Expert: Domenic Sica - 9/21/2009

Question
Has there ever been medical research that has proved a cause-effect relationship between high blood pressure and heart attacks (or heart problems)? I know there is a ton of medical literature that states that states something to the effect that too much water in the body will cause pressure on the blood vessels which will cause blood pressure to rise (or something like that). But can you show me litmus-test proof that high blood pressure will cause heart problems? Thank you very much. Al Brown

Answer
There are vast amounts of literature that speak to long-standing blood pressure being associated with the development of heart failure and coronary artery disease. For a good overview the web addresses below can be reviewed. Beyond that since there is such a huge amount of information of this topic you would have to guide me on what other sort of definitive proof that you might want.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/162449-overview
http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/46/2/280