Compensation is not a Cure: an Example Involving Blood Pressure

Near the entire corpus of present day medicine for age-related disease, even the comparatively successful treatments, is essentially compensatory in nature. It fails to address in any meaningful way the underlying causes of aging and disease. "Comparatively successful" is presently measured against doing nothing, rather than against the goal of a cure, of controlling the aging process. By that latter standard, there is no such thing as successful medicine for age-related disease. Yet. The research noted here is one small demonstration of the point that compensatory efforts fail because they do not address the root causes of the problem: the underlying pathology marches on, overwhelms the bounds of possible compensatory efforts, and patients decline and die as a result. Blood pressure rises with age because blood vessels stiffen, because of persistent cross-links in the extracellular matrix, and because of calcification encouraged by the presence of senescent cells, and because of related dysfunctions in the signaling mechanisms that coordinate vascular contractions and reactions to pressure. Current pharmaceuticals that do reliably lower blood pressure do nothing for the roots of the issue. Hypertension affects about 40% of those aged over 25 and is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney failure. An interdisciplinary group of scientists found that conventional medication aimed at reducing high blood pressure restored normal vascular rhythms o...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs