Dietary Causes of Hypertension Information

Introduction

There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.

Possible causes:

We all know what causes high blood pressure, don't we. It's because we eat too much salt. Well, that might be the politically correct line, but it doesn't square with the scientific evidence.

Carbohydrates and cardiovascular diseases

Some 25% of the adult US population suffers from high blood pressure and the problem is even more widespread among the elderly, of whom 50% are sufferers. In the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other countries that follow 'healthy eating' guidelines, the situation is catching up. Simply put, the heavier we become, the more prone we are to hypertension.

As there is a strong link between obesity and hypertension, it's easy to understand why there has been such a steep rise in hypertension in Western industrialised nations such as the USA and UK in recent years. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in these countries, and the enormously high levels of hypertension among the population appear to follow this trend closely.

An indicator that carbohydrates could be a causal factor in cardiovascular diseases came from a study of coeliac patients at the University of Nottingham. Coeliacs mustn't eat cereal grains. Although rates of heart attack and stroke were not substantially different, adults with coeliac disease and not eating grains did have less hypertension (high blood pressure) and high blood cholesterol compared with the general population.[1]

Populations without a long history of eating sugary and starchy foods are more prone to high levels of insulin in the blood as a result of the unaccustomed high intakes of carbohydrates and the resultant high blood glucose levels. These peoples are also much more prone to the consequences: not just hypertension but type-2 diabetes, obesity, and coronary heart disease.[2]

This adds to the weight of evidence against our so-called 'healthy' diet.

Exercise: Too much of a good thing?

The reason we have the potential for rapid movement is that we have evolved to be able to escape from danger and to survive in a wide range of dangerous and adverse circumstances. This ability is built into our bodies' emergency system: the 'fight or flight reflex'. Activated by the need to run away from danger or stay and fight — or as a result of strenuous exercise — this reflex causes a number of automatic responses which prepare the body to face, or run from, the danger to come: the heartbeat is accelerated; minor blood vessels are constricted so that more blood is fed to the brain and muscles; the lungs take in more oxygen; the amount of cholesterol in the blood is increased; adrenaline is pumped into the bloodstream helping these changes, stopping or slowing the digestive process, and stimulating the conversion of glycogen, a form of sugar stored by the body, into glucose which the body can use more easily as a source of energy.

These changes, in the natural world, are designed to last for a short time: the time of the emergency, after which the body can return to normal. In the case of prolonged physical exertion, however, the body is forced to continue, setting in motion a series of changes called the General Adaption Syndrome. A major and important change is the prolonged production of a group of adrenal hormones called corticosteroids. An excessive production of corticosteroids has been shown to produce hypertension and other symptoms of heart disease.[3]

Lack of sunlight

The third cause of high blood pressure is not getting enough sunlight — another result of following a so-called 'healthy' lifestyle. A study conducted at the Department of Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, noticed that mean blood pressures, both systolic and diastolic, as well as the prevalence of hypertension vary widely throughout the world.[4] Published data showed a consistent rise in blood pressure in populations at increasing distances from the equator. They also found that blood pressure is higher in winter than summer; and that blood pressure was also higher in people with darker skin pigmentation.

Another study, conducted by scientists at Bologna University, Italy, of several tribes across central Asia, living at heights from 600m to 3,200m above sea level, produced evidence that confirmed the inverse relationship between sunlight and blood pressure. Hypertension was much more frequent at low altitudes than at high altitude.[5] The strength of UVB, the wavelength that produces vitamin D in the skin, is much greater when the atmosphere is thinner.

Conclusion

If you have high blood pressure, cut down on the bread and cereals, get out in the sun more — in the middle of the day, and without sunscreen, and take only light exercise.

References

1. West J, Logan RF, Card TR, Smith C, Hubbard R. Risk of vascular disease in adults with diagnosed coeliac disease: a population-based study. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2004; 20: 73-9.
2. Brand-Miller JC, Colagiuri S. The carnivore connection: dietary carbohydrate in the evolution of NIDDM. Diabetologia 1994; 37: 1280-1286.
3. Sholter DE, Armstrong PW. Adverse effects of corticosteroids on the cardiovascular system. Can J Cardiol 2000; 16: 505-511.
4. Rostand SG. Ultraviolet light may contribute to geographic and racial blood pressure differences. Hypertension 1997; 30 (2 Pt 1):150-6.
5. Fiori G, Facchini F, Pettener D, et al. Relationships between blood pressure, anthropometric characteristics and blood lipids in high- and low-altitude populations from Central Asia. Ann Hum Biol 2000; 27: 19-28.

When doctors won't tell . . .
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This site was one of that five.

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