Blood Pressure Question

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dajero1
dajero1 Posts: 78 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Can eating a high salt diet for just two days shoot your bp up if you already have the tendency to high bp and are trying to go it with out your medication?

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  • bridgegetsfit
    bridgegetsfit Posts: 32 Member
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    Yes, salt can raise your blood pressure.
  • stefjc
    stefjc Posts: 484 Member
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    And why not take your meds?

    At the very least they can make exercise safer so you can reduce BP safely and then stop taking them.
  • angelpearls
    angelpearls Posts: 17 Member
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    Eating a high salt diet can raise your blood pressure. It's beneficial to maintain a lower sodium diet and take your antihypertensive medication. High blood pressure can cause damage to your vessels over time. I have to take medication for my hypertension and even with a 38lb weight loss and normal BMI, still require it. It sucks to have to take medicaton, but it's much better to have your blood pressure under control in the long run.
  • Vune
    Vune Posts: 672 Member
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    I take a beta blocker religiously for my migraines and anxiety. My doctor (a transplant nephrologist) advised me to push salty food when taking it because my blood pressure runs normal-to-low.

    When I had a lengthy stay in the ER recently, they didn't get a full medical history, saw the kidney transplant and the beta blocker, and fed me low sodium meals. After 2 or 3 of them, they saw my plummeting BP and started including salt with my meals instead of Mrs. Dash!

    So, some anecdotal evidence that salt can influence your BP, even meal-to-meal. And, yes, use your currently prescribed BP medication as a tool to help you permanently lower it.
  • toutmonpossible
    toutmonpossible Posts: 1,580 Member
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    Yes, salt can raise your blood pressure. So can coffee, and I assume, other substances. If you're trying to see if you can go without meds you should talk to your doctor.
  • Morn66
    Morn66 Posts: 96
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    First of all, I surely hope you didn't just stop taking your meds in order to experiment. Bad, bad idea. At best, you need to be weaned off of them, not just stop them cold, and you definitely shouldn't do so without consulting your doctor. Stopping BP meds like that causes strain on the heart and, frankly, is a good way to bring on a heart attack. Just sayin'.

    As to the general question, yes, sodium has more or less immediate effects on blood pressure because it affects fluid retention. I'm a heart patient, have severe heart failure due to long-undiagnosed misbehaving heart valves which has also subsequently damaged my liver. As a result, I'll retain fluid like crazy and depending on whether I've been a bad girl or a good girl with sodium, I can gain or lose as much as 5 lbs a day of just fluid. Such fluctuations are bad for the kidneys, which will be the next thing to go, so I try to keep things on an even keel as much as I can and keep my sodium intake around 1500mg a day or less. Retaining fluid raises blood pressure, and this is why people with high BP need to avoid sodium.

    That said, if you want to see if you can control your BP with diet/sodium restriction, that's fine and dandy, but for the love of Mike please go back on your meds and talk to your doctor about what you want to do, see if he/she thinks this might be doable in your present condition.

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