This study quantifies modification of the influence of geomagnetic activity (strong magnetic storms) on blood pressure and heart rate (HR) in patients with arterial hypertension (AH) according to their prescribed anti-hypertensive medication. We studied effect modification by intake of common drug classes including Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme inhibitors (e.g., lisinopril), Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (e.g., losartan), and Calcium Channel Blockers (e.g., amlodipine).

Material and methods: We analyzed the database of the multiple-center prospective study of cohort of hypertensive patients living in Tyumen (1.374 people), Novosibirsk (428 people) and Surgut (548 people), followed-up between 11/14/2023 and 12/23/2024. A generalized linear regression of daily values of physiological parameters adjusted for seasonality and long-term trend was used to quantify the effect of geomagnetic activity.

Results: There were significant differences in sensitivity of the patients to fluctuations of geomagnetic field depending upon their prescribed medication.

Conclusion: This study confirmed the efficacy of antihypertensive therapy in response to magnetic storms.

Dmitry A. Shaposhnikov is an environmental health specialist with more than 30 years of professional experience. He joined Moscow Greenpeace office back in 1989, when it was established, and graduated from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) the same year. There he obtained a Master’s degree in applied math. Later, in 1996, he obtained a Candidate of Sciences degree from the same Institution. His dissertation topic was health risk assessment.

He also holds a Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree from University of Maryland at College Park; he attended School of Public Affairs over there in 1994-95.

Since 2005, he works as a Senior Research Fellow with Environmental Health Lab of Institute of Economic Forecasting of Russian Academy of Sciences. His specialization is application of modern statistical methods in environmental epidemiology. He is not a medical doctor though. The current work to be presented was (and still is) conducted under the guidance of Maria Smirnova, M.D., a prominent cardiologist and researcher from National Medical Research Center for Cardiology named after Academician E. I. Chazov. Now he lives in Taganrog, Rostov region, Russia.