Every third adult in North America has high blood pressure. This puts them at risk for heart disease, stroke, heart failure and other chronic diseases. Aside from excess weight, narrowed arteries, smoking, lack of exercise, and alcohol, the high salt content of the Standard American Diet plays a major part in the epidemic of hypertension. After all, Americans take in 10 times more salt than the body actually needs. On the average, we are consuming 10 grams or 10,000 milligrams of salt/day. That’s two teaspoons of salt a day. And, that’s 10 times more salt than the body actually needs.
Salt Consumption
To curb the prevalence of hypertension, the guidelines by the American Medical Association suggest a more ideal sodium content of 1,500 mg/day, or less than 4,000 mg of salt. That is about 4 gm of salt or less than one teaspoon of salt per day. In today’s life it’s hard to get away from salt. About 85 percent of our salt intake comes from fast and processed foods, and from food eaten in restaurants. A taste for salt is easy to develop, and salty snacks and foods abound to accommodate us.
Blood Pressure Medications
The past few years have produced an avalanche of new drugs that are effective in lowering blood pressure. Some are lifesaving. Most of these drugs produce prompt results—the quick fix that Americans love.
But a closer look at hypertension medications reveals some disquieting facts: the drugs do not cure hypertension; they only control it.
Furthermore, these medications have to be taken for life. And they all have side effects such as fatigue, depression, lack of sexual desire and impotence. While these drugs help protect against strokes, they do not give much protection against coronary atherosclerosis (the plugging of heart arteries). Some may actually promote atherosclerosis, diabetes and gouty arthritis.
What are the alternatives?
A number of major scientific studies have shown that simple dietary and lifestyle changes can reverse most essential hypertension in a matter of weeks without drugs.
• A large percentage of people are sensitive to salt and would benefit from its reduction in their diets.
• When the weight goes down blood pressure levels usually fall. Reducing excess weight is often the only treatment needed to correct a rising blood pressure.
• A diet very low in fat yet high in fiber lowers the blood pressure about 10 percent even without weight loss or salt restriction. Thinning of the blood from eating less fat and drinking more water helps produce these benefits.
• Deleting alcohol from the diet will lower blood pressure and will do the body a favor in many other ways.
• Physical exercise lowers blood pressure by reducing peripheral arterial resistance. In addition, regular exercise promotes general health and well-being.
• People taking blood pressure medications should not play doctor and change doses or stop medicines on their own. But those who are willing to make healthful lifestyle changes will usually find their physicians glad to help them eat and exercise their way out of hypertension and medication.