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(Hypertension. 2004;43:1155.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Hypertension Highlights

Geneticism of Essential Hypertension

From the Medical Faculty of the Charité, Franz Volhard Clinic HELIOS Klinikum-Berlin and Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany.

Correspondence to Dr Friedrich C. Luft, Wiltberg Strasse 50, 13125 Berlin, Germany. E-mail luft@fvk-berlin.de

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

The idea that a person’s genetic constitution is all-important and that genetic knowledge is sufficiently advanced so that we can make judgments on our past or future health was called geneticism by Medawar.¹ He termed geneticism as the application to the human condition of a genetic knowledge or understanding that is assumed to be very much greater than it really is. Proponents of geneticism have promised us that the sequencing of the human genome will offer limitless insights into the pathogenesis of essential hypertension and, moreover, will provide bountiful access to new drug targets and facilitate pharmacological therapy. In terms of citations, only "hypertension and sodium" provokes more "hits" than "hypertension and genetics." Nevertheless, with a few exceptions, the results appear disappointing. We might pause and reflect on the answers to the question, "Why?" In so doing, we should first examine the genetic differences that separate us from one another. The genetic differences between human beings seem to be of 3 types: those based on single gene mutations, those based on polymorphic genetic differences, and those resulting from a complex interaction of many genes.

First, there are the differences that divide us into a great majority and a tiny minority. Essential hypertension clearly does not involve a tiny minority and not yet a great majority; however, this state-of-affairs was lost on early students of the subject. When Weitz first proposed the notion of genetic variance on blood pressure, he concluded that essential hypertension was inherited through the actions of a . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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