Cyclical Blood Pressure Patterns Could Offer Critical Health Clues

Published December 12, 2012

Sixty years ago, when medical researcher Franz Halberg first proposed the unorthodox idea that our bodies respond to the natural cycles of day and night, not the hours on a clock, his fellow scientists scoffed. Today, circadian rhythms, as Dr. Halberg called these natural cycles, are accepted as a fundamental biological process, and their discovery made the Romanian-born physician famous. Now, he is challenging medical orthodoxy again by suggesting that cyclical patterns in our blood pressure offer clues about risks to our health. From Minneapolis, Minnesota, VOA's Shelley Schlender reports.