subject: Kidney Disease Diet - The High Blood Pressure And Sodium Connection: Is Salt Raising Your Blood Pres [print this page] You can have your cake and consume it too -- certainly it's a good thing you can reduce your blood pressure and have your salt as well. That's what recent study istelling us about sodium's part in managing blood pressure. Hypertension, it turns out, is not triggered by a lot of salt. Neither is it lowered by merely cutting salt out of your diet plan. So how is it that table salt (sodium) is nevertheless obtaining this kind of a poor rap and being linked to high blood pressure? The real culprit it turns out isn't salt, but how your body deals with sodium and its proportion to the amount of potassium, calcium and magnesium in your body.
There are a few simple ways to ensure all the essential minerals in your body are in balance. These include:
1. Consuming a well-balanced diet plan with a variety of food. This will ensure that you're getting a wide range of nutrients and not just one or two important elements.
2. Making sure you receive enough calcium -- 2000 mg per day. Calcium is important to bone density, but in connection to blood pressure, it's thought that low calcium levels can really trigger high blood pressure. Calcium is really a natural diuretic, so when salt is consumed, even larger quantities, having sufficient calcium signals the kidneys to get rid of the excess salt. Also, calcium helps prevent a certain hormone that raises blood pressure from being released and doing its damage.
3. Obtaining a lot of potassium. Studies have shown that diets high in potassium and lower in sodium can prevent many diseases and keep blood pressure lower. On the other hand, when there's much more sodium than potassium, blood pressure goes up. Balance the two, and you can make excellent strides in controlling hypertension.
Listed here are a few food suggestions for getting enough of these important minerals:
Calcium -- Aside from dairy products, which could be high in fat and hard on the digestive system, broccoli, spinach, and salmon are good sources.
Magnesium -- Food such as whole grains, nuts and black beans will help you get the beneficial 400-800 mg everyday of magnesium.
Potassium -- bananas, potatoes, orange juice, and cantaloupe all supply potassium. Potassium is the most substantiated mineral in managing blood pressure.
When even great food choices leave you feeling you are missing in essential minerals, supplements can pick up the slack. Regardless of whether through food choices or supplements, obtaining enough minerals into your diet is necessary to counteract the effect of sodium in the battle with high blood pressure.
