From: deputyfife23x@gmail.com   
      
   09/22/2015   
   FROM YOUR GUT: GOOD BLOOD PRESSURE   
   Mary Alexandra Agner   
      
      
   Researchers at Johns Hopkins think they might have come up with a novel way to   
   manage blood pressure. Hint: Microbes.   
      
   It's one of the most eye-opening tangents in recent medical research:   
   Scientists have found that the bacteria living in your gut have an unexpected   
   influence over the rest of your body. The three pounds of microbes we host can   
   affect surprising things    
   like your immune system and even whether you're obese. Now it seems there   
   might be another body system in which microbes play a part: your blood   
   pressure. Jennifer L. Pluznick, assistant professor of physiology, and her   
   team at the Johns Hopkins    
   University School of Medicine have recently found that there might be a   
   connection between the bacteria in your gut and how your hard-working kidney   
   manages your blood pressure. It's early days for the research, but Pluznick's   
   insight could someday help    
   people manage high blood pressure that has no known cause. Here's a closer   
   look at what Pluznick has found -- and where she hopes the work might go.   
      
   First, the stats: High blood pressure can be deadly -- and it's relatively   
   common. One in three adults in the U.S. has high blood pressure, according to   
   the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. And when your blood pressure   
   goes out of whack, your    
   chances for heart attack and stroke increase, according to the Centers for   
   Disease Control and Prevention. The most common form of high blood pressure is   
   called primary hypertension, which exhibits no problems in blood   
   pressure-related organs, making it    
   difficult to determine its root cause and prescribe a treatment. That's why   
   Pluznick's research is particularly interesting: her work shows that a link   
   between the gut and the kidneys may indicate a new cause of high blood   
   pressure -- and possibly, ways    
   to counteract it.   
      
   Second, the biology: The kidneys are key to regulating blood pressure. The   
   kidneys are best known for filtering the waste out of your blood and sending   
   it out with your urine. But they also stabilize your blood pressure,   
   constantly tweaking it as you eat,   
    drink and metabolize food. They do this by monitoring the volume of liquid in   
   your body. Think of your veins and arteries as garden hoses; the kidneys work   
   to keep the perfect amount of water in those hoses so they are neither   
   deflated nor overinflated.    
   The kidneys also keep tabs on the amount of salt in your body, because extra   
   salt increases the fluid in your body, which raises your blood pressure. The   
   kidneys can even deploy a special molecule to tell blood vessels to tighten up   
   when necessary to    
   increase the blood pressure throughout your body.   
      
   So what does that have to do with the gut? Gut bacteria help metabolize food.   
   As they do this, the bacteria make molecules known as short chain fatty acids,   
   which travel around in your bloodstream to provide energy to most major   
   organs, including the    
   kidneys. Pluznick and her team found short chain fatty acid receptors in cells   
   both inside and outside the kidney that are important in blood pressure   
   regulation. In their work, they focused on two receptors in the kidney: Grp41   
   and Olfr78. At the    
   beginning, Pluznick says, "We knew that Olfr78 was found in cell types that   
   are important in blood pressure regulation, but, at the time, it was unknown   
   what this receptor was a receptor for." So she and her team worked to   
   determine what the receptors    
   were receiving -- which turned out to be the fatty acids created by gut   
   bacteria. As a test of the connection, the team was able to change the blood   
   pressure of a mouse by injecting short chain fatty acids into its bloodstream.   
      
   The upshot: Gut bacteria can influence whether a kidney lowers or raises blood   
   pressure. According to Pluznick, the Gpr41 receptor, which is activated by   
   fairly low concentrations of short chain fatty acids, lowers blood pressure.   
   In contrast, Olfr78    
   responds to high levels of short chain fatty acids -- and increases your blood   
   pressure. How's it work to have the receptors acting at the same time? Well,   
   when Olfr78 raises your blood pressure while Grp41 is simultaneously   
   decreasing it, the result    
   will be a slower decrease of your blood pressure. It's like wearing waterwings   
   while swimming with rocks in your pockets; you'll still sink, but slowly. Low   
   blood pressure can be dangerous too, so the thinking is that Olfr78 is a   
   useful counterforce.   
      
   The research results surprised even the scientists. Pluznick and her team   
   weren't expecting that these kidney receptors would respond to short chain   
   fatty acids from the gut, thus making a link between the kidneys and the   
   digestive microbiome. Then again,   
    Pluznick adds that she is never truly surprised by the kidney, which is   
   responsible for maintaining balance within the body in many different ways.   
   "There are so many fundamental elements and processes that the kidney has to   
   keep an eye on," she says. "   
   The kidney is just incredibly, incredibly cool."   
      
   Illustration by Sacha Vega/TED.    
      
      
      
      
   http://ideas.ted.com/a-surprise-from-your-gut-good-blood-pressure/   
      
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