Close to one year on Atkins but still have high BP

[rsank]

Hello All,

My wife and I have been on Atkins for nearly a year now (10 1/2 months) but my blood pressure is still high. I have lost around 32 lbs till date (181 lbs-149 lbs) and feel a lot better but my BP is still high. BP runs in my family, my dad had high BP in his 30s. I just turned 40 this year and I suspect my BP has been rising over the last few years but I thought the Atkins diet would fix that. Just today my doctor checks it and it's 160/100. I guess I need to start taking medications but was really hoping the diet would help bring this under control.
We have only been taking a multivitamin supplement. Should I have been taking other supplements? Have I been doing something wrong?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

rsank

[sallyseachange]

For some, high BP really is a "family" thing, so results from diet may be slower in coming. What was your usual BP reading before Atkins? Also... how's your sodium intake? And caffeine? Has your doctor suggested medication yet?
Sorry for all the questions... afraid I'm no BP expert, so am hoping someone knowledgeable will pop in with some tips.
If you read this forum, you should get a better insight too.

[rsank]

Hi Sallyeachange,
Thanks for the reply! My BP before starting was around the same. Unfortunately, I have not been diligent in keeping before and after records as recommended by the book. Before starting the diet, I checked myself at the drugstore machines and at that time, I didn't completely believe the results. The machines consistently reported in the range of 160/90. I started the diet confident all that would change in short order. I was feeling great and assumed my BP was low as well.
I have not started taking medicines yet. My doctor has told me to come again a few times so they can confirm the hypertension diagnosis.

As far as sodium, it shouldn't be high. The only processed food I eat is 4 slices of low sodium bacon in the morning (total 380 mg) and cheese (~200 mg). All other meals are cooked from scratch so they would have whatever sodium is in there naturally. We use small amounts of soy sauce in vegetables that I will cut out now. When I started the diet, I stopped all coffee and soda but I do have a couple of cups of weak black tea in the morning and sometimes a cup of decaf coffee in the evening. I guess I could cut down on the tea and the bacon and cheese and just have eggs with the 2 cups of green salad for breakfast. I am on a pre-maintenance diet so I am having around 35-40 gm of carbs per day.

I read DNDR again and I see I have not been taking the right supplements. I have only been taking multivitamins that don't have a number of vitamins listed in the book and I haven't been regular with that either.

It's either that or I just have to get on those medicines. I guess I will try taking some more vitamin supplements, cut all extra sodium, and see what happens.

I have been running 40 minutes a day, 4 days a week for the last five months. I am going to have to change that to brisk walking now.

[atkinsgal08]

You really should test your BP at home ... over a period of time ... don't rely (based on my experiences!) with a reading at the doctor's office.

And ... it's always possible that diet and exercise will simply not lower your BP ... especially if it's genetic.

[sallyseachange]

Well, it doesn't sound like you're overdoing the sodium or caffeine or any other obvious culprit.
As Atkinsgal says, maybe the fact that your high BP runs in the family will make it harder to lower. Taking your BP at home, over a period of time, is good advice... white coat syndrome could be interfering a bit, too.
Keep us posted.

[rsank]

I bought a blood pressure meter and have started monitoring at home. I also started doing some more thinking on this and realized that I started feeling a little different during the last month. As I probed deeper into what I had been eating, I realized a couple of things, we were not really keeping track of the veggies and carbs in them, and we ate a high carb meal on Friday nights for a few weeks. This was sushi (so we had rice) and another time vietnamese food with rice again. Also, my allergies had suddenly come back last week. The light bulb goes on! Could this increase in carbs be the reason?

I went back to induction ( < 15g carbs) on Monday. My BP has started to drop. Today the systolic at 3:30 in the afternoon was 130 while it was 154 for the last five days. The diastolic is still high at 94 but it was 100 before. The morning after waking up reading was 125/82.

I am so relieved. Hopefully, the blood pressure will continue to drop given that I have been on induction for only 4 days. I guess the lesson for me is to be very careful. No bending of the diet, and for me, I might have to live on less than 40g carbs a day to keep my problems from reappearing.

I will post updates. Thanks everyone for your replies and concern.

[rsank]

And I have started taking the supplements as recommended in the book.
Multivitamin, CoQ10, 2 tablespoons of cold liver oil, Magnesium supplement, Calcium, Chromium and Vitamin C.

[sallyseachange]

Good news that you seem to have found the way to control your BP numbers. Well done!
Lots of us have to be very careful too... you're not alone.
Thanks for the update.