Night blood pressure "high in summer and low in winter"

Source: Global Times Health ClientLiu Hua, Deputy Chief Physician of the Department of Cardiology, Meilong Hospital, Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan UniversityBlood pressure has a certain temporal and seasonal pattern, generally speaking, it is "high during the day and low at night" and "low in summer and high in winter". But a recent study by the Shanghai Institute of Hypertension found that nighttime blood pressure is the opposite, showing a characteristic of "high in summer and low in winter"

Source: Global Times Health Client

Liu Hua, Deputy Chief Physician of the Department of Cardiology, Meilong Hospital, Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University

Blood pressure has a certain temporal and seasonal pattern, generally speaking, it is "high during the day and low at night" and "low in summer and high in winter". But a recent study by the Shanghai Institute of Hypertension found that nighttime blood pressure is the opposite, showing a characteristic of "high in summer and low in winter". Elevated blood pressure at night can increase the risk of damage to target organs such as the heart, brain, and kidneys. It is necessary to strengthen monitoring and pay attention.

A total of 1054 patients without antihypertensive treatment were included in the study, with an average age of 51 years and 50.5% being female. Nighttime hypertension is defined as: the average blood pressure at night exceeds 120/70 millimeters of mercury; Simple nocturnal hypertension is defined as elevated blood pressure at night but blood pressure below 135/85 millimeters of mercury during the day. Researchers' analysis shows that the 24-hour dynamic systolic/diastolic blood pressure of patients is similar throughout the four seasons, but there are significant differences in nighttime blood pressure between different seasons, with the highest in summer and the lowest in winter. The nighttime blood pressure in summer is 4.9/3.4 millimeters of mercury higher than the average in winter. Moreover, the increase in nighttime blood pressure during summer is closely related to target organ damage, especially the urinary albumin creatinine ratio, which is an important indicator of kidney damage.

High temperature and humidity are one of the important factors that cause high blood pressure at night in summer. At this time, the human body is often in a large compensatory state, and it needs to increase heart rate and vascular pressure to maintain normal thermoregulation, thus leading to unstable blood pressure and elevated blood pressure at night. Moreover, compared to winter, people are more prone to insomnia, waking up at night, and having more dreams in summer. Low sleep quality can seriously affect the normal regulation of the biological clock, leading to unstable blood pressure at night. In summer, people still prefer to go out when the weather is cool at night, like to eat some snacks and drink some cold beer. These bad habits combined can also lead to the occurrence of high blood pressure at night.

In general, few people would go to measure nighttime blood pressure, and it is difficult to detect it without dynamic blood pressure monitoring. Therefore, the harm of nighttime hypertension is highly hidden and can easily lead to stroke, heart failure, renal failure, cognitive impairment, etc. A large study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that for every 20 millimeters of mercury in nocturnal systolic blood pressure, the risk of cardiovascular events increases by 36%. It can be seen that it is necessary to pay attention to nighttime blood pressure.

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