High blood pressure (BP) is a symptomless ‘silent killer’ that quietly damages blood vessels & leads to
serious health problems. If untreated, high BP raises your risk of heart disease and stroke. But there’s
good news, there are a number of things your Health Coach/Dietitian can recommend to lower your
Blood Pressure naturally with changes to diet and lifestyle. Getting your hypertension under control
naturally can help your physician reduce your medications as well.
Intermittent Fasting: Surprising Update.
“He that eats till he is sick must fast till he is well”
Fasting has been practiced for a long time, but only recently studies proved its role in cellular responses
that reduces oxidative damage and inflammation with increased metabolism.
In one of the studies ‘Fasting Therapy for Treating & Preventing Disease- Current State of Evidence by
Andreas Michalsen, Chenying Li, it was noted that there was a consistent fall in BP in all fasting subjects.
The BP reducing effect of fasting has led to withdrawing antihypertensive medications. Once you start
eating again, Blood pressure goes back up, not as high as it was before, but of course it all depends on
what you start eating again. While fasting, “no diet at all” may be the most successful diet to lose weight,
this may not be sustainable or practical, but intermittent fasting seems to be becoming popular and
helping people in their journey to health and wellbeing. Seek professional advice before making any
changes to routine, especially if you have chronic conditions.
How can we lower BP naturally; over time?
In one of the studies done by Joel Fuhrman, Barbara Sarters & David Calabro, a 46 year old woman
diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis consulted for a nutritional approach of treatments. Her BP was 170/
80 mmHg and she was on medication. Her body weight was 106.6 kgs. She was put on a dietary
intervention for 8 weeks, the medication was tapered under the supervision of a physician and at the end
of 8 weeks without any medication her BP was down to 130/78.
Weight loss and blood pressure
Another study done by Stig sonne – Holm, Thorkild Ia Sorensen, Gorm Jesen, Peter suggests that change
in body weight has a great influence on arterial BP.
Natural Ways to reduce High Blood Pressure.
Today, most of us read and have relatively good awareness about high blood pressure, prevention of
hypertension, definition of hypertension, what causes hypertension, the normal range of blood pressure,
symptoms of low and high blood pressure, blood pressure by age, blood pressure systolic and diastolic
numbers. Several people even keep blood pressure charts or use digital applications to monitor and track
health parameters. Bridging the knowing-doing gap may be the challenge in several cases. Knowing what
to stop may not be the solution to the problem, rather what to start and a personalized approach.
Restricting alcohol intake (people who regularly consume alcohol), regular exercises for 3 months,
including fruits and vegetables in your diet, reduced meat consumption, and managing sodium intake are
some of the natural ways to get high blood pressure under control.
Consult your physician or a dietitian who could evaluate your current condition and recommend
appropriate diet and lifestyle changes to bring your high blood pressure under control. The reason most
dietary plans don’t work is because it becomes a plan for a few days and then people return to their
normal diet. Instead, a change that can be adopted as a lifestyle can help to sustain and lead a healthier
life. What you include in your diet is equally important as to what you exclude.
Look for changes that you welcome, incorporate small changes to diet and lifestyle to live a healthier life;
naturally! Be healthy and be safe.
Click here to consult Candok Health Coach ( Dietitian).
References:
1.Fasting therapy for Treating and Preventing disease-Current State of Evidence.( Andreas Michalsen ,
Chenying li) Accessible online at (https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/357765)
2.Sonne – Holm , Sorensen TI , Jensen G , Schnohr P. Independent effects of weight change and attained
body weight on prevalence of arterial hypertension in obese and non obese men.BMJ
(1989;299(6702):767-770.
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1837623/)
3.Greger M .Benefits of fasting for weight loss .NutritionFacts.org. Published October 28th ,2019
(https://youtu.be/X4S_A692Lyw)
4.Greger M is fasting for weight loss safe? Nutritionfacts. org..Published November 4th 2019.
(https://youtu.be/4vRdOD78QKE)
5.Longo VD , Mattson MP , Fasting :molecular mechanisms and clinical applications . Cell Metab
.2014;19(2):181-92. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3946160/)
6.Fuhrman J , Sarter B , Calabro DJ. Brief case reports of medically supervised , water only fasting
associated with remission of autoimmune disease.
7.Elliahou HE , Laufer J , Blau A ,Shulman L, Effect of low calorie diets on the sympathetic nervous
system , body weight and plasma insulin in overweight hypertension .Am J Clin Nutr.1992 ;56 (1 Suppl)
:175S -178S.