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Stanford Health Care

Causes

How We Can Help You 

Sometimes, your blood can push too forcefully against your arteries as your heart pumps. If that happens, it could be a sign of high blood pressure or hypertension. You should see a specialist as hypertension can cause heart and blood vessel problems, and be difficult to control.

Our doctors regularly care for challenging cases of resistant hypertension. Our team has the expertise to determine whether lifestyle changes and medications can help protect your health. We also explore new options for treating hypertension that has not responded to existing treatments.

We primarily provide care for resistant hypertension through the Hypertension Center.

WHAT WE OFFER YOU FOR RESISTANT HYPERTENSION

  • Nationally recognized expertise in treating resistant hypertension and minimizing the harm it causes.
  • Precise diagnosis to identify the type and root causes of your hypertension, including advanced home monitoring devices to track your blood pressure over a longer period of time.
  • Team-based planning for challenging cases that brings together experts in nephrology, cardiology, endocrinology, neurology, radiology, sleep medicine and surgery to tailor care to your type of hypertension.
  • Advanced treatment for resistant hypertension, including a thorough reevaluation of your existing care plan, medication and lifestyle changes, and new minimally invasive treatments.
  • Dedicated follow-up care to support your treatment and help keep your blood pressure in check.
  • Comprehensive support services to help you cope with your diagnosis, including stress reduction, dietary counseling, exercise recommendations, and other assistance.
  • Active clinical research and trial program to evaluate the risk factors for developing resistant hypertension and advancing new treatments, including renal denervation and new minimally invasive treatments.

Treatment for Resistant Hypertension

Our specialized doctors spend the time to understand why you have high blood pressure and how it affects your health. We may discover that we can effectively treat you with established treatment approaches. For hard-to-treat conditions, we go beyond the standard care to find an appropriate treatment.

Medication

Upon evaluation for resistant hypertension, medication will be reassesed and surgery may be considered, depending on results from diagnostic tests. 

Lifestyle

Changes may be recommended in order to reduce overall hypertension. This would include watching your diet and keeping sodium intake low, keeping a home blood pressure log, attending educational workshops, reducing or managing stress, limiting alcohol consumption, giving up smoking. 

Renal Denervation

Renal denervation is a new treatment for resistant hypertension that targets the nerves near the kidneys responsible for regulating blood pressure. Surgeons once attempted to relieve hypertension by severing these renal artery nerves, which resulted in lowering blood pressure too far.

By contrast, renal denervation silences a few, targeted nerves to restore healthy blood pressure. It does so with heat energy delivered by a catheter, a thin tube threaded through an artery. This minimally invasive procedure is currently in clinical trials at medical centers nationwide. Our program is the only West Coast participant in this trial. 

We take a personalized approach to treat patients with severe or refractory hypertension, and evaluate them for potential secondary or reversible forms of high blood pressure.

 

 

Clinical Trials

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Open Clinical Trials

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Clinical trials evaluate new medical approaches, devices, drugs, and other treatments. As a Stanford Health Care patient, you may be eligible to participate in open clinical trials.

Open trials refer to studies currently recruiting participants or that may recruit participants in the near future. Closed trials are not currently enrolling, but similar studies may open in the future.

 

View Closed Clinical Trials for Causes
Make An Appointment

To schedule an appointment with a cardiac specialist, call 650-723-6459. 

To schedule an appointment with a hypertension specialist, call 650-723-6961.

What Is Resistant Hypertension?

Causes of Resistant Hypertension

Our doctors continue to look at possible genetic factors to determine why some people have treatable high blood pressure and others develop more resistant hypertension.

With the exception of one type of high blood pressure called secondary hypertension, doctors and researchers do not know exactly what causes resistant hypertension. Suspected causes include:

Lifestyle and Genetic Factors

  • Smoking
  • Being overweight or obesity
  • Not getting enough physical activity
  • Too much salt (salt-sensitive hypertension)

Condition-Related Factors

  • Too much alcohol
  • Old age
  • African-American ethnicity
  • Family history of high blood pressure

Some individuals have a type of high blood pressure called secondary hypertension, in which an often treatable condition causes the problem.

  • Chronic Kidney Disease: Temporary or permanent damage to the kidneys that results in loss of normal kidney function.

  • Hyperaldosteronism: The hormone aldosterone is produced in the adrenal glands and is essential to blood pressure control and electrolyte balance. Abnormal growth of the adrenals can lead to hypertension, and in some cases, may also be associated with low levels of potassium (hypokalemia). 

  • Hyperparathyroidism: An excess of parathyroid hormone in the bloodstream. In many cases hyperparathyroidism is due to over activity of one or more of the body's four parathyroid glands. In addition to causing hypertension, this often results in disorders of calcium balance, including osteoporosis and kidney stones. 
  • Hyperthyroidism: A condition in which your thyroid gland produces too much thyroid hormone. This can result in hypertension, especially systolic hypertension, in which the top number of the blood pressure reading is high.

  • Hypothyroidism: A condition in which your thyroid gland produces too much thyroid hormone. This can result in hypertension, especially systolic hypertension, in which the top number of the blood pressure reading is high.

  • Renovascular Disease: Abnormalities in the blood vessels that supply the kidneys. This may include conditions such fibromuscular dysplasia or renal artery stenosis. 

Our Clinics

Hypertension Center

The Stanford Hypertension Center provides comprehensive and innovative care for patients with severe or refractory hypertension, including evaluation for secondary and reversible forms of hypertension.

Hypertension Center
300 Pasteur Drive
 1st Floor, Suite A11
 Stanford, CA 94305
Phone: 650-723-6961 Getting Here
MAKE AN APPOINTMENT FIND A DOCTOR