Low carb and blood pressure

BenCP · May 27, 2022

A quick(ish) question….

I was diagnosed T2 last August when my glucose level was averaging 14 -15 mmol/l. Having read this forum and looked at other research, I went as close to zero carb as I can. The result? At my diabetes review in April my glucose average was 5,8 mmol/l. I’ve also lost 3 ½ stone in weight which, let’s face it, I needed to do.

However, my blood pressure, which was pretty stable at 130s/80s is now 150s/90s and I wondered if this is related to diet?

I now have skyr with a nut and seed mix and cream for breakfast. Lunch in usually cooked meats and cheese. Dinner is usually chicken, lamb or pork with LOADS of green vegetables.

As always, my doctor wants me to take additional blood pressure medication, in addition to the lisinopril and amlodipine I’ve taken for years but I’d rather fix whatever made it go up in the first place.

Goonergal · May 27, 2022

BenCP said:
However, my blood pressure, which was pretty stable at 130s/80s is now 150s/90s and I wondered if this is related to diet?

It’s more usual for blood pressure to go down with a low carb diet (see link below) so it’d be worth asking to investigate root causes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6695889/

lucylocket61 · May 27, 2022

This may be unrelated, but my blood pressure went up to your levels after I had covid.

NicoleC1971 · May 27, 2022

I'd concur with the above. You've lowered your weight and insulin levels which both cause higher hp normally. Well done on all of that btw and I hope you are feeling better for it.
Assuming this isn't a white coat syndrome type reading, I'd be looking at sleep, alcohol and stress management of chronic stressors (where your fight and flight responses tend to predominate over your calming parasympathetic nervous system).

Outlier · May 28, 2022

Well done for what you have achieved!

Check out your other meds in case they cause a rise in blood pressure. Also in some people, coffee can cause rises.

Case_ · May 30, 2022

One possibility how low carb could increase blood pressure is if your body was so used to high blood sugar levels that it now interprets your normal levels as too low (or borderline low). In that case, it will start releasing stress hormones to raise the blood sugar levels, and these stress hormones also happen to raise your blood pressure.

Similarly this also happens when your body overproduces insulin for your now much lower needs - it can take a fairly long time for it to "calibrate" properly to the new situation. It could easily take many months,

I believe this is what many call "false hypos", but the problem here is that your symptoms might not be fully hypoglycemic, you might just have some very mild symptoms that can be easy to miss, especially if you're not familiar with them.

I have this exact problem, and it's only getting better very slowly - I rarely get full-blown false hypo symptoms, but I do get these mild stress responses all the time. Though in my case it's a bit more complicated due to the fact that in general, my body overreacts to any kind of stress (including blood sugar related one) and tends to produce a way more of the stress hormones than needed as a result (which also worsens my blood sugar control, of course).

KennyA · May 30, 2022

BenCP said:
A quick(ish) question….

I was diagnosed T2 last August when my glucose level was averaging 14 -15 mmol/l. Having read this forum and looked at other research, I went as close to zero carb as I can. The result? At my diabetes review in April my glucose average was 5,8 mmol/l. I’ve also lost 3 ½ stone in weight which, let’s face it, I needed to do.

However, my blood pressure, which was pretty stable at 130s/80s is now 150s/90s and I wondered if this is related to diet?

I now have skyr with a nut and seed mix and cream for breakfast. Lunch in usually cooked meats and cheese. Dinner is usually chicken, lamb or pork with LOADS of green vegetables.

As always, my doctor wants me to take additional blood pressure medication, in addition to the lisinopril and amlodipine I’ve taken for years but I’d rather fix whatever made it go up in the first place.

Well done! I had a similar experience with raised BP last year, and the nurse solved it for me by having me not look at the machine while the reading was being taken. I was elevating my BP by watching the reading. Worth a shot.

andromache · May 30, 2022

BenCP said:
A quick(ish) question….

I was diagnosed T2 last August when my glucose level was averaging 14 -15 mmol/l. Having read this forum and looked at other research, I went as close to zero carb as I can. The result? At my diabetes review in April my glucose average was 5,8 mmol/l. I’ve also lost 3 ½ stone in weight which, let’s face it, I needed to do.

However, my blood pressure, which was pretty stable at 130s/80s is now 150s/90s and I wondered if this is related to diet?

I now have skyr with a nut and seed mix and cream for breakfast. Lunch in usually cooked meats and cheese. Dinner is usually chicken, lamb or pork with LOADS of green vegetables.

As always, my doctor wants me to take additional blood pressure medication, in addition to the lisinopril and amlodipine I’ve taken for years but I’d rather fix whatever made it go up in the first place.

Many people find that low carb helps manage down BP, but I've been low carb for years and my BP continues to get worse rather than better, so it doesn't always work that way. With me, family history probably has much to answer for, as does advancing age. Like you, I would prefer to manage with lifestyle and minimum meds, but sometimes that just isn't enough. There's never any shame in taking meds to help manage down CVD risk, particularly when you've done (and are doing) you best to help yourself.

BenCP · Jun 7, 2022

Case_ said:
One possibility how low carb could increase blood pressure is if your body was so used to high blood sugar levels that it now interprets your normal levels as too low (or borderline low). In that case, it will start releasing stress hormones to raise the blood sugar levels, and these stress hormones also happen to raise your blood pressure.

Similarly this also happens when your body overproduces insulin for your now much lower needs - it can take a fairly long time for it to "calibrate" properly to the new situation. It could easily take many months,

I believe this is what many call "false hypos", but the problem here is that your symptoms might not be fully hypoglycemic, you might just have some very mild symptoms that can be easy to miss, especially if you're not familiar with them.

I have this exact problem, and it's only getting better very slowly - I rarely get full-blown false hypo symptoms, but I do get these mild stress responses all the time. Though in my case it's a bit more complicated due to the fact that in general, my body overreacts to any kind of stress (including blood sugar related one) and tends to produce a way more of the stress hormones than needed as a result (which also worsens my blood sugar control, of course).

Thanks for all the replies, all helpful and interesting.

This makes a lot of sense. If I release the inner-piglet and have a couple of pints of bitter, my glucose level goes up appreciably and my blood pressure falls back to 130's/70's.

I’m no on 1mg of Doxazosin in addition to my normal Lisinopril and Amlodipine so I’ll see what happens.

Low carb and blood pressure

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