An evolutionary perspective on salt, hypertension, and human genetic variability.

Jackson, Fatimah

doi:10.1161/01.hyp.17.1_suppl.i129

Cited by 60 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…High salt intake is an important factor that can expand intravascular volume, and it is a major causal risk factor for hypertension. [26][27][28][29] A recent study suggested that high salt intake per se, independent of hypertension, can have a harmful effect on the general population owing to the high risk of total mortality and mortality due to coronary heart disease and stroke. 30,31 A previous study reported that chronic high dietary salt intake increases the plasma concentration of BNP, even in the absence of hypertension.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What factors are associated with high plasma B-type natriuretic peptide levels in a general Japanese population?

et al. 2004

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There are few community-based epidemiologic studies that have dealt with risk factors for heart failure in nonWestern populations. It has been reported that the measurement of plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is useful for detecting patients with asymptomatic heart failure. To clarify the determinants of high plasma BNP level, the association of BNP with cardiovascular risk factors in community dwelling residents was examined. The plasma BNP levels were measured in 686 residents aged 35-69 years who received annual health check-up. The relationship of BNP to blood pressure, blood haemoglobin, serum cholesterol (total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol), plasma glucose, electrocardiographic (ECG) findings, urinary salt excretion, and lifestyle factors (smoking and alcohol consumption) were cross-sectionally analysed. The plasma BNP geometric mean was 13.7 pg/ml. Both linear and logistic regression analyses indicated that the plasma BNP levels were positively associated with age, urinary salt excretion, higher blood pressure, high R-wave voltage in the 12-lead ECG (Minnesota Code 3-1 or 3-3), and female gender. Plasma BNP levels were inversely associated with blood haemoglobin levels. Gender-specific analysis showed similar results. However, plasma BNP did not correlate with other cardiovascular risk factors such as serum lipids.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What factors are associated with high plasma B-type natriuretic peptide levels in a general Japanese population?

et al. 2004

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“…112 Evolutionary forces may have shaped the human ability to recognize salty taste in such a way as to make it very responsive to differences in the environmental mineral and water supply or habitual diet. 113 Therefore, efforts to assess the impact of genetic variation within the salt receptor 114,115 should focus on salt perception of people with similar environmental backgrounds (e.g., early exposure, recent exposure) and be attentive to the current state of the subject (e.g., time of day, thirst).…”

Section: Salt As a Simple Pleasure And Complex Poisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics of Taste and Smell

Reed

Knaapila

2010

Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science

216

118

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Eating is dangerous. While food contains nutrients and calories that animals need to produce heat and energy, it may also contain harmful parasites, bacteria, or chemicals. To guide food selection, the senses of taste and smell have evolved to alert us to the bitter taste of poisons and the sour taste and off-putting smell of spoiled foods. These sensory systems help people and animals to eat defensively, and they provide the brake that helps them avoid ingesting foods that are harmful. But choices about which foods to eat are motivated by more than avoiding the bad; they are also motivated by seeking the good, such as fat and sugar. However, just as not everyone is equally capable of sensing toxins in food, not everyone is equally enthusiastic about consuming high-fat, high-sugar foods. Genetic studies in humans and experimental animals strongly suggest that the liking of sugar and fat is influenced by genotype; likewise, the abilities to detect bitterness and the malodors of rotting food are highly variable among individuals. Understanding the exact genes and genetic differences that affect food intake may provide important clues in obesity treatment by allowing caregivers to tailor dietary recommendations to the chemosensory landscape of each person.

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“…Since slaves were drawn from a considerable geographic area, in which lived a great many tribes presumably with a great deal of genetic diversity, and since environmental stress actually seems to increase phenotypic and genotypic diversity, the rapid winnowing envisioned by Wilson and Grim seems unlikely. 15 Another general difficulty associated with the slavery hypothesis is the way in which maladaptiveness is invoked. It is proposed that what was selected was a defense against salt loss, but what is presumed to cause hypertension is salt retention.…”

Section: The Slavery Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation, allometry, and hypertension.

Weder

Schork

1994

Hypertension

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Essential hypertension is a "disease of civiliza-tion" but has a clear genetic component. From an evolutionary perspective, persistence in the human genome of elements capable of raising blood pressure presupposes their adaptive significance. Recently, two hypotheses that explicitly appeal to selectionist arguments, the "slavery" and "thrifty gene" theories , have been forwarded. We find neither completely successful , and we advance an alternative explanation of the adaptive importance of genes responsible for hypertension. We propose that blood pressure rises during childhood and adolescence to subserve homeostatic needs of the organism. Specifically, we contend that blood pressure is a flexible element in the repertoire of renal homeostatic mechanisms serving to match renal function to growth. The effect of modern diet and lifestyle on human growth stimulates earlier and more vigorous development, straining biologically necessary relationships between renal and general somatic growth W hat causes essential hypertension? Despite almost a century of effort, we still do not know, and in part our problem may be that we are asking the question in the wrong way. Medical scientists are natural reductionists, searching for, and often finding, unifying causes such as toxic exposures, dysfunctional systems, and most recently, defective genes, to explain abnormalities of clinical import. Yet not all diseases can be expected to yield to the reductionist strategy, particularly such common disorders as essential hypertension, which seem most likely to result from dys-regulation of essentially normal physiological systems. This is not to say that relatively simple alterations of fundamental components of the cardiovascular system could not result in hypertension. Indeed, some of the most impressive recent advances in hypertension research describe discrete genetic abnormalities that apparently cause some types of hypertension. 1-2 However, the intrinsic complexity of blood pressure control presents formidable, perhaps insurmountable, theoretical and practical barriers to reductionist analyses. 3 For hypertension and other "diseases of civilization," it has been argued that the standard genetic paradigm based on classic monogenic diseases, in which one gene causes one trait abnormality, is fundamentally flawed and should be replaced by an epigenetic view in which genetic information flows through a complex, highly interactive, flexible network of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions 4 (Fig 1). In and requiring compensation via homeostatic mechanisms preserved during evolution. Prime among such mechanisms is blood pressure, which rises as a compensation to maintain renal function in the face of greater growth. Since virtually all members of acculturated societies share in the modern lifestyle , the demands imposed by accelerated growth and development result in a populational shift to higher blood pressures, with a consequent increase in the prevalence of hypertension. We propose that hypertension is the product of mal...

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An evolutionary perspective on salt, hypertension, and human genetic variability.

Cited by 60 publications

References 10 publications

What factors are associated with high plasma B-type natriuretic peptide levels in a general Japanese population?

What factors are associated with high plasma B-type natriuretic peptide levels in a general Japanese population?

Genetics of Taste and Smell

Adaptation, allometry, and hypertension.

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