
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 4, 1992                   TAG: 9203040152
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Medium

WEIGHT LOSS CITED FOR HYPERTENSION STUDY ALSO NOTES SALT-CUTBACK BENEFITS

Stress management and dietary supplements such as calcium aren't effective in lowering borderline high blood pressure, but reducing weight and salt consumption are, according to the largest study of its kind.

Forty million to 70 million Americans have "high normal" blood pressure of the type analyzed in the study, said the lead author, Dr. Paul K. Whelton of Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

People with high-normal blood pressure have an increased likelihood of developing high blood pressure, or hypertension, an important contributor to strokes, heart disease and kidney failure.

Whelton said the study of 2,132 subjects examined seven treatments that had been thought to be helpful. The subjects were divided into groups of 175 to 417 and given one of the treatments.

"We're able to say at the end of 18 months that weight loss and sodium restriction seem to be the winners," he said.

The other approaches were clearly ineffective, he said, adding that previous studies have been too small to determine whether such interventions were effective. The other approaches were stress management, including relaxation training and stress avoidance, and the dietary supplements calcium, magnesium, potassium and fish oil.

Dr. David McCarron of the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, citing other studies, said he did not think the new study would end the debate over salt and dietary supplements.

But Dr. Thomas G. Pickering, of the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, agreed with Whelton.

"There may be subgroups of patients who will respond" to stress management and dietary supplements, he said in an editorial accompanying the study, published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

by CNB