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Originally Posted by M_Six
My gripe with modern medicine is the dearth of straight answers to simple questions. Way too many generalities floating around out there and I often find that supposed experts are not really. They just repeat the generalities they've been taught in their schooling.
Case in point. "Sodium causes high BP." Well, yes. But why does sodium cause high BP? My brother, like the rest of our family, suffers from elevated BP. Not dangerously high, but enough that he's on meds. So he was told to avoid sodium, which he did religiously. Then he had all sorts of issues caused by a lack of sodium, like muscle cramps. He complained to his doc about the cramps and was told he needs to take in more sodium, which is just the opposite of what he had been told before. I had to explain to him that sodium causes water retention and it's the water retention that elevates BP. He's taking a diuretic, so I made sure he understood that too much sodium is defeating the purpose of the diuretic, but that a moderate amount of sodium is ok. If the doc had explained that to him in the first place instead of just throwing out the "avoid sodium" generality, the whole issue with muscle cramps could have been avoided.
I'm on a statin drug to keep my LDL levels as low as possible to mitigate arterial calcium buildup. But my question to nutritionists as been, "Which foods will *directly* lead to arterial calcium buildup?" I know eggs and red meat and so on can elevate LDL and the LDL elevation causes the buildup. But if my LDL is very low, are those foods still a problem? All they can tell me is the same line about certain foods that elevate LDL. Yes, I understand that. But if my LDL remains below my target level, will certain foods still cause a calcium issue? I mean, what about the almond milk I drink? It has calcium in it which is important for bone strength. Will that calcium somehow end up in my arteries? These seem like simple questions, yet a straight forward answer seems impossible.
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Again not a doctor but one of the first lines of defense for HBP is what they call water pills. It reduces the fluid creating pressure and sodium attracts fluid so will counteract the meds and make BP higher.