How High Blood Pressure Makes You Fat and How High Blood Pressure Can Prevent Weight loss

How are high blood pressure and the inability to shed weight linked?

Research suggests that lowering blood pressure can indeed lead to succeeding at weightloss. How is this possible?

We already know that high blood pressure, or what is clinically called hypertension, is strongly associated with increased risk of strokes and heart attacks.

Nevertheless, researchers have not been able to demonstrate that reducing hypertension with drug treatment, even when done successfully, decreases either incidence or death from heart disease:

"Despite reductions in the age-related incidence of myocardial infarction and improved control of blood pressure the prevalence of heart failure does not seem to be falling and may be rising." (The Lancet; Aug. 29 '98)

Why Not Just Meds for High Blood Pressure?

Nutrition experts Nikki and David Goldbeck point to a reason why reducing blood pressure with drugs may be unsuccessful in reducing the risk of death from heart disease.

Why? Because the drugs do not address what is now believed to be an underlying cause: too much insulin in the blood.

If hypertension is complicated by insulin resistance, they explain, the overflow of insulin into the blood must also be remedied before heart disease can be minimized.

Treating high blood pressure with drugs does not tend to reduce insulin resistance or alleviate hyper-insulinemia.

In some cases drug-induced blood pressure management is actually accompanied by a worse blood lipid profile, consisting of: higher triglycerides, a higher concentration of damaging, harmful LDL’s and a lower level of the protective HDL’s, so check this with your doctor. SEE:

Nikki and David Goldbeck: The Healthiest Diet in the World Using Nutrition or Meds for High Blood Pressure?

How Can High Blood Pressure Make You Fat?

If an underlying condition of high blood pressure is too much insulin in your blood, you gain weight. Why?

When an insulin-resistant person eats carbohydrates, the glucose that emerges in the bloodstream often triggers the release of more insulin than is normally needed.

The result of too much insulin in the blood:

• Increases hunger and the desire for carbohydrates

• Increases the number and size of fat cells

• Prevents the body from removing stored energy from muscle and fat tissues

Signs of insulin resistance:

• Increase in appetite rather than satisfaction following carbohydrate-rich meals

• A tendency to gain weight even with modest calorie intake

• Difficulty shedding unwanted pounds

Solve High Blood Pressure AND Weight Gain

Reducing insulin to normal levels often corrects high blood pressure, along with improving blood lipids. This can BEST be done with both diet and exercise.

In addition to diet, exercise changes how the body uses carbohydrates and improves insulin resistance. Not surprisingly, exercise is also recommended to control blood pressure, and is one of the few ways to improve the HDL ratio.

Eating More Fats Can Reduce Insulin

By having patients CUT DOWN on carbohydrates and EATING MORE FATS, Dr. D. Schwarzbein found that her diabetic patients BEGAN TO LOSE WEIGHT.

When these patients deviated from the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), they very quickly began to lose weight.

To everyone's surprise, the "cheaters" who were eating more butter, cheese, eggs and steak than suggested, improved their blood sugar levels even more than the others!

Patients felt satiated and their energy improved. Their cholesterol levels were improving along with their blood sugar levels.

Dr. Schwarzbein reasoned that the ADA diet they had been on had caused their blood sugars to sky rocket after meals because of the hidden sugars in the form of carbohydrates, and had kept their weight up.

WHY COULD THESE PATIENTS EAT MORE FAT AND LOSE WEIGHT?

It turns out that insulin levels control weight gains more than fat intake. Both fat and cholesterol DEPRIVATION disrupt metabolic processes, because both good fats AND cholesterol are ESSENTIAL to biochemical processes.

What Dr. Schwarzbein found in both her research and her patients, was that the CONVENTIONAL WISDOM that EATING FAT is bad for the heart was wrong. Rather, it was HIGH INSULIN LEVELS that are associated with plaque deposits in the arteries.

By EATING more FATS and CHOLESTEROL than the ADA diet these patients were able to LOWER their INSULIN LEVELS and switch off the body's production of cholesterol.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE also changed. Why? Insulin, it turned out was the real culprit. WITHOUT FAT, it was found, INSULIN LEVELS RISE HIGHER in the blood, leading to other factors that cause high blood pressure, or hypertension. (see Dr. Schwarzbein's foreword to Suzanne Somers' GET SKINNY)

FIND OUT HOW TO USE FATS AND CARBS FOR WEIGHTLOSS and better INSULIN LEVELS: Suzanne Somers' GET SKINNY on Fabulous Food Oprah’s guest, Dr. Mehmet Oz: YOU The Owner's Manual Weight Loss: Self-Defeating Habits of Successful People

Many Symptoms With One Common Thread

High blood pressure is usually part of a cluster of health problems called the Metabolic Syndrome:

• High Blood Pressure • Cholesterol Abnormalities • Elevated Triglyceride Levels and Blood Sugar Levels • Belly Fat – a concentration of fat around the abdomen

People with this syndrome are more prone to heart attacks and strokes. Although these disorders have been linked together for years, a common thread was not recognized: This common thread, or underlying cause, is now believed to by hyper-insulinemia.

What is hyper-insulinemia?

Hyper-insulinemia is EXTRA INSULIN IN THE BLOOD – a concern not only for diabetics. It also occurs in many people who do not have diabetes.

While it is not clear whether insulin itself a direct promoter of heart disease, or whether it influence heart disease by altering other risk factors e.g. high circulating fats (serum triglycerides) high blood pressure, high blood pressure, etc. The answer to that is not clear, but the result is the same:

• UNLESS THE AMOUNT OF INSULIN IN THE BLOOD IS WITHIN A NORMAL RANGE, YOU MAY BE AT RISK OF HEART DISEASE OR STROKE.

Lowering Insulin AND High Blood Pressure

The fiber in vegetables makes an enormous contribution. In experimental diets showing significant improvement in insulin use, the fiber in starchy vegetables (including peas, corn, and legumes), combined with other vegetables, generally accounts for the largest benefits, followed by grains and then fruit.

Vegetables and fruit have been repeatedly shown to protect against high blood pressure and heart disease. “We observed that people who consumed more vegetables and fruit, compared to people who ate little no or vegetables and fruit, had a 27 percent lower risk of having a heart attack,”

Dr. Romaina Iqbal told the Cardiovascular Congress 2006., co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.

“This study provides more proof that you ARE what you eat, and what you eat could be killing you, according to Dr. Iqbal.”

To test the value of dietary intervention, one hospital provided a group of patients with a vegetable-fruit enriched diet during the first week after an acute heart attack.

As part of an overall fat-restricted menu, the diet included 400 grams of vegetable/fruit daily.

As a result, blood levels of all cardiac risk factors improved on this regimen, compared with the control group who was given a diet with only half as much of these foods.

The blood tests of participants who consumed extra vegetables and fruit (as much as 680 grams a day) exhibited even greater improvement.

Short term follow up reported a decreased rate of repeat incidence, and a year later there were fewer deaths from all causes in the initial intervention patients. (Nikki & David Goldbeck)

Other studies have reported that flavonoid intake explained about 25 percent of the variation in deaths from heart disease.

Carbohydrates and Appetite

While our bodies can get needed from fats and to some degree proteins, the brain and central nervous system must be fueled by carbohydrates.

Research supports the notion that all carbohydrates -- both sugars and starches – quickly suppress hunger and boost satiety for a time.

Under ideal conditions, the body responds by matching insulin levels to the glucose that is released from carbohydrate breakdown, and as a result, our appetite diminishes.

However, sugars and certain starches tend to cause insulin to be released very early and quickly, so that:

• This quick insulin reaction will cause satisfaction to be short-lived and hunger will soon return. The natural response is to eat more.

• Repeated spurts of elevated blood sugar encourage cells to become insulin resistant, setting the stage for the body to increase and preserve its fat reserves.

No - Diet Strategies for Cravings Get New Ideas from All Kinds of Vegetarian Cookbooks

No More White Stuff!

Dr. Liu and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who had the greatest intake of dietary high fiber whole grains had 49% lower risk of major weight gain over a 12-year period than those with the lowest intake of whole grains. Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this article re-enforces the negative effect of relying on refined grains in the diet.

The article nicely complements another article by Dr. Liese and colleagues in the same issue on the role of whole grains in stopping insulin resistance and PREVENTING OBESITY-RELATED DIABETES and coronary heart disease.

Even when factors such as weight, overall diet and exercise habits were considered, whole-grain intake was still independently associated with a reduced risk of METABOLIC SYNDROME and death from cardiovascular disease.

Overall, the researchers found that men and women with the highest whole-grain intake -- typically three servings a day -- were less than half as likely to have metabolic syndrome as their peers who consumed less than one serving of whole grains per day.

Similarly, whole-grain eaters were about half as likely to die from cardiovascular disease over the next 12 to 15 years. Men and women who ate more whole grains also tended to have lower blood sugar levels and to weigh less than those who favored refined grains. (Dr. N R. Sahyoun, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)

More Bananas, Oranges, Spinach and Tomatoes

Increasing your consumption of potassium has also been shown to lower blood pressure, regulate heart rhythm and lower your risk of stroke.

Potassium-rich foods include bananas, orange juice, spinach and tomatoes.

Walnuts Reduce Risk of Heart Disease

The heart benefits of walnuts include lowering cholesterol, reducing inflammation AND high blood pressure as well as improving arterial function.

Even the fish-rich Japanese diet became even more beneficial by adding walnuts, according to a study at Kyushu University, Tokyo, that showed a reduction in serum lipid levels of those eating walnuts.

Getting started by substituting a hand full of walnuts instead of that mid-afternoon cookie is one big step in a new direction toward both successful weight loss and lower blood pressure.

Does Eating Sugar Cause Diabetes?

For years the medical community insisted that eating sugar and refined carbohydrates does not cause diabetes.

However, a Harvard study clearly shows that cola drinks, jams, refined breadstuffs, white rice and potatoes were among the foods associated with diabetes incidence. (Based on 65,000 disease-free U.S. women in the Nurses’ Health Study)

The conclusion of the study was that “diets with a high glycemic load and a low cereal fiber content increase risk of diabetes in women.” To counter this, they suggest eating whole grains and low glycemic foods.

Learn About the Glycemic Index

High Blood Pressure Leads to Mental Decline

A study at the Mayo Clinic linked both diabetes and high blood pressure to a decline in mental ability.

"While the participants in the study may not have noticed any decline in their mental ability, the decline was statistically significant," says David Knopman, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist and the senior author of the study.

The study results are leading researchers to believe that controlling hypertension and diabetes that begin before age 60 might lessen the burden of cognitive impairment later in life. "The results point to the fact that there are things some people may be able to do during middle age to help preserve our mental abilities later in life."

High cholesterol, on the other hand, is associated with slightly better mental functioning as we age!

Lowering high blood pressure naturally, is from this point of view a high priority!

Links:

Using Nutrition or Meds for Your Blood Pressure? What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About(TM) Hypertension: The Revolutionary Nutrition and Lifestyle Program to Help Fight High Blood Pressure Controlling Your Blood Pressure the Natural Way (Paperback) The Evolution Diet: What and How We Were Designed to Eat (Paperback) You: On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management (Hardcover) The Insulin-Resistance Diet : How to Turn Off Your Body's Fat-Making Machine (Paperback) The Metabolic Syndrome Program: How to Lose Weight, Beat Heart Disease, Stop Insulin Resistance and More (Paperback) Blood Sugar Blues: Overcoming the Hidden Dangers of Insulin Resistance (Paperback) Lowering Cholesterol Without Medication or Statins e.g. Lipitor How I Lowered My High Cholesterol Naturally, by Shirley, R.N.

Fats, Diets & the Glycemic Index: How High Blood Pressure or Hypertension can Prevent Weight loss

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