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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTop Virus Doctor Says High Blood Pressure Is Major Death Risk
March 9, 2020, 11:00 AM
Patients with hypertension appear to be at a higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, said a top Chinese intensive care doctor whos been treating critically ill patients since mid-January.
While theres been no published research yet explaining why, Chinese doctors working in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus first emerged, have noticed that infected patients with that underlying illness are more likely to slip into severe distress and die.
Of a group of 170 patients who died in January in Wuhan -- the first wave of casualties caused by a pathogen thats now raced around the world -- nearly half had hypertension.
Thats a very high ratio, said Du Bin, director of the intensive care unit at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, in an interview with Bloomberg over the phone from Wuhan. He was among a team of top doctors sent to the devastated city two months ago to help treat patients there.
Snip
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-life-sciences/top-virus-doctor-says-high-blood-pressure-is-major-death-risk
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)flamingdem
(39,303 posts)Is anyone minding the store? Perhaps lack of ventilators lead to the deaths of in Washington.
=== snip
Move Aggressively to Ventilate
Du said that doctors should not hesitate to escalate measures for patients facing respiratory distress, as organ failure can set in quickly after. That means doctors should intervene aggressively with invasive ventilation measures -- inserting a tube into a patients throat or cutting the throat open to create an airway -- when low blood oxygen levels cant be improved by less invasive measures.
Almost half of the patients who require invasive mechanical ventilation end up dying, but most of those who recover are those who were put on invasive ventilation early, said Du.
Patients need to use invasive ventilation as early as possible, theres no point of doing it late, he said.
Respiratory therapists -- doctors that specialize in ventilation and oxygen treatment -- are becoming all the more important in treating patients critically ill with Covid-19 as they are more knowledgeable and can fine-tune ventilators to suit patient conditions.
wishstar
(5,267 posts)compounding the shortage right now
Wounded Bear
(58,437 posts)JIT philosophies don't work well in medicine. When the fertilizer hits the ventilator, we run out of ventilatiors fast.
LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)the lungs can't do it. Interesting approach.
Igel
(35,191 posts)The treatment for the respiratory distress is "low tidal volume" ventilation, which means that you don't push in a lot of air at a time. Instead, it's more frequent and with smaller volumes. And they're also saying that the O2 level has to be very high, not normal atmospheric partial pressures. More like 90%, if not nearly pure O2.
The disease doesn't just keep the lungs from filling with air. It coats and blocks the alveoli, keeping the lungs from transferring O2 to the bloodstream.
Hypertension may weaken the lung tissue or it may just increase osmotic pressure and lead to more fluid buildup in the lungs. Or maybe there's something else going on.
brewens
(13,393 posts)It took massive weight loss and about a year of torture but I got it down.
LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)I still worry. A hell of a time too be a life long introvert.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,786 posts)He doesn't have an introvert bone in his body, not even an introvert bone spur.
He is incapable of introspection.
yonder
(9,631 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,437 posts)womanofthehills
(8,579 posts)Semi fasting also works. Do not eat anything after dinner till noon the next day. Works for me. The nitrates in beet juice dilate your blood vessels within the hr. Also, natto, thins the blood if you can stand to eat it. You can get pills. When I got bitten by a rattler, the toxins thinned my blood big time and I had the lowest blood pressure in my life - for a few months.
Wounded Bear
(58,437 posts)Not sure about beets, but I don't do a lot (or any really) of juices because of the sugar content.
Mainly sticking with trying to eat right and get more exercise. Not that I'm a gym rat, but I'm doing the daily walk thing and some light lifting for toning.
Work in process. Oh, and I'm already on meds for all of that shit.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,450 posts)I lost 50 pounds maybe more by now. I'm diabetic too and my BP is really good sometimes a little low but I take a dose a lot lower now.
Know I'm in a risky group.
If I catch it will do my best to heal from it, If I don't heal and I die oh well,at least I really did what I could and fought it.
Phoenix61
(16,951 posts)That takes a lot of self-discipline.
tavernier
(12,322 posts)with hypertension who is taking it.
tblue37
(64,979 posts)previous "good" insurance and my current Medicare, I am still trying out different meds, none of which does a good, or even a fair, job of controlling my BP.
When I started on the effective med, it was just $30/month; now it's over $200. I have tried the generic version, and it has no effect at all on my BP.
I am 69 years old---and so screwed.
LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)Look up you med and see what it says about taking with food. It does make a lot of difference if it says to take with a meal or right after.
tblue37
(64,979 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)tblue37
(64,979 posts)in, she did add a diuretic to the meds I am currently on.
LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)Ilsa
(61,675 posts)and other cheap blood pressure meds super-cheap or even free.
Not everyone can take lisinopril. Some people develop a dry cough and must discontinue it. Thankfully, there are numerous antihypertensives that are effective and inexpensive.
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)It was so bad for me I had to switch to Losartan.
yonder
(9,631 posts)mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Side effects seem minimal apart from a lot of peeing. It does work, too.
90 day supply is like $23 but not sure how much of that is my Insurance picking it up.
wryter2000
(46,016 posts)I'm currently on librarian and some other drugs. There are probably dozens of BP drugs. I hope you find a good one.
tavernier
(12,322 posts)Works like a charm.
tblue37
(64,979 posts)Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)The virus is most fatal in older people. Older people are more likely than young to have hypertension. As Dr. Bin noted, there is no published research on this correlation, and without experimental controls it is difficult to say whether hypertension is a causal factor or just coincidence.
still_one
(91,946 posts)necessary
Fiendish Thingy
(15,366 posts)Im 62, and doc put me on Ramipril.
He said he doesnt consider me to be in high risk group for COVID.
For what its worth.
Remember, China has a high rate of smokers - these folks could have had hypertension along with other respiratory conditions, and were heavy smokers.
mainer
(12,013 posts)If you are hypertensive but your BP is controlled by medications, are you still high risk? Or is it simply patients who have untreated hypertension?
Igel
(35,191 posts)If you're hypertensive and your blood pressure is normal because of meds, "hypertensive" doesn't describe your state it puts you in a category.
I'd assume it's the physiological state that's at issue, not the predisposition or state you'd revert to.
mainer
(12,013 posts)I am treated and now normotensive, but it will ALWAYS be on my diagnosis list.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)No way of knowing if it's the 'state' of actually having high blood pressure, or if it's really the inherent problems that lead to HBP ... that are detrimental to surviving the disease. I could easily see either being true, honestly. Or both ...
wryter2000
(46,016 posts)I developed allergies to two BP meds, but some others got it under control.
And they're unloading that ship where I live...Oakland
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)rainin
(3,010 posts)puts high risk people at greater risk. When you shake the hand of an older person, or move within a meter of that person, or touch a surface they will subsequently touch, you could be causing their exposure, illness, and death. No one knows if another has a high risk profile. Young people should be warned to take precautions to protect others, to look out for everyone because anyone can be at risk. Unfortunately, a huge segment of the population cares only about themselves.
Richard D
(8,692 posts)In the USA, the average intake is 3.4 gms. Considered high.
In China it's 10.5 gms.
Shrike47
(6,913 posts)Pregnancy did me in. Anyway, if I stay away from my cardiologist and just see the nurse practitioners my BP is much better.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)if there is a survival difference (from coronavirus infection) between people whose high blood pressure is controlled by drugs (as mine is) and those who are untreated for this condition.
LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)My BP goes up when I am talking (using a long of air). I have to tell nurses I can't talk while they are check my bp. Maybe people with normally moderate or high BP have their BP go really high when their breathing is restricted by the lung problems. Whereas those that have low BP like the young have their BP go up but not to the extreme like the older patients do.
Just a guess.. Not a MD, just a professional patient at times.