The Real Culprit Behind High BP (Not Salt!)
High blood pressure alone was a contributing—or primary—factor in nearly 350,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2009 alone.1 It’s a problem most people living with struggle to keep under control.
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High blood pressure alone was a contributing—or primary—factor in nearly 350,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2009 alone.1 It’s a problem most people living with struggle to keep under control.
That’s because they’re likely going about it all wrong.
For years doctors said getting rid of salt was the key to lowering blood pressure (BP). But that’s not the case. Earlier this year, a study in the American Journal of Hypertension revealed salt doesn’t actually raise BP.
People with high BP did tend to eat more salt… But they were also the ones that drank more alcohol and carried more body fat. These factors were better indicators of BP status than salt intake alone.2
Now new research reveals the medical community may have been blaming the wrong white crystals: Sugar is the true cause of your high BP.
Researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute found subjects who got about 30% of their daily calories from sugar increased systolic and diastolic BP by 7 mm/Hg and 5.6 mm/Hg respectively. And it only took eight weeks.3
They also found people who get 25% of their daily calories from sugar are at three times more likely to die of heart disease.4 And getting that much sugar isn’t hard to do…
Just one can of Coca-Cola comes in at 140 calories. All 140 of those calories come from sugar.5That means drinking three cans of it a day would put you just shy of tripling your heart disease risk. But that’s in the long term…
Previous studies revealed that men who drank a 24 oz drink sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup saw a 12-point overall increase in blood pressure. Their heart rate increased by nine beats per minute. It only took six hours to see these effects.6
In other words, sugar wrecks your blood pressure. And fast.
The World Health Organization estimates adolescents are consuming between 6-16 times the amount of sugar recommended by the American Heart Association. Meanwhile, a study of over 100,000 patients found eating less than three grams of salt a day may put your heart in danger. Staying within the 3-6 gram range may lower your risk of cardiovascular events—and death.7
People are avoiding salt to “protect” their heart. Yet at the same time we’re fed more sugar than ever.
Our advice is to skip sugar entirely. Don’t use artificial sweeteners either. They both put your heart at unnecessary risk. But it’s just as important to not shun salt. Your body needs it to function.
We recommend switching to Celtic or pink Himalayan Sea salts. These provide you with trace minerals your body craves.
References:
1http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/286795.php
2http://time.com/3313332/salt-and-blood-pressure/
3http://openheart.bmj.com/content/1/1/e000167.full
4Idem
5http://www.sugarstacks.com/beverages.htm
6http://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/S0026-0495(11)00315-5/abstract
7Id.
1http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/286795.php
2http://time.com/3313332/salt-and-blood-pressure/
3http://openheart.bmj.com/content/1/1/e000167.full
4Idem
5http://www.sugarstacks.com/beverages.htm
6http://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/S0026-0495(11)00315-5/abstract
7Id.
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