Best Life: Zapping away high blood pressure

Chapel Hill, N.C. (Ivanhoe Newswire) - High blood pressure is called a silent killer because nearly half of all adults in the US have it and many don’t even know it.

Most of the time, there are few, if any, symptoms.

For some, lifestyle changes like exercising, eating right and not smoking can help.

Medications are also available, but many come with side effects that some people cannot tolerate.

Now, a new FDA-approved procedure to lower blood pressure without any side effects.

Billy Mason’s farm has been flourishing for 17 years.

“I am an organic grower. I specialize in heirloom tomatoes that I own the domain tomatogod.com,” he said.

Not only enjoying the fruits of his labors outside, but inside as well.

“I love life and, you know, creating and growing things,” Mason said.

Nothing stops Billy, even though he’s lived with hypertension for the last 30 years. At times, he was taking up to eight medications.

“And then I had a blood pressure event that sent me to the ER,” Mason said.

Now people like Billy, who are either medication resistant or just tired of the side effects, have another option—renal denervation.

“In the people with high blood pressure, often there’s a lot of nerve traffic between the brain and the kidney,” said Rick Stouffer, MD, Interventional Cardiologist at UNC School of Medicine. “The brain is telling the kidney to hold on to sodium. The kidney is telling the brain to cause vasoconstriction. It’s like two teenagers going at it.”

Renal denervation works by modifying the nerve transmission between the head and the kidney.

“We put a catheter in through the femoral artery in the leg, go up to the kidney, modify the nerves on both sides,” said Stouffer.

Then ultrasound is used to disrupt the function of these nerves.

“And over time those nerves, the traffic is slowed down, blood pressure comes down,” said Stouffer.

It worked for Billy.

“I’m 73, still kicking it,” Mason said.

His blood pressure is lower and he’s back getting his hands dirty doing the things he loves.

Two renal nerve denervation devices have been approved by the FDA.

After the procedure, everything is removed, and the patient goes home the same day.

Side effects include a small risk of infection from inserting the catheter, but there is no damage to the artery and the risk is less than one percent.

Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Chuck Bennethum, Editor, Matt Goldschmidt.

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