Effective lowering of blood pressure through proper nutrition

Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.

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Medicines help to get high blood pressure under control and thus prevent consequential damage, especially arteriosclerosis. The good news: tablets are not always necessary. Proper nutrition also lowers blood pressure levels.

Lots of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, little fat and red meat - the so-called DASH diet has already been shown to lower blood pressure in previous studies. The same applies to a low-salt diet. Because the salt binds water in the body and provides more fluid in the cardiovascular system - this increases the pressure in the blood vessels. Now Professor Stephen Juraschek and his colleagues from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School investigated the antihypertensive effect of the combination of the two diets compared to the individual.

DASH diet, low salt or both?

The study included over 400 adults who had systolic high blood pressure between 120 and 159 mmHG (millimeters of mercury) and were not taking any antihypertensive drugs. Other diseases such as diabetes or heart failure were also considered exclusion criteria. On average, the subjects were 48 years old.

The researchers randomly divided the test subjects into two groups: one ate the DASH diet and the other, the control group, normal American. In addition, the participants in the two groups each ate a certain amount of sodium for four weeks: 1.2 g, 2.3 g and 3.4 g sodium per day, which corresponds to about 3 g, 5.8 g and 8.6 g salt.

The result: A low salt consumption reduced the blood pressure by 3.2 to 9.0 mmHG compared to a high, otherwise normal diet. A similar effect was also evident in the test subjects who continued to consume a lot of salt but ate according to the DASH principle. As a result, they lowered their blood pressure by a maximum of 4.7 compared to the control group, with a baseline value of up to 149 mmHG. Those with base values ​​over 149 mmHG even around 10.6.

The combination diet wins

But what about the combination of both diets? The blood pressure decreased in all test persons who followed the DASH diet and also a low-salt diet compared to the control group who ate a lot of salt - and in some cases significantly more than the respective diets.

The effect was dependent on the respective initial blood pressure: In subjects whose blood pressure was below 130 mmHG at the start of the study, the value decreased by 5.3 mmHG, in those with base values ​​of 130 to 139 mmHg by 7.5 mmHG and in the study participants with a base value between 140 and 149 mmHG around 9.7 mmHG. “There was an enormous effect in test subjects with initial values ​​of over 149 mmHG. This was reduced by almost 21 mmHG due to the low-salt DASH diet, ”Juraschek reports in an interview with

The higher the blood pressure, the stronger the effect

The reduction in blood pressure in the subjects with the highest initial values ​​(≥ 150 mmHG) is considerable and underscores the importance of both the salt reduction and the DASH diet in high-risk people, the researchers write. “Our results show that eating right has a major impact on blood pressure, especially in adults with uncontrolled blood pressure. The effect is similar to that of drugs, ”emphasizes Juraschek.

And the effect is possibly even greater, because other studies suggest that the positive effect of reducing salt on blood pressure is not yet fully exhausted after four weeks.

Further research is also necessary in the future to investigate the effect of the combined diet on patients with a blood pressure of over 159 mmHG and those with other diseases such as heart failure or chronic kidney disease.

Vegetables, herbs, cottage cheese

The optimal diet for high blood pressure patients seems to consist of a lot of fruits, vegetables and whole grain products. Furthermore, low-fat dairy products such as low-fat quark or cottage cheese are allowed in the DASH diet in the sense of the present study.Fats are not forbidden either, but they should only be served in moderation and only healthy ones: vegetable fats with lots of unsaturated fatty acids, but not animal fats such as butter or sausage products. You should also rarely eat red meat, sweets, sugary drinks and foods high in cholesterol. Poultry, fish, nuts and water or tea are better.

Little salt, that sounds easier than expected. Because the Germans not only love the white gold, but it is also contained in almost all products. According to the German Nutrition Society (DGE), men in this country have an average of 10 g and women 8.4 g daily. The DGE experts, on the other hand, generally recommend not consuming more than 6 g.

Here are a few tips on how you can reduce your salt consumption:

• Cook yourself as often as possible and use fresh or dried herbs and other spices instead of salt

• Avoid crisps and ready-made products such as frozen pizza or sauces from the pack as much as possible.

• Use little or no broth, it consists mainly of salt.

• When shopping, pay attention to the specified salt content. Caution, the sodium content is usually given, you have to multiply this by 2.54.

Widespread disease high blood pressure

120/80 to 129/84 mmHg is considered optimal. If the values ​​are consistently above 140/90 mmHg, doctors speak of high blood pressure - more than every second person has to struggle with it in the course of their life. A distinction must be made between primary and secondary hypertension. If the trigger of the high blood pressure is another disease, for example a kidney dysfunction, one speaks of secondary hypertension. At around 90 percent, however, the much more common form is primary hypertension. It occurs for no causal reason. In addition to a change in diet, weight loss, more exercise, and abstinence from nicotine and alcohol can also help.

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