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Extreme dietary salt raises high blood pressure, whereas a high potassium diet plan has the opposite result. The hidden systems are moderated by sex and include numerous organs and tissues. How do high potassium-induced alternations in kidney function lower high blood pressure, and how do those systems vary in between males and females? To address these concerns, a duo of scientists at the University of Waterloo carried out computer system simulations to replicate whole-body fluid and electrolyte homeostasis, and the impacts of salt and potassium consumption on high blood pressure.
Melissa Stadt & Anita Layton recommend increasing the ratio of dietary potassium to salt consumption might be more reliable for reducing high blood pressure than just lowering salt consumption. Image credit: Melissa Stadt & Anita Layton, doi: 10.1152/ ajprenal.00222.2024.
Hypertension impacts over 30 % of grownups internationally. It’s the leading reason for coronary heart problem and stroke and might likewise cause other conditions like persistent kidney illness, cardiac arrest, irregular heart beats, and dementia.
“Usually, when we have hypertension, we are recommended to consume less salt,” stated Professor Anita Layton, matching author of the research study.
“Our research study recommends that including more potassium-rich foods to your diet plan, such as bananas or broccoli, may have a higher favorable effect on your high blood pressure than simply cutting salt.”
Potassium and salt are both electrolytes– compounds that assist the body send out electrical signals to contract muscles, impact the quantity of water in your body and carry out other vital functions.
“Early human beings consumed great deals of vegetables and fruits, and as an outcome, our body’s regulative systems might have progressed to work best with a high potassium, low salt diet plan,” stated Melissa Stadt, very first author of the research study.
“Today, western diet plans tend to be much greater in salt and lower in potassium.”
“That might discuss why hypertension is discovered primarily in industrialized societies, not in separated societies.”
While previous research study discovered that increasing potassium consumption can assist manage high blood pressure, the scientists established a mathematical design that effectively recognizes how the ratio of potassium to salt effects the body.
The design likewise determines how sex distinctions impact the relationship in between potassium and high blood pressure.
The researchers discovered that guys establish hypertension more quickly than pre-menopausal ladies, however males are likewise most likely to react favorably to an increased ratio of potassium to salt.
“Mathematical designs like the one utilized in this research study enable these type of experiments to recognize how various aspects affect the body rapidly, inexpensively, and fairly,” they stated.
The group’s paper was released in March 2025 in the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology
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Melissa Stadt & & Anita T. Layton. Modulation of high blood pressure by dietary potassium and salt: sex distinctions and modeling analysis. American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiologyreleased online March 3, 2025; doi: 10.1152/ ajprenal.00222.2024
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