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LCHF and Severe Hypertension.

A

agedparent57

Newbie
Hi Folks,


My husband has been on the LCHF diet for the last 2 1/2 weeks. He is aiming to lose 3 stone and try and get his blood pressure under control - it is currently 192/110! He is a resistant hypertension case as the blood pressure drugs only seem to lower it minimally and if the GP ups the dose at all he gets severe side effects. He is currently on a minimal dose of Lorstatan but this is casuing extreme fatigue and aches. As well as the blood pressure he is prediabetic, has cornoary heart disease and an enlarged prostate which is the only thing under control at the moment..


Has anyone used the LCHF diet with blood presure reduction in mind? How quickly did you see a reduction?


Obviously we are extremely aware these numbers are scary and he is doing everything he can to reduce them. He walks everyday for an hour and half, does not smoke (stopped 18mths ago), takes various supplements garlic, omega, potassium etc. Really our hope is on the diet and the weight loss as we feel our GP is only offering more drugs which do not seem to help.


Any advice or suggestions would be most welcome.


Louise
 
Hi Louise,

I'm Type 1 (35 years) and had to go onto high blood pressure meds in my early 20's (I'm now 46). I was on the meds for over 20 years and during that period nothing lowered my blood pressure, not even when I lost 4 stone in weight (low cal, low fat diet) and started exercising. In April this year I started the ketogenic diet and have been on it ever since. After 3 months of following the keto way of eating, my doctor had to take me off my blood pressure meds because I started suffering from dizzy spells and after monitoring my blood pressure every day I realised it was because my blood pressure had dropped so much it was actually bordering on being too low. I was gobsmacked!! Now, 3 months later after not having to take a single pill since, my blood pressure remains healthy and toward the lower end of normal. I can only put this down to the keto diet, but hey, I'm no medical expert so who knows!

Everyone is obviously different and I'm not saying the LCHF diet will help your husband with his blood pressure, but I just wanted to give you a little bit of hope. Stick with it, and fingers crossed for some good news!

Erin
 
Kirbster said:
Hi Louise,

I'm Type 1 (35 years) and had to go onto high blood pressure meds in my early 20's (I'm now 46). I was on the meds for over 20 years and during that period nothing lowered my blood pressure, not even when I lost 4 stone in weight (low cal, low fat diet) and started exercising. In April this year I started the ketogenic diet and have been on it ever since. After 3 months of following the keto way of eating, my doctor had to take me off my blood pressure meds because I started suffering from dizzy spells and after monitoring my blood pressure every day I realised it was because my blood pressure had dropped so much it was actually bordering on being too low. I was gobsmacked!! Now, 3 months later after not having to take a single pill since, my blood pressure remains healthy and toward the lower end of normal. I can only put this down to the keto diet, but hey, I'm no medical expert so who knows!

Everyone is obviously different and I'm not saying the LCHF diet will help your husband with his blood pressure, but I just wanted to give you a little bit of hope. Stick with it, and fingers crossed for some good news!

Erin
Click to expand...
What a lovely story,gives others hope
 
Hi and welcome :)

I think you will find that we are all very individual in our bp reactions to LCHF, although I do recall seeing several posts where people have reported the way of eating improves their bp. Unfortunately, I cannot remember any names at the moment.

You may find that his bp reduces as his weight does. The two are often linked.

We have a thread of LC success stories which you may find an interesting read. It is a long thread and I doubt you want to plough through it all, but some members may have mentioned bp improvements as part of their journeys.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/low-carb-success-stories.3763/page-28
(actually, while finding this link, I saw that two people had put their bp improvments in their posts just on the last page)
 
Some doctors half bp meds when someone starts a VERY low carb diet, others monitor and respond to changes in bp. Therefore I think it would be worthwhile having a bp monitor at home.

Often the advice when starting low carb is to "add more salt", but given hypertension, I think salt should not be increased unless needed.
 
I have never had very high BP, but when I was diagnosed it was higher than they like for diabetics (hovering around 140/80). This reduced quickly as I lost weight. Although I did reduce my carbs at that time, I didn't go very low with them to begin with, so I put it all down to weight loss.
 
I had higher than "normal" blood pressure when I was overweight. Lost weight by fasting and keto diet and now have normal blood pressure. I would heartily recommend getting a home blood pressure meter and testing when relaxed as I found I had terrible white coat syndrome high blood pressure too when measured at the doctors but fine when on a 24 hour monitor at home.
 
I had elevated bp, not as high as your husband. Experienced 2 drops in bp.

One as the full effect of the low carb kicked in. Had to keep on top of that since the change was rapid and I experienced the effects of being over-medicated. Work with your doc on that.

One was gradual reduction as the weight came off.

Good luck.
 
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