Ongoing Studies Material found on the MCG Web is for informational purposes only, not medical advice. We regret that we cannot respond to personal or general health questions. If information presented here seems pertinent to your situation, please seek help from a qualified health care professional near you. The enzyme that controls nitric oxide, a short-lived but essential gas that relaxes blood vessels, is pointing scientists toward a better understanding of how emotional stress causes high blood pressure and why too much salt makes some people hypertensive. Nitric oxide is considered a pollutant when produced by cars and factories, but within the body s vascular system, it s an essential component of regulating blood pressure, said Dr. Jennifer Pollock, biochemist in the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia.
Vascular tone is the continuous balancing act between the two.
But in some people, factors such as emotional stress and high salt intake may interfere with normal nitric oxide production and vascular activity. Dr. Pollock and fellow researchers at the Vascular Biology Center want to know what tips the scale for these people toward destructive hypertension. She and Dr. Leslie Fuchs are studying an animal model of behavioral stress that, like some people, reflects its emotions in its blood pressure. Again, like some people, these rats are naturally borderline hypertensive. But with regular stress that mimics what most people experience during any busy day, they become hypertensive, said Dr. Fuchs, a cardiovascular pharmacologist.