Can a Low Carb Keto Diet Help Reduce High Blood Pressure?

In recent days, researchers have found that maintaining a healthy blood pressure level is even more important for cardiovascular and general health than earlier believed. Weight loss has long been established as a beneficial factor to blood pressure and new studies are indicating that a low-carb, keto diet could be the key to treating this modern-life epidemic.

According to a 2019 research report, low-carb diet is shown to help cases of insulin resistance, lipid profile and hyperinsulinemia, and thus improving blood pressure levels by promoting sodium loss through urine. This could be an explanation of how 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of weight loss reduces 1.6 mmHg (average) in systolic blood pressure.

This article will discuss how lowering carbs with a keto diet like Ideal Protein can help you maintain healthy blood pressure levels.

What is Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure our blood exerts upon the walls of the blood vessels. It’s the force exerted on the arteries, which are the vessels that transport blood away from the heart.

As you may already know, blood pressure (BP) is usually expressed in pairs (one on top of the other). The first number, referred to as systolic pressure, is the amount of pressure exerted upon the arteries when the heart contracts. This value is the highest amount of pressure within the walls of your blood vessels. The second number, known as diastolic pressure, refers to the pressure within the arteries between two heartbeats. Diastolic pressure is typically less than systolic pressure since the heart puts lower pressure on the fluids against the arteries’ walls.

The unit of measurements of both pressures is “mmHg,” – which means millimeters of mercury.

What is Healthy Blood Pressure?

The normal blood pressure for humans is 120/80 millimeters of mercury, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). You are considered healthy if blood pressure typically falls below these values. An individual with a systolic BP within 120 to 139 mmHg and a diastolic BP within 80 to 90 mmHg is said to have a prehypertension condition. If caution and action are not taken, this can lead to high blood pressure (hypertension).

Hypertension is defined as a medical condition in which the arteries’ blood pressure rises above 140/90 mmHg. With time, this can result in a wide range of severe health complications.

According to a study published in the Journal of American Medicine, hypertension is the most common medical condition seen in primary care. It can lead “to myocardial infarction, stroke, renal failure, and death if not detected early and treated appropriately.”

A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the importance of maintaining a healthy blood pressure range. The data obtained suggested that participants with a systolic pressure below 120 mmHg were 21% less likely to die compared to those whose systolic blood pressure was between 120-140 mmHg.

The scientists found that targeting a systolic blood pressure of below 120 millimeters of mercury compared with below 140 mmHg significantly lowered the rates of deadly and non-deadly cardiovascular events and death resulting from any cause.

Several other studies have also emphasized the importance of keeping your blood pressure less than 140/90 millimeters of mercury in maintaining heart health and lowering the odds of death from chronic medical conditions.

Managing High Blood Pressure

About 70 million Americans today suffer from hypertension. However, just 50% of them are able to keep it under check. The AHA suggests that you begin undergoing a blood pressure screening at your physical or medical check-up once you are 20 years of age. More conveniently, most pharmacies have blood pressure reading machines (Sphygmomanometers) for use or purchase, making monitoring convenient and, in some cases, free.

If your blood pressure consistently falls within the hypertensive or prehypertensive range, then you need to consult with your doctor to have a treatment plan designed for you. Your doctor can utilize many methods to treat high blood pressure and maintain an optimal blood pressure range. Physicians, dietitians, and scientists are more than ever looking at how diet can be used as a tool to manage high blood pressure. Moreover, you can combine a balanced diet with exercise, drugs like Lisinopril, and complementary treatments like yoga.

However, there’s some confusion regarding which types of diets work best to manage high blood pressure (hypertension). New studies indicate that a low-carb keto diet can help you manage hypertension.

How Low-carb, Keto Diets are Better for Blood Pressure Levels

A 2007 study published in the American Medicine journal evaluated the impact of a low-carb diet and three other popular diets on blood pressure and other heart fitness measures.

More than 300 premenopausal, non-diabetic, obese/ overweight women chose to participate in this randomized trial, which lasted 12 months. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of four study groups.

What Diets Were Chosen?

The researchers asked the first 77 participants to take a low-carb Atkins diet, where they consumed just 20g or less of carbohydrate every day during the “induction phase,” which is around two to three months. This is then followed by 50g of carbohydrates daily for the next nine to ten months.

The next 79 subjects were asked to follow the “Zone Diet,” which contains 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbohydrates.

Another group of 79 individuals consumed the “LEARN DIET,” which obtains 55-60% of the total energy from carbs and less than 10% from saturated fats. It also emphasized behavioral change and exercise.

The last 76 participants followed the “Ornish Diet”, which included less than 10% of total calories from any kind of fat and 70% of calories from carbohydrates. The researchers also asked all the participants to keep a calorie deficit and get professional support when adapting to their new diets.

The study also provided all the subjects with health-promoting recommendations regarding nutritional supplements, behavioral modifications, and physical exercise. The study architects found the mean blood pressure of all the participants to be 117/75 mmHg.

And What Was Found?

At the end of the study, all the participants who completed their assigned diet experienced significant LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and body mass reductions. However, these reductions were more pronounced in those who were on the Atkins diet.

When comparing data of the higher-carb diet, it was found that the participants in the Zone diet group reduced their systolic blood pressure by an average of 3.3 mmHg, the LEARN group by 3.1 mmHg, and the Ornish diet group by just 1.9 mmHg.

On the contrary, those in the Atkins low carb diet group lowered their systolic blood pressure by an average of 7.6 millimeters of mercury – which is double that of any other group. Similar trends could also be noticed in diastolic BP.

After the end of the one-year study, the subjects in the Zone group reduced their diastolic blood pressure by an average of 2.2 millimeters of mercury. Those in the LEARN diet lowered their diastolic BP by an average of 2.2 millimeters of mercury, whereas women in the Ornish group lowered theirs by an average of 0.7 mmHg. On the other hand, the Atkins group reduced their diastolic blood pressure by an average of 4.4 mmHg – more than double of any other groups.

All in all, the low-carbohydrate Atkins diets reduced systolic BP by 5.76% (from 118 mmHg down to 111.2 mmHg) and their diastolic BP by 2.93% (from 75 mmHg -72.8 mmHg).

What It Revealed

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that premenopausal overweight or obese women who followed

the Atkins diet, which had the lowest carbohydrate intake, lost more weight and experienced more favorable overall metabolic effects at 12 months than those (who followed) the Zone, Ornish, or LEARN diets.

They also pointed out that concerns regarding adverse metabolic effects of the low-carb Atkins diet were not corroborated during the study period.

While Ideal Protein was not included in this particular study, it also weighs in at 45g net carbohydrates daily, healthy fats both from the diet as well as fish oil supplemental support. Decades of clinical use and thousands of patients’ results reflect similar outcomes in other 3rd party verified studies, such as the Aspirus study. Ideal Protein’s advantage over the Atkins and other similar diets is the coaching, satiety, a wide variety of products to chose from, and the invaluable education. Hence, a low-carb diet combined with healthy fats and adequate protein is probably the most effective and sustainable way to reduce blood pressure.

Bottom Line

The Ideal Protein diet, like the Ideal Protein diet, which includes 50 or fewer grams of carbohydrates per day, was by far the most effective in reducing blood pressure and even helped many dieters get off their meds within one year. In contrast, the Ornish diet, which has just 10% or fewer calories from fat, was the least effective diet in lowering blood pressure.

Our recommendations: A diet with 50 or fewer grams of carbohydrates daily is, therefore, recommended if you are looking to reduce your blood pressure. However, it’s essential to consult with your physician to determine if it is okay for you based on your health history. If you are on medications, be prepared to take readings twice a day, log the results and follow up with your prescribing physician to review the results and make adjustments with your medications.

To learn more about ketogenic diets and how Ideal Protein helps high blood pressure and patients with metabolic syndrome lose weight and address their high blood pressure, simply give us a call and schedule a complimentary consultation.

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