|
|
| |
         |
|
| |
When was the last time that your physician had
told you that you need to cut down on your salt intake if you
want to see improvement in your blood pressure? Your doctor
has changed your blood pressure medications four times in the
past year, and various test were ordered to rule out
conditions that can be amenable to definitive surgical
treatment, but they were all "negative". Yet your blood
pressure remains high.
Sodium is believed
to contribute to vascular resistance by increasing vessel
stiffness, and an increase in PVR (peripheral vascular
resistance) and blood flow (cardiac output, CO) would
proportionately increase arterial blood pressure. Blood
pressure is the product of cardiac output (CO) and peripheral
vascular resistance (PVR).
Dietary sodium restriction has been known for many years to
decrease blood pressure in hypertensive patients, particularly
in those who are sensitive to sodium. With the
advent of diuretics ("water pill"), sodium restriction was
thought to be less important. Recently, however, there has
been renewed interest in dietary control of blood pressure as
a relatively nontoxic therapeutic and even preventive measure.
Several studies have shown that even modest dietary sodium
restriction lowers blood pressure (although to varying
extents) in many individuals with "essential
hypertension".
But the fact remains that
salt (sodium) is impossible to eliminate from one's diet
"completely". Almost everything that we eat or drink has
sodium in it. So what can we do? What one can effectively do,
in my opinion, is to remove (eliminate) "excess" salt from the
body by drinking plenty of plain pure water daily, unless
contraindicated such as in patients with heart and chronic
kidney disease. As water leaves the body loss of sodium
will follow. The more one drinks, the more salt (sodium)
will be excreted or lost in the urine.
Supplementing drinking lots of pure water (3 to 4 quarts a
day) with a well balanced diet that is low in sodium should
not cause concern for sodium depletion.
Elevated blood pressure is usually caused by a combination of
several abnormalities, i.e. genetic inheritance, psychologic
stress, and environmental and dietary factors as perhaps
contributing to the development of hypertension. Relief of
stress, diet (sodium restriction), regular exercise, and
control of other risk factors contributing to the development
of arteriosclerosis are general nondrug therapeutic
intervention in all patients with sustained hypertension.
Increase in blood pressure with aging does not occur in
populations with low daily sodium intake.
Tempeh is a low sodium, high protein, high fibre, complex
carbohydrate and zero cholesterol soy food product. Vitamin C
(ascorbic acid) is a powerful
anti-oxidant.
I wish you well.
| |
| |
