The silent killer

The silent killer... High blood pressure shows next to no symptoms and many don't even know they have it.  In fact, one in four adults suffer from it.

High blood pressure can lead to; damage to your arteries in the form of artery damage and narrowing, and aneurysm.  Damage to your heart in the form of coronary artery disease, enlarged left heart and heart failure.  It can also damage your brain leading to transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), stroke, dementia and mild cognitive impairment.  High blood pressure can also damage your kidneys leading to kidney failure, scarring of the kidneys and kidney artery aneurysm.

The causes of high blood pressure are many; smoking, being overweight or obese, too much salt in the diet, lack of physical activity, more than 1 or 2 alcoholic drinks per day, stress, age, genetics, family history of high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, adrenal and thyroid disorders and sleep apnea.

Many of these causes, although not all, are due to lifestyle, so change your lifestyle and you will most probably reverse your high blood pressure.

There are several things you can do on a nutritional level to help lower your blood pressure, there are certain foods that you SHOULD eat and others that you should AVOID.

What you should AVOID:

Obviously you should lower your salt intake as this is one of the things that raises blood pressure.  However, it isn't that easy.  Yes, you can certainly lower the amount you put in your home cooked food, but salt or sodium chloride has been used as a flavor enhancer and preservative for centuries.

Adults need between 1.2 and 2.4g of salt per day, however most adults are consuming far more than that.  A review of studies involving 3,230 participants showed that reducing salt intake by 4.4g per day reduced systolic blood pressure by 4.2mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 2.1 mmHg.  Among the participants who had high blood pressure there were even bigger reductions of 5.4 mmHg (systolic) and 2.8 mmHg (diastolic).

Stay clear of processed foods and watch your added salt intake.

As already said above, more than one or two alcoholic drinks per day is associated with a systolic blood pressure reading of about 2.7 mmHg, and a diastolic reading of 1.4 mmHg - this is higher than in non-drinkers.

When you consume alcohol your blood pressure actually goes down first, only to rise later on and this rise is more likely to happen while you are awake than when you are asleep.  However, the more you drink means the greater your risk of having high blood pressure especially in men, but to a lesser extent in women too.

High intakes of caffeine increase blood pressure in the short term.  Caffeine is most commonly consumed in coffee and tea, but also in cola and in huge amounts in energy drinks such as Red Bull.

In a review of 5 clinical trials, the participants were given one or two cups of strong coffee, their systolic blood pressure increased to 8.1 mmHg and 5.7 mmHg diastolic blood pressure, up to three hours after drinking the coffee.  However response to caffeine is very different in each person, some people don't have a problem with it whereas others are very sensitive to it.  So analyze its effect on you as an individual.

Liquorice has an active ingredient called glycyrrhizic acid (GZA) but most liquorice sweets sold nowadays have very little real liquorice root in it and therefore very little GZA.  GZA causes sodium retention and loss of potassium, which contributes to high blood pressure, so you need to check the labels and be careful if it contains liquorice root.

What you SHOULD eat:

Vitamin C also known as ascorbic acid, is found in lots of fresh fruits and vegetables where an average serving contains between 10-40mg of vitamin C.

Vitamin C has been shown to improve blood pressure in a review of 29 short-term studies where participants were given 500mg of vitamin C per day over a period of eight weeks.  Their blood pressure improved significantly, with an average reduction in systolic blood pressure of 3.84 mmHg and 1.48 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure.

However, people who are susceptible to kidney stones should be careful with vitamin C consumption as it can contribute to the formation of kidney stones as the excess vitamin C is excreted via the kidneys.

Another advantage of increasing your vitamin C intake from fruits and vegetables is that you also increase your potassium intake which helps counter the effects of sodium.

You should all know by now that fiber is extremely important for good health.  Investigators found rolled oats or 25g of oat bran per day had systolic blood pressure at 2.7 mmHg lower and diastolic blood pressure was 1.5 mmHg lower than those who didn't include this amount of fiber in their diets.
that people who ate about 60g of

For on extra gram of total daily fiber, there was an extra 0.11 mmHg reduction in diastolic blood pressure.  The recommended minimum daily intake for fiber in adults is 30g for men and 25g for women.  Just make sure it is good quality fiber.

Inorganic nitrate is a compound found in beetroot.  During digestion, this compound is converted into nitric oxide, which in turn, causes arteries to dilate directly lowering the pressure within.

Beetroot juice has been shown to reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure in adult men who already had high blood pressure.  They were randomly assigned to drink 250ml of beetroot juice per day for four weeks or given a non-active placebo.

Those drinking the beetroot juice reduced their blood pressure over 24 hours, with systolic blood pressure 7.7 mmHg lower and diastolic blood pressure 5.2 mmHg lower.  

Be careful with beetroot though as it is also very high in sugar.

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com