Can hypertension accelerate the aging of your bones? Learn about the connection between high blood pressure and aging bones.
Researchers at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2022 conference presented a study regarding hypertension and bone loss. The recent study, which analyzed young mice with high blood pressure (hypertension), suggests that hypertension may lead to bone loss and osteoporosis-related bone damage that is similar to that of older mice.
Since hypertension and osteoporosis are common disorders, it’s not unusual to have both conditions at the same time. However, the researchers investigated inflammation related to hypertension in mice and found that it may be linked to osteoporosis.
“Bone marrow is where both new bone and new immune cells are produced,” says lead study author Elizabeth Maria Hennen, a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. “We suspect that more pro-inflammatory immune cells in the bone marrow may be leading to damage of the bone and making it weaker. By understanding how hypertension contributes to osteoporosis, we may be able to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and better protect people later in life from having fragility fractures and a lower quality of life.”
Connecting Hypertension and Aging Bones
To study the potential link, researchers compared young mice with artificially-induced hypertension to older mice without hypertension. According to the results, the young mice had a significant 24% reduction in bone volume fraction. They also exhibited an 18% reduction in the thickness of the trabecular bone (located at the end of femurs, spinal column, and other long bones) and a 34% reduction in estimated failure force, or the ability to withstand different types of force. “Failure force translates into weaker bones. In the spine, bone weakness can lead to vertebral fractures later in life,” explains Hennen.
In addition, the old mice had a similar reduction in bone quality when compared to the hypertensive young mice. “In these mice, being hypertensive at a younger age essentially aged bones as if they were 15-25 human years older,” says Hennen. “It appeared that high blood pressure was adjusting the bone remodeling process toward bone loss, rather than bone gain or bone equilibrium, in the hypertensive young mice. As a result, bones will be weaker, leading to an increased risk for osteoporosis and fragility fracture. In humans, this might mean that we should screen for osteoporosis in people with high blood pressure.”
In other words, if you have high blood pressure, you’re not only risking your heart health but your bone health as well. For this reason, it’s essential that you practice healthy habits to reduce your levels. For example, you can exercise regularly, eat healthily, and take supplements like L-arginine Plus.
By boosting nitric oxide production, it helps promote circulation, blood pressure, cholesterol, and more. If you’re ready to give your bone and heart health the support they need, then start living a healthy life and take L-arginine Plus.