What To Eat At Low Pressure

Content

• Causes of low blood pressure.
• Nutrition for low blood pressure.

Reasons for lowering blood pressure

Low blood pressure, or hypotension, is one of the problems that modern medicine cannot yet cope with. The nature of this disease is multifactorial and is more often the result of another disease than an independent pathology. Hypotension causes no less adverse health effects than hypertension (high blood pressure).

Classically, arterial hypotension is defined as a decrease in blood pressure by more than 20% of the original or below 90/60 mm Hg. Art. and is manifested by headache, dizziness, irritability, excessive sweating, sometimes nausea, weakness, up to loss of consciousness. The most common causes of hypotension are disruption of the cardiovascular system, anemia of various origins, blood loss (gastric and duodenal ulcer, uterine bleeding, trauma, liver disease), decreased functional activity of the thyroid gland, adrenal exhaustion, severe dehydration.

The goal of correcting low blood pressure is to identify and eliminate the causative factor; An important role in this is given to the diet: it is known that some foods can lower blood pressure, while others, on the contrary, increase it.

Power supply under reduced pressure

1. With hypotension, the diet includes offal: liver, kidneys, heart - a storehouse of vitamin B12 (cobalamin) and iron. Both nutrients are necessary for the formation and maturation of erythrocytes in the red bone marrow, which act as a "taxi" and transport oxygen to the cells, and carbon dioxide back to the alveoli of the lungs. With a lack of cobalamin and iron, hematopoietic processes are disturbed - anemia (oxygen starvation) develops, leading to dysfunction of the cardiovascular apparatus and changes in blood pressure (and usually an increase is replaced by a decrease).

2. Cheeses are recommended (in the absence of contraindications: allergies to milk protein, lactase deficiency, inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract), which are rich in tyramine, a derivative of the amino acid tyrosine. This biologically active compound acts on specific receptors in the walls of blood vessels, leads to their narrowing and, as a result, to an increase in blood pressure.

3. It is important to include complex carbohydrates in the diet: cereals, legumes, grains are essential foods for low blood pressure. The process of their splitting and digestion is long and requires the participation of a number of enzyme systems, which means that the increase in blood glucose levels will be gradual, not abrupt. It is the absence of hypoglycemia (a sharp drop in sugar levels that invariably follows its rapid and significant rise) that prevents dysregulation of blood pressure with the development of characteristic symptoms (dizziness, weakness, loss of consciousness).

4. Required Sources of Antioxidants:

• fruits - oranges, bananas, kiwi, mangoes, apples, pears, apricots;
• berries - strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, red and white currants, blueberries, wild strawberries.

The biologically active compounds contained in them (mostly polyphenols) strengthen the vascular walls, normalize their permeability and maintain an optimal volume of circulating blood.

5. Foods rich in iodine.

Iodine is an essential trace element necessary for adequate production of thyroid hormones (thyroxine and triiodothyronine).

6. Sources of vitamin C - a mandatory component of the diet in case of hypotension. This water-soluble vitamin is necessary for the formation of adrenal hormones, in particular aldosterone. It increases the reverse absorption in the renal tubules of sodium, which "pulls" water along with it - this mechanism underlies the maintenance of normal blood volume and prevents the development of arterial hypotension.

7. The diet should contain sources of protein - both plant and animal origin. They serve as the basis for the formation of certain hormones, including thyroid hormones, which regulate various parts of metabolism and maintain normal blood pressure (increasing cellular sensitivity to the effects of adrenaline and norepinephrine, which are secreted by the adrenal medulla).

8. The diet should contain a sufficient amount of fats - it is cholesterol (which comes with food and is formed directly in the body) that serves as a substrate for the formation of adrenal cortex hormones that regulate water and electrolyte metabolism and thereby prevent blood pressure disorders.

9. Keep track of the water balance - dehydration leads to a decrease in the volume of circulating blood and its thickening, which largely affects the rheology (fluidity) and often becomes the foundation for the formation of microthrombi, leading to an even greater disruption of the blood supply to organs and tissues. Normally, a healthy person needs to consume 30–35 ml of water per 1 kg of body weight.

10. Be careful with caffeine - on the one hand, it really increases blood pressure (due to an increase in heart rate and expansion of peripheral vessels). On the other hand, having a diuretic effect, it provokes water loss.

How to eat healthy with low blood pressure

Follow the diet prescribed by your dietician or nutritionist. Depending on the cause of the decrease in blood pressure, the frequency of meals and its volume will be different: for example, with adrenal exhaustion, it is recommended to avoid long periods and stick to 4-5 meals a day.

A balanced, properly and individually designed diet is a guarantee of health not only of the cardiovascular system, but of the whole organism.