Evolution, essential hypertension and the high arterial pressures in certain athletic breeds of dogs

摘要

Hypertension affects 20% of adult humans in 'developed' countries and its prevalence increases with prosperity. It is estimated that, by 2020, 1.5 billion hypertensive patients will suffer 50% of cardiovascular deaths annually (Caulfield et al., 2010). This extraordinary prevalence intrigues and baffles physicians. Susceptibility to hypertension is probably ancestral, whereas the high prevalence of disease awaited acculturation and genes adaptive for ancestral life are now thought to predispose to hypertension (Young, 2007).