Blood Pressure

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Salt

54.     It is a well established fact that there is a close relationship between sodium intake in salt and BP when comparing people within different countries. For instance, the Japanese, Polish and Portuguese have a high salt intake and a high frequency of raised blood pressure and strokes. Furthermore, it was found that those populations that have a large amount of salt in their diet are also those populations in which blood pressure rises with advancing age. By contrast, populations in which salt intake is low, show only a small rise in blood pressure with advancing age and therefore hypertension is relatively less common.

55.     A high salt intake over many years probably raises blood pressure by raising the sodium content of the smooth muscle cells of the walls of the arterioles. This high sodium content appears to facilitate the entry of calcium into the cells; this in turn causes them to contract and narrow the internal diameter of the arteriole. There is some evidence that people with an inherited tendency to develop hypertension have a reduced capacity to remove salt from their bodies.

56.     When sodium intake exceeds the amount body needs and can handle, it builds up in the intestinal areas, particularly so if you are salt-sensitive. A build up of excess sodium causes the body to retain extra fluids in the blood and around the cells which contributes to weight gain and increased BP. To pump the extra fluid, the heart has to work harder, putting an added strain on the heart and develop blood pressure and associated complications. Water retention due to excessive salt intake can also cause bloating, painful swollen joints, puffy eyes and breast tenderness.

Alcohol

57.     Even without other risk factors for high BP, drinking excessive alcohol (more than two drinks a day) regularly contributes to weakening of the heart muscles and can lead to an increase in BP dramatically. Three drinks or more a day can elevate BP by an average of 10 systolic and 4 diastolic points. In the USA excessive drinking is responsible for more than 8% of high BP cases. How crossing 2-drink threshold turns booze from benign to dastardly is still not fully understood, but it could be that heavy drinking regularly may impair the kidneys’ ability to excrete excess sodium – one of the risk factors for high BP.