High Blood Pressure and Sodium Intake

Nutrition
1

After a visit to the doctor this morning I found out that my blood pressure is a little high, 150/80. In high school my BP was always been a little high but I figured that was because I didn’t follow a diet. But now I have been eating pretty clean for awhile and BP is high. Doctor said to watch sodium intake. I am going to do some research on it, but I have no clue to how much sodium a person should eat. When I read how much sodium is in something, the number doesn’t mean anything to me because I don’t really know what is considered high or low.

What gets me is I follow a decent diet, high protein, 100 carbs a day, about 3000 calories ad day, ect. In good shape, 5’10", had body fat checked last week, 217 at 10.4%, it was done with calipers, the guy said give or take about 1-2% on accuracy, so at worst I am about 12% body fat. It is not adding up to why my blood pressure is high. I want to get it under control now, I definitely do not want to take medication for it later in life.

Right now I take Syntha 6 protein, Superpump250 or glass of coffee before workout, and Sizeon. Syntha 6 is high in sodium compared to other protein supplements. So any recommendations on better supplement choice would be nice. I am thinking about trying Designer Whey, it has a lot less carbs and sodium than syntha6.

So heres some information about the issue and myself, I am going to do research on my own, but I put this out here just to see what you all thought about it. Thanks

2

the “recommended daily intake” of sodium for a 2000 calorie diet is ~ 2400 milligrams

of course a few problems are

  1. the visitors of this diet are probably not your average sedentary type

  2. we usually have above 2000 calorie intake

  3. with intense exercise you can easily lose significant sodium (and other minerals)

3

You didn’t say whether you salt anything. If you do you would be better off switching to Celtic Sea Salt. It still contains all the minerals in it. Also with intense excercise, it can raise cortisol, which can increase the top number on your BP. Everyone still needs a bit of salt, so don’t eliminate all of it. I am working on this same issue right now. Not super high, but higher than it should be.

fitnesslady

4

Only about 20% of people seem to be sensitive to sodium anyway, so unless you figure out you are… I wouldn’t worry about it.

Most people’s bodies do a very good job of maintaining electrolyte balance, otherwise if you drank some beers and ate a pizza you’d just keel over and die. Some people have a problem though, and they need to be more careful with sodium.