Why Diabetics get High Blood Pressure | Does Salt causes Blood Pressure

In our previous blog, Why Diabetic Patients should not eat Fruits | Does Fruits Increase Blood Sugar, we discuss which fruits are harmful for diabetes. In today's blog we will discuss connection between diabetes and high Blood Pressure.

Most of diabetic patients face problems like high blood pressure after some time interval. There is a clear connection between high blood pressure and diabetes, so in today’s blog, we will discuss the connection between them and how we can manage high blood pressure.

Diabexy believes that with knowledge and discipline, diabetes can be managed. Diabexy provides free consultation from dieticians and also provides consultation from doctors.

 Understanding Blood and it's Property:

Before discussing high blood pressure let's analyze the blood first. Blood is an important transport system of our body, which usually carries oxygen and other essentials to different organs and tissues and brings back carbon dioxide and waste materials. The insulin is produced and released by the pancreas in the blood, blood then carries the hormone to all parts of the body.  

Blood flows through some specialized tubes in our body called blood vessels. Some blood vessels are quite large in diameter compared to other blood vessels, whereas some are so thin that they cannot be spotted with necked eyes, these are known as capillaries. With the help of these capillaries, blood travels to every site in the body. 

Components of Blood:

Blood is mainly made up of two components 50% water and 50% solid materials. Solid materials include: 

• RBCs (Red Blood Cells) carry oxygen to different cells and tissues, 
• WBCs (White Blood Cells) help us fight against pathogens 
• Platelets help in blood clotting when there is blood loss.
• Proteins
• Fats
• Minerals like Calcium, Sodium, Potassium, Iron, 
• Hormones
• Salts

When blood flows through the blood vessels, it imparts some pressure while flowing through the tubes, which is called blood pressure. 

When we take carbohydrates, it is broken down to glucose in our body. Now glucose itself cannot be transported inside the cells without the carrier insulin. So, glucose flows in the blood until there is insulin available to carry it. 

High glycemic load food increases blood sugar levels

Higher the sugar levels in the blood, higher the amount of insulin is required to transport the sugar from blood to the cells. When there is a huge amount of sugar present in the blood and cells are also stuffed with the sugar then body cells does not allow sugar to get in even if lot of insulin comes to push it in to cells. this condition when increasing the amount of insulin in the blood also not able to reduce the blood sugar levels is called as insulin resistance. 

High insulin resistance and high glycemic load food intake can make a person diabetic. look at the irony, Treatment of diabetes starts with taking tablets which further increases insulin levels in the blood. this process with further increase the insulin resistance. This insulin resistance cannot be broken with more insulin rather it can be reduced by a very simple method of decreasing the glycemic load of the diet.

glycemic load of grains is very high for a diabetic person hence if someone is taking wheat and rice in Breakfast, Lunch, and dinner then his blood sugar levels will rise. if you want to control your blood sugar levels then you must use low glycemic load food products. Diabexy is the largest manufacturer of low glycemic load food products in the country. Diabexy products are tasty and easy to use.  

Reasons of  increasing blood pressure: - 

• Thickness of Blood: when the viscosity of the blood increases. The increase in viscosity hinders the flow of blood through the tubes and imparts higher pressure, which ultimately results in high blood pressure.
• Increase in Blood Volume: A healthy human comprises 5 liters of blood. If the volume of the blood is increased to 6 liters or 7 liters then the increased blood volume will impart more pressure in the tubes and blood pressure will increase. 
• Increase in Heart rate: If the activity of the heart increases and thereby its pumping rate then blood pressure will increase. 
• Hardening of Blood vessels: The blood vessels are flexible enough to manage the pressure of the flowing blood but hardening of arteries will increase blood pressure. high blood sugar may cause inflammation which may harden arteries.

Connection Between Diabetes and High Blood Pressure

Different materials have a fixed concentration in the blood like 50% water and 50% solid materials. The contrition of solid and liquid in the blood is maintained by the body itself. The change in the concentration of blood can be life-threatening. 

For example, if 0.9 gm of salt is dissolved in 100 ml of water, the solution is called an Isotonic solution which means the concentration of this salt solution is same as that of blood. If RBC is placed in the solution, then there will be no change in the shape and size of the cell.

If 0.45 gm of salt is dissolved in 100 ml of water, the solution is called a Hypotonic solution which means it is lower in concentration compared to blood. If RBC is placed in this solution, the RBC will start swelling and ultimately burst. 

If 1.8 gm of salt is dissolved in 100 ml of water, the solution is called a Hypertonic solution which means the concentration of solution is higher than bood. If RBC is placed in the solution, the RBC will start to shrink and its shape and size will be reduced. 

RBC plays an important role in the supply of oxygen in the body, if there is a change in concentration of the blood then it will impact the shape and size of RBCs and can give rise to various complications. If there is an increase in the concentration of salt in the blood, the body tends to retain water to reach an isotonic concentration. This increased water retention may increase blood volume and it can increase the blood pressure. 

How salt gets trapped in the blood of diabetic patients

This is because of high insulin and high sugar in the blood which binds with the salt. This binding increases the concentration of salts in the blood, and as a response water retention is also increased to compensate for the loss. The increased water retention maintains an isotonic state and results in increased blood volume. The increased blood volume triggers the increased heart rate and results in increased blood pressure. 

The primary reason for the increase in blood pressure is not the salt content in the diet, the primary reason is the blood contains a high amount of insulin due to an increase in blood sugar level. This sugar makes the blood denser and also hampers the isotonic concentration of the blood. 

There is an interesting experiment performed by Dr. Cruz, where daily insulin and water are injected into separate legs of a dog. After seven months of the experiment, he discovered that the blood vessels where insulin was injected were blocked and the blood vessels where water was injected remained unaltered. This simply describes that a high amount of insulin in the blood can block blood vessels and can increase blood pressure.

Again, the primary reason for the increase in blood pressure is increase of insulin levels in the blood. Which is directly connected with the high glycemic load of foods. The level of insulin can be detected in the same way as the level of glucose in the blood. Laboratory tests of blood samples can be used to detect the amount of fasting insulin in the blood. The normal range of fasting insulin ranges from 2.6-24.9 µU/ml. Many scientists and doctors believe that a fasting insulin level of more than 10 µU/mL can develop insulin resistance in the future. 

Now chances of insulin resistance can be reduced by a changing diet plan to a low glycemic load diet. The consumption of low glycemic load food items would automatically decrease the insulin level in the blood. 

If you are serious about maintaining blood pressure while managing diabetes, Diabexy can help you out. The diabetes reversal kit available on our website and at Amazon can help you overcome such diabetic conditions. You can also order various food products directly from our website, that are low in glycemic load, low glycemic index, and less in net carbohydrate content.