Large amounts of salt consumption can cause resistant hypertension, and it becomes almost impossible to lower blood pressure even if the patient takes necessary drugs.
A team of researchers from University of Alabama followed 13 patients with resistant hypertension, who were taking even high or low salt diet. The patients were checked to see how they responded to different combinations of drugs.
Blood Pressure
Those who were on a lower salt diet had the systolic blood pressure lowered by 22.6 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure by 9.2 mmHg, compared to those on high salt diet. Overall, the patients on low salt diet reported a better health state than the others, with appropriate body weight and levels of brain natriuretic peptide and thoracic fluid.
Resistant hypertension differs from general high blood pressure by its ability to resist drugs. High blood pressure can be usually treated by three antihypertensive drugs, but the resistant is untreatable even with four or more drugs.
"High-salt diet contributes importantly to resistant-to-treatment hypertension and high volume and vascular resistance may contribute to resistant hypertension," said lead researcher Dr. Eduardo Pimenta, now at the Department of Hypertension and Nephrology at the Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
"Patients with resistant hypertension, in spite of three or more antihypertensive drugs, are specially salt-sensitive," Pimenta said. "The blood pressure reduction achieved with low-salt diet was higher than some antihypertensive drugs."
This small study comes to prove previously established showing how important eating habits are for maintaining normal blood pressure, especially for those with resistant form of the disease. There is also Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan especially developed for those suffering from hypertension.