Looking for help from members high blood pressure!!

dieorloseit
dieorloseit Posts: 33 Member
edited November 20 in Food and Nutrition
Hello I am looking for help from members with or who have had high blood pressure.
I tried the dash diet but it seemed to raise my blood pressure. I was told i was eating not enough salt(450mg daily) it was throwing my electrolytes out of wack.

I was looking on Facebook and seen maybe people have got off their bp meds doing low carb. So I joined a few Facebook low carb groups and WOW they revommend you drink pickle juice or them boulion cubes to get salt saying you need 5000mg daily. I am salt sensitive with any large amount of salt i eat i can actually feel my bp rise.

So if any members here have lowered their bp or know someone who has please let me know what type of foods you eat. I would like to add members with high bp to my friend list to follow their diary for some meal ideas.

Thanks and have a great night.

Replies

  • ZoneFive
    ZoneFive Posts: 570 Member
    If you're salt-sensitive then certainly don't go drinking pickle juice! People who are following a truly ketogenic diet (meaning less than 20g of carbs daily) may have trouble with electrolyte balance, but there's absolutely no other reason -- other than medical reasons -- to do that. You can do low carb without doing keto.

    I have high blood pressure. I eat low(er) carb, I'm very happy with it, and my doctor's pleased with the way my BP numbers are going down. He feels that there's a good chance that I'll be able to get off the meds if I keep up with my progress. I drink a fair amount of water but I'm not a stickler for 8-glasses-a-day. My diary's open to friends, so you'll be able to see how I'm going about it.

    All of us need to write our own diets. It's perfectly fine to start out with a "packaged" or named diet, but you'll have to tweak any plan to work for you personally. Maybe start with a couple of weeks just logging what you normally eat so you have an idea of a baseline. Then see where the calories seem to come from the most, and where you can afford to cut back.
  • megpie41
    megpie41 Posts: 164 Member
    edited August 2017
    dieorloseit wrote: »
    So I joined a few Facebook low carb groups and WOW they revommend you drink pickle juice or them boulion cubes to get salt saying you need 5000mg daily. I am salt sensitive with any large amount of salt i eat i can actually feel my bp rise.

    I don't have high blood pressure, but this statement really caught my attention. I could be completely wrong, but I thought too much salt RAISED blood pressure? Food guidelines recommend no more than 2000mg a day (on the high end), so how would 5000mg be healthy? I was under the impression that it was better to shoot for 1500mg/day.

    I personally have never heard anything that recommended a diet so high in salt...maybe there is a reasoning I'm not aware of?
  • jaycam1989
    jaycam1989 Posts: 35 Member
    megpie41 wrote: »
    dieorloseit wrote: »
    So I joined a few Facebook low carb groups and WOW they revommend you drink pickle juice or them boulion cubes to get salt saying you need 5000mg daily. I am salt sensitive with any large amount of salt i eat i can actually feel my bp rise.

    I don't have high blood pressure, but this statement really caught my attention. I could be completely wrong, but I thought too much salt RAISED blood pressure? Food guidelines recommend no more than 2000mg a day (on the high end), so how would 5000mg be healthy? I was under the impression that it was better to shoot for 1500mg/day.

    I personally have never heard anything that recommended a diet so high in salt...maybe there is a reasoning I'm not aware of?

    I had high BP and yes indeed, my doctor advised me to reduce my sodium intake. I used to put salt EVERYWHERE. I now never add salt on anything. I also reduced on coffee and added more cardio to my workouts and i got off my BP meds.

    Also, High BP = Kidney's are having a hard time. Add too much sodium in that equation and you know what your aiming for..
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    edited August 2017
    dieorloseit wrote: »
    Hello I am looking for help from members with or who have had high blood pressure.
    I tried the dash diet but it seemed to raise my blood pressure. I was told i was eating not enough salt(450mg daily) it was throwing my electrolytes out of wack.

    I was looking on Facebook and seen maybe people have got off their bp meds doing low carb. So I joined a few Facebook low carb groups and WOW they revommend you drink pickle juice or them boulion cubes to get salt saying you need 5000mg daily. I am salt sensitive with any large amount of salt i eat i can actually feel my bp rise.

    So if any members here have lowered their bp or know someone who has please let me know what type of foods you eat. I would like to add members with high bp to my friend list to follow their diary for some meal ideas.

    Thanks and have a great night.

    Stop reading nonsense, you will end up in the hospital if you follow the advice you just posted.
    If your dr has not given you a lifestyle change plan, you need a new dr. If you have high blood pressure the basic steps are limiting or ideally eliminating sodium (the crazy high numbers you stated you read could give you a stroke, despite the medication), limit fat (esepcially animal fat and fried things) and also limit protein (again especially animal protein), because kidneys suffer with high blood pressure.
    So, the usual medical advice is actually pretty much the opposite of the crazy things you read:
    -low sodium diet (not just no longer buy salt, but avoid anything that tastes salty, like chips, deli meats, many cheeses, most canned things, and check labels even for things you would not expect to have salt in, like biscuits etc)
    -low animal fat, limit butter, fatty meats, fried food, so no high fat diet for you
    -protein in moderation, especially animal protein, so no high protein diet for you
    Aim for more fruit, vegetables (fresh, or if canned check labels for no added sodium, and it is going to be challenging), fish.
    And of course aim for a healthy weight and stay physically active
  • love_nat
    love_nat Posts: 3 Member
    My family suffers from HPB. We have cut back on our overall carb intake and I mostly cook without the use of salt. Although some experts are changing their tune about salt, you can read the article yourself and draw upon your own conclusions (included below). What I began to do was eat a low carb/high fat diet. I add oils to most of the food that I consume, but I still continue to cook without salt, as I get a headache when I consume something that is too salty and many food, even if you read the label of a whole raw chicken contains sodium. My advice is that you should eat in a way that makes you feel at your personal best. If something on FB sounds too weird, then use your own best judgement.

    https://www.dietdoctor.com/?s=salt

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/08/a-danger-to-public-health-uproar-as-scientist-urges-us-to-eat-more-salt

    Certificate in Food, Nutrition, and Health
    Certificate in Nutrition, Chronic Disease, and Health Promotion
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    Weight loss and regular exercise helped my BP a lot. It's now in the normal range, and before exercise it was close to needing medical intervention.

    Take a brisk walk for 30 minutes a day, it does wonders!
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    My husband lowered his BP using vitamin C and lysine...took all of 3 days to kick in...
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
    What you said about having high blood pressure due to not eating enough salt is a bit odd to me, since from personal experience not having enough sodium tends to do the opposite (give low blood pressure). Are you drinking a lot of water/fluids? Too much water in the blood can cause high blood pressure as well.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
    Okay, losing weight and exercise are key ... to everything ... I'm going to ignore that for the moment and talk about what hubby and I are doing.

    1. Getting regular BP measurements from the doctor (about 4 times a year)
    2. Taking our BP medicine as prescribed every day, even during those dread times we have to adjust to a new med.
    3. Keeping track of our sodium intake and striving toward keeping our daily sodium less than 1500 mg/day.

    Happily, you can set your MFP diary to show you your daily sodium intake. It means being careful to choose diary entries that have the sodium listed -- some member input ones don't.

    We've buy, salt-free peanut butter, Mrs. Dash and Penzey's salt-free seasonings, unsalted tortilla chips, etc. We bought online: salt-free baking powder, baking soda and even dill pickles. We use unsalted butter.

    I make salt-free "breakfast sausage" from ground chicken and pork and a lot of seasonings. I don't automatically add salt to cooking and have started using a salt grinder so I only put in a tiny bit when I do.

    We're not always within our sodium limits but most days we are well-below 1500 mg. and we are not feeling deprived. We reserve most of our sodium for CHEESE. We love cheese! Wallace of "Wallace & Gromit" is our hero.

    Good luck in your low sodium adventures!
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