Effect of diet-mediated immune optimization on antihypertensive drug treatment requirement

Abstract

Background: Claiming over 92 million adjusted life years per annum globally, systemic arterial hypertension is at the forefront of noncommunicable diseases and mandates urgent attention to the etiopathogenic mechanism rather than depending on suppressive drug therapies. Good diet, adequate sleep, and moderate-intensity exercise are immune optimizers as well as life-style modifiers and may have substantial impact on antihypertensive drug treatment requirements for blood pressure control in essential hypertension (EH). Objective: We appraised the impact of diet-mediated immune optimization on antihypertensive drug treatment requirement. Materials and Methods: This was a longitudinal study and part of an open clinical trial of a personalized food avoidance dietary to stop hypertension approved by the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Ethics Committee. Drug treatment parameters assessed were antihypertensive drug prescription, adherence, actual treatment (AdhRx), and antihypertensive drug treatment requirement (ADTR) scores. ADTR score was determined by adding or subtracting 0.1 to AdhRx score for every mmHg that average systolic automated office blood pressure or average systolic home blood pressure get higher or lower than 120 and 100 mmHg, respectively. Results: There was no significant reduction of AdhRx and ADTR scores of study participants with good dietary compliance to a personalized food avoidance dietary approach to stop hypertension, although mean of the scores were lower than that of those with bad dietary compliance (P > 0.05). Conclusion: We conclude that AdhRx and ADTR scores may serve as valid tools to assess the impact of diet-mediated immune optimization which addresses etiopathogenic dysfunction in EH.