by Jeroslyn JoVonn
April 21, 2025
This is a touch: it is yellow
A brand new examine means that managing dietary potassium, significantly by consuming extra bananas, could also be a simpler technique for reducing blood strain than focusing solely on decreasing sodium consumption.
The brand new analysis, printed within the American Journal of Physiology–Renal Physiology, recommends that people with hypertension incorporate bananas into their food plan alongside decreasing salt consumption for higher blood strain administration, The Impartial reviews. The findings present an alternative choice to the frequent observe of advising sufferers solely to cut back their sodium consumption to control blood strain.
“Normally, when we’ve got hypertension, we’re suggested to eat much less salt,” mentioned Anita Layton, one of many examine’s authors from the College of Waterloo. “Our analysis means that including extra potassium-rich meals to your food plan, comparable to bananas or broccoli, might need a larger optimistic impression in your blood strain than simply slicing sodium.”
Almost one-third of adults worldwide are impacted by hypertension, which might result in critical problems like coronary heart illness, stroke, continual kidney illness, and dementia. Sodium and potassium—each very important electrolytes—assist regulate muscle contractions and help important bodily features, comparable to sustaining fluid stability.
In response to the most recent analysis, increasing the ratio of potassium to sodium within the food plan could also be simpler at reducing blood strain than merely decreasing sodium consumption alone. The findings make clear earlier analysis that linked greater potassium consumption to higher blood strain management, however lacked clear steerage on the perfect potassium-to-sodium stability wanted to realize optimum outcomes.
“Though the connection between extreme dietary sodium consumption and elevated blood strain is well-accepted among the many public, the helpful results of upper dietary potassium consumption have traditionally acquired much less consideration,” researchers say.
The brand new examine employed a sex-specific mathematical mannequin to assess how the potassium-to-sodium ratio affects the physique. Researchers say this modern modeling method supplies a sooner and extra moral technique of exploring how numerous components have an effect on human well being.
“Early people ate a number of vegatables and fruits, and in consequence, our physique’s regulatory programs might have developed to work finest with a excessive potassium, low-sodium food plan,” says Melissa Stadt, a Ph.D. candidate on the College of Waterloo and one other creator of the examine.
“At present, western diets are typically a lot greater in sodium and decrease in potassium,” Stadt added. “Which will clarify why hypertension is discovered primarily in industrialized societies, not in remoted societies.”
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