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Keto with high blood pressure

lorib64

Well-Known Member
Messages
111
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I am type 2 diabetic. I did keto with good results, but I felt deprived of some foods and went off. I recently restarted and am already seeing positive changes in glucose levels.

My blood pressure has been creeping up over the past few years. I just started monitoring it and it runs 140s over 80s. I messaged my dr and she told me to decrease sodium and exercise more. I know you usually increase electrolytes with keto.

Does anyone know what an appropriate amount of sodium would be? Can keto cause my blood pressure to improve?

She wants me to make an appointment if it stays high after making changes. She does not know much about keto but was impressed when I did it last time.
 
lorib64 said:
Can keto cause my blood pressure to improve?
Click to expand...
Definitely. Take a look at this paper from Dr David Unwin and others:

Substantial and Sustained Improvements in Blood Pressure, Weight and Lipid Profiles from a Carbohydrate Restricted Diet: An Observational Study of Insulin Resistant Patients in Primary Care - PMC

Hypertension is the second biggest known global risk factor for disease after poor diet; perhaps lifestyle interventions are underutilized? In a previous small pilot study, it was found that a low carbohydrate diet was associated with significant ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
lorib64 said:
I know you usually increase electrolytes with keto.
Click to expand...
high carb, highly processed food is usually stuffed full of sugar and salt, its how they make nutritionally poor, cheap ingredients taste good.
A low carb /keto diet using real food and very little processed stuff, maybe some bacon, cheese, but nothing with a long list of ingredients, is naturally low in sodium.
Sodium is essential to our health that's why we need to make sure we get enough when we're eating real food.
 
I've increased my salt intake to 3 tsp's per day.

The Hyponatremia Epidemic: A Frontier Too Far? - PMC

Hyponatremia is the most common electrolyte abnormality and is often neglected, especially in elderly and seemingly terminal patients. Hyponatremia can be asymptomatic or can cause symptoms ranging from nausea and lethargy to convulsions and coma. ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Low and zero carb needs. The increase in salt stopped my nocturnal leg and feet cramps.
 
Last edited:
I've been zero carb and adding extra salt since May 2021.
 

Thank you. That is reassuring that it can improve. I did not see anything specific on sodium, just the sheet they gave the participants saying some people need more sodium on low carb diet.

I was adding bullion cubes to bone broth. I have cut down from 2 to 1/2 of one. I feel fine. Bp about 140/85. My dr wants me to make an appointment if it stays over 140. I am hoping I can control it with diet,

I am using an app, Cronometer, to log food, exercise, biometrics. I set sodium to between 1000-2000 mg and am in that range even with the 1/2 bullion. But, I don’t know what I should be having as a target.

I had some genetic tests done on food sensitivities and I do have the gene that your blood pressure increases with high sodium. Also, no one has used the words but I have the traits of metabolic syndrome.
 
I don’t think anyone can give you a target, but as a set of general principles the more unprocessed, single ingredient foods you’re eating - meat, fish, eggs, veg, dairy, the less sodium you’re getting so you’ll need to add more than someone eating a lot of processed foods.

Building on that the hypothesis is that it’s perhaps sugar / carbs contributing more to blood pressure within a modern diet than sodium. See this video from the same guy - explains it better than I can:

 
Thank you. I have an update

I went to the dr for blood pressure check. She checked it manually 120/80. She thinks the automatic reader may not read my bp correctly. She still wants me to keep sodium around 2 g. I have cut back and feel fine.
 
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