Dietary Sodium, Psychic Stress, and Genetic Predisposition to Experimental Hypertension

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Rats with a genetic susceptibility to hypertension were exposed for 26 wk to the stress of a chronic food-shock conflict while being fed a diet containing 2% NaCl. The rats developed modest elevations in blood pressure. These elevations were greater than those previously observed in conflict-exposed rats fed a very-low-Na diet and much greater than those observed in unstressed rats fed 2% NaCl ad lib. The elevations in blood pressure were less severe than those usually exhibited by genetically similar rats fed a diet containing 4 or 8% NaCl without the superimposition of psychological stress. Although pscyhological stress can synergistically interact with Na, its hypertensinogenic potentcy remains conjectural.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: