This morning I read the schpeel about blood pressure on the front page, the page that loaded from my morning email link. It's the same old stuff, and it doesn't work.
I find it interesting how medical communities around the world cling to their evidence based advice: "we set guidelines based on the best available evidence." Yet there doesn't seem to be any evidence that sodium consumption causes HBP or that sodium reduction saves lives. If you think there is, please post it.
Do systemic sodium levels cause HBP? This is very likely, but there's a difference. Do I need to explain it? Of course I do.
Picture a dam in a small river. Water collects behind the wall. When water levels in the river rise high enough, water flows over the top of the dam. When water levels in the river drop, the water behind the dam doesn't, not right away, not until the inflow stops completely.
So the building authorities decide they want to build some homes along the river, but they need the water level lower. What's the plan? Do they divert water away from the river or do they lower the dam?
They decided to divert water away, but water still flowed in. What happened? Water levels remained the same, but less water flowed over the top. It became quite obvious very quickly that this was a failed strategy. If they wanted to build homes, they'd need to lower the dam, so they did. It worked, the homes were built, and they all washed away in a flash flood. Sorry, but sometimes you just can't compensate for government stupidity.
When we reduce our salt intake, we're reducing the rate of flow in our river, but we still have the same dam. Less sodium flows over the top, but systemic levels remain the same. We may experience less flash flooding, and this seems to account for a small reduction in BP, but it's very small, almost insignificant.
Finding expert discussion on what controls sodium levels, homeostasis, is difficult to find. Gary Taubes in "Good Calories, Bad Calories" suggested that insulin signals our kidneys to retain sodium: lower insulin, you lower the sodium dam.
BP was one of the things I measured when I adopted a lower carb lifestyle. Unfortunately I didn't keep records. I'm a lousy accountant. I was fighting the upper limits for a type 1. I routinely tested 140/80 and sometimes a little higher. My eyes were bleeding from long term retinopathy. We upped my ACE inhibitor to 15mg from 2.5mg, I quit drinking coffee, and of course I lowered my salt intake. I lowered my numbers down to roughly 130/75. Then I decided to try this radical style of eating. That was four July's ago.
I reduced carbs, restarted coffee, and forgot about sodium restriction. My BP dropped down to 125/70 range and it stayed there. My eye bleeds stopped abruptly and haven't returned. In fact, the optho can't find any damage in my eyes, besides the 4k laser blasts. A year and half ago I joined a gym. They took my BP and it was almost too low at 116/58. I saw the doc, lowered my ACE back to 2.5mg, and retested at 118/64. I tested in that range for all of 2011.
I've crept up in 2012. I have added a few carbs back into my diet and my weight has crept up slightly. These carbs are veggies and some fruit; I still outlaw grains. I recently tested 133/68.
I'm 51 years old and have been diabetic for 36.5 years.
I find it interesting how medical communities around the world cling to their evidence based advice: "we set guidelines based on the best available evidence." Yet there doesn't seem to be any evidence that sodium consumption causes HBP or that sodium reduction saves lives. If you think there is, please post it.
Do systemic sodium levels cause HBP? This is very likely, but there's a difference. Do I need to explain it? Of course I do.
Picture a dam in a small river. Water collects behind the wall. When water levels in the river rise high enough, water flows over the top of the dam. When water levels in the river drop, the water behind the dam doesn't, not right away, not until the inflow stops completely.
So the building authorities decide they want to build some homes along the river, but they need the water level lower. What's the plan? Do they divert water away from the river or do they lower the dam?
They decided to divert water away, but water still flowed in. What happened? Water levels remained the same, but less water flowed over the top. It became quite obvious very quickly that this was a failed strategy. If they wanted to build homes, they'd need to lower the dam, so they did. It worked, the homes were built, and they all washed away in a flash flood. Sorry, but sometimes you just can't compensate for government stupidity.
When we reduce our salt intake, we're reducing the rate of flow in our river, but we still have the same dam. Less sodium flows over the top, but systemic levels remain the same. We may experience less flash flooding, and this seems to account for a small reduction in BP, but it's very small, almost insignificant.
Finding expert discussion on what controls sodium levels, homeostasis, is difficult to find. Gary Taubes in "Good Calories, Bad Calories" suggested that insulin signals our kidneys to retain sodium: lower insulin, you lower the sodium dam.
BP was one of the things I measured when I adopted a lower carb lifestyle. Unfortunately I didn't keep records. I'm a lousy accountant. I was fighting the upper limits for a type 1. I routinely tested 140/80 and sometimes a little higher. My eyes were bleeding from long term retinopathy. We upped my ACE inhibitor to 15mg from 2.5mg, I quit drinking coffee, and of course I lowered my salt intake. I lowered my numbers down to roughly 130/75. Then I decided to try this radical style of eating. That was four July's ago.
I reduced carbs, restarted coffee, and forgot about sodium restriction. My BP dropped down to 125/70 range and it stayed there. My eye bleeds stopped abruptly and haven't returned. In fact, the optho can't find any damage in my eyes, besides the 4k laser blasts. A year and half ago I joined a gym. They took my BP and it was almost too low at 116/58. I saw the doc, lowered my ACE back to 2.5mg, and retested at 118/64. I tested in that range for all of 2011.
I've crept up in 2012. I have added a few carbs back into my diet and my weight has crept up slightly. These carbs are veggies and some fruit; I still outlaw grains. I recently tested 133/68.
I'm 51 years old and have been diabetic for 36.5 years.