Potassium lowers blood pressure. New study

http://www.scientistlive.com/European-Science-News/Medical/Potassium_lowers_blood_pressure/21618/

Well I've been telling people for years, both in this blog and on my website (www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk) that potassium lowers blood pressure and that the way in which it does that is by displacing some excess sodium from the bloodstream.

Anyway, the link I have given from the scientistlive.com website gives interesting information from a new study. Obviously the main dietary change necessary to lower high blood pressure is to reduce sodium intake, but when lower sodium is accompanied by plenty of potassium this lowers high blood pressure even more.

I recommend you read the whole article, but here, at any rate, is an extract from it:

"The new study "is a quantum leap in the quality of the data compared to what we have had before," Whelton said.

Whelton was a member of a recent Institute of Medicine panel that set dietary recommendations for salt and potassium. The panel said healthy 19-to-50 year-old adults should consume no more than 2,300 milligrammes of sodium per day -- equivalent to one teaspoon of table salt. More than 95 percent of American men and 75 percent of American women in this age range exceed this amount.

To lower blood pressure and blunt the effects of salt, adults should consume 4.7 grams of potassium per day unless they have a clinical condition or medication need that is a contraindication to increased potassium intake. Most American adults aged 31-to-50 consume only about half as much as recommended in the Institute of Medicine report. Changes in diet and physical activity should be under the supervision of a health care professional.

Good potassium sources include fruits, vegetables, dairy foods and fish. Foods that are especially rich in potassium include potatoes and sweet potatoes, fat-free milk and yogurt, tuna, lima beans, bananas, tomato sauce and orange juice. Potassium also is available in supplements.

Whelton is among the nation's top experts on high blood pressure. He has published more than 400 papers on the subject, and has been the principal investigator on more than $100 million of studies funded by the National Institutes of Health."

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

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amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

If you want to avoid weight gain over the Christmas period, don't cut down on food. Just cut down on sodium, aka salt.

How to stay trim over Christmas
the British Nutrition Foundation's advice given in the Telegraph about how to avoid putting weight on over Christmas. - It's a great shame that even the nutrition experts are giving the wrong advice about this...)o:

e.g. Ursula Arens, spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association and Elisabeth Weichselbaum of the British Nutrition Foundation are both advising calorie reduction with regard to food, and fitness expert Joanna Hall is advising increasing exercise in order to burn off fat. Neither of these measures reduces or prevents overweight! - Calorie counting and fat reduction are aiming at the wrong targets. - Overweight is caused by fluid retention/salt sensitivity, and is safely, speedily and very easily reduced by giving up dieting altogether and simply concentrating on avoiding salt and salty food. - Try to eat as little salt/sodium as possible. This reduces excess weight by reducing fluid retention, which is the cause of excess weight. - So it would be best not to sprinkle salt on your Christmas meals, best to avoid salted crisps and salted nuts, pork pies, salty takeaways and ready meals, sausages, bacon and the like, best not to eat a lot of bread because most bread contains a lot of salt. But there's no need to avoid chocolates because most chocolate contains very little salt and so will not cause you to put weight on. And fruit is extra good for you if you want to lose excess weight or avoid gaining it, so don't let anyone tell you that bananas are fattening because of their calorie content. - Bananas are NOT fattening. They are a very healthy food containing potassium and vitamin B6 and fibre, all of which help 'slimmers'.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

See Sodium in foods

vulnerable groups

See amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Dried apricots and bananas would help you to lose excess weight. Here is a list of foods that are helpful and a list of foods it is best to avoid.

See Sodium in foods

The foods in green are the goodies. The foods in red are the ones to cut down on or avoid altogether if you are wanting to lose excess weight.