Sugar Found to Raise Your Blood Pressure More Than Salt

Do you or someone you care about have high blood pressure? Are you taking medication to control this problem? There is an ingredient you may be consuming that is raising your blood pressure and you may not even be aware of it.

 

Here is what recent studies have found:

  • The cause of hypertension (high blood pressure) may be more due to the high consumption of added sugars, particularly fructose, and less to due to with sodium.
  • Consuming a high-fructose diet caused an increase in blood pressure nearly twice that of sodium.
  • Drinking a 24-ounce fructose sweetened beverage increases blood pressure more over a 24 hour period compared to a sucrose-sweetened beverage.

How Does Excess Sugar Cause High Blood Pressure?

When you eat too much sugar, it causes a surge in insulin which increases blood pressure. Insulin also stores magnesium. If you have consumed too much sugar over the years, your cells become resistant to insulin (Type II Diabetes), insulin can no longer store magnesium, so it passes out of your body through urination.

Storing magnesium is very important because it relaxes muscles, including blood vessel muscles. If you have a magnesium deficiency, your blood vessels will no longer be able to fully relax, and this constriction will raise your blood pressure.

Fructose also raises uric acid levels in the blood. Gout anyone? Uric acid also blocks nitric oxide production which helps maintain blood vessel elasticity, keeping them relaxed and blood pressure normal.

What About Salt?

Salt does raise blood pressure, but only about half that of sugar.

Evidence for recommending salt restriction to prevent disease is weak. A 2011 study found no evidence that salt restriction reduces the risk of heart attacks, strokes or death. Salt restriction was even found to increase the risk of death among people with congestive heart failure.

Some experts believe the type of salt you consume will affect your blood pressure and heart attack risk. Processed salt, such as table salt and the type in most processed foods, is high in sodium and low in potassium. A recent study found people were more than twice as likely to die of a heart attack if they consumed too much sodium with too little potassium compared to people who consumed about equal amounts of both nutrients.

If you want to lower your blood pressure naturally or want to avoid getting it altogether, here is what you need to do…

  • Reduce or eliminate added sugar in your diet, especially high fructose corn syrup.
  • Avoid eating processed foods. You will avoid the double whammy of high fructose corn syrup and processed salt that is low in potassium.
  • Consume a higher quality salt for cooking. Himalayan salt, sea salt and Celtic salt have higher amounts of potassium compared to table salt.
  • Get Your Adjustments. Chiropractic adjustments to the upper neck have been shown to lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension by an average of 17 points, the equivalent of taking two blood pressure medications at the same time!

 

Sources:
https://openheart.bmj.com/content/1/1/e000167
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20029377
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22152650
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21731062
https://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1106080
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=bakris+hypertension+chiropractic