WASHINGTON (AP) — Nothing doctors prescribed controlled Michael Garrity’s dangerously high blood pressure — until they zapped away some nerves on his kidneys.
If that sounds weird, well, kidneys help regulate blood pressure in part through signals from certain nerves. The new treatment disrupts overactive renal nerves.
“My blood pressure would spike and I’d run out of breath and feel tired, and that doesn’t happen anymore,” said Garrity, 62, of Needham, Massachusetts. He still takes medicine but at lower doses, his blood pressure normal for the first time in years. “I’m thrilled.”
About half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, a major risk for heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, even dementia.
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