increased risk of cancer. He says that we can’t claim that there is a causal relationship between high blood pressure and cancer risk, nor can we say that the causes of cancer are factors associated with high blood pressure.
Dr. Van Hemelrijck also added that with a healthy lifestyle, including with enough physical activity and normal weight has been shown to reduce the number of chronic diseases. Hypertension is one risk factor for heart disease.
