No Age-Related Increase in BP for Yanomami Community

THURSDAY, Nov. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) — The Amerindian Yanomami community, which has no exposure to Western lifestyle, has no age-associated rise in blood pressure (BP), according to a research letter published online Nov. 14 in JAMA Cardiology.

Noel T. Mueller, Ph.D., M.P.H., from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues examined the age-BP association in two Amerindian communities: the Yanomami, who are among the least acculturated peoples in the world, and the Yekwana, who have been exposed to aspects of Western lifestyle. The sample included 72 Yanomami participants and 83 Yekwana participants aged 1 to 60 years.

The researchers found that Yanomami individuals had lower systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP; 95.4 versus 104.0 and 62.9 versus 66.1 mm Hg, respectively) over all ages combined. There was no difference in the age-SBP intercept between Yanomami and Yekwana, but the age-SBP slope was significantly steeper for Yekwana versus Yanomami individuals (0.26 mm Hg per year). The mean age-SBP slope was 0.00 and 0.25 mm Hg per year for the Yanomami and Yekwana individuals, respectively; similar associations were seen between age and DBP (−0.02 and 0.18 mm Hg, respectively). At age 10 years, mean SBP was 5.8 mm Hg higher in Yekwana individuals; the difference increased to 15.9 mm Hg by age 50 years.

“The rise in BP with age may not be natural but rather a consequence of unnatural Western exposures,” the authors write.

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