SUGAR AND THE BLOOD PRESSURE

Arooj Arshad
3 min readSep 20, 2024

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How sugar intake impacts blood pressure?

Photo by Elena Leya on Unsplash

People on the other hand have a grasp of salt and its adverse effects on blood pressure. But there is something else, which is sugar, and even foremost, responsible for high blood pressure.

The favorite sugar that many consumers know is called Fructose. It is present in most of the common food items that we take on a daily basis. This type of simple sugar raises the levels of uric acid in the blood. Acid inhibits the production of nitric oxide needed to help your blood vessels maintain flexibility. Therefore, they spur the blood pressure increasing substances when too little of nitric oxide is present — the blood vessels tighten. Out of the many reasons responsible for hypertension, one stands out: processed foods, especially the added sugars, significantly contribute to obesity, unlike naturally occurring ones in fruits and milks. Quite intriguingly, studies indicate that sugar may encourage salt consumption, raising the blood pressure hammer even further. In a 2017 study, a link between sugar intake and hypertension in older women was discovered. Increasing sugar consumption is hence associated or rather leads to certain effects that will likely result in hypertension.

It goes without saying that everyone knows that sweet tooth people lean towards snacking too much sweet foods and fastfoods thereby increasing the risk of sugar in-tolerance and this is the most common reason for obesity making one hypertensive.

Insulin resistance is when an individual’s body cannot respond appropriately to insulin, making it complicated for glucose to be utilized as energy. As a result, the pancreas creates more insulin than is needed/ There is a strong correlation between insulin resistance and hypertension and the two combined increases the incidence of diabetes and heart disease. More than half of patients with high blood pressure are said to be suffering from either elevated levels of insulin in the blood hyperinsulinemia or an inability to clear glucose from the blood glucose intolerance. Consumption of sugar in forms that may increase one’s weight leads to hypertension. For that reason, an excessive amount of extra sugar is a contributor to the mass increase.

It also causes obesity which gives rise to other metabolic disorders which leads to increased blood pressure. Obesity which is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease including high blood pressure is another health aspect that excessive sugar consumption can contribute damningly to our blood vessels. But how does it occur? To begin with, the consumption of sugar impairs the production of nitric oxide from the body. Nitric oxide allows for increased blood flow and even lowers blood pressure by relaxing the inner smooth muscles of the blood vessels to widen for easy movement of blood.

Less amount of nitric oxide in the blood vessels renders blood vessels too rigid which eventually leads to high blood pressure, inflammatory conditions in blood vessels as well as to-a birth of the atherosclerosis which is the excessive deposition of the plaque on the internal surfaces of cells, rather well known CVD risk comparable to that of cocaine addiction.

What is it that you are doing other than limiting the amount of sugars in your diet which might lower the blood pressure? Prefer whole foods and do not go grubbing on processed and sugary pack snacks. Make nuts, legumes, fresh fruits, vegetables, complex carbs and lean proteins your daily diet. In achieving a healthy blood pressure, exercise is of great importance since regular exercise will assist in controlling weight and also enhance heart health.

What you need to remember is that nothing in excess is ever good. It is important to watch added sugars so look at the food labels, also watch for hidden sugars and processed foods and if you have any worries concerning the high blood pressure then it is best to see a health professional. Understanding this connection is what enables us to make better choices with regard to health.

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Arooj Arshad
Arooj Arshad

Written by Arooj Arshad

| NLP Associate Practioner By ABNLP | Life Coach |

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