Keto & Blood Pressure—Why Does Blood Pressure Drop on Keto Diet
When someone follows a ketogenic diet, it means that the individual aims to reduce weight. We have well-documented facts on the connection between fat-scorching and ketosis. But when a chunky individual loses weight through Keto, that person drops his blood pressure as well, because keto increases energy consumption and decreases the insulin level.
Let’s establish the effects of the ultra-low-carb Keto diet on blood pressure and predominantly on why does blood pressure drop on the keto diet?
We discourse more about Keto and low blood pressure formerly, let’s cover a few fundamentals.
Table of Contents
Blood Pressure
How Does Keto Help in Lowering Blood Pressure
2 Case Studies That Support the Fact That Keto Diet Lowers the Blood Pressure
- Case Study 1
- Case Study 2
Blood Pressure
The blood pressure is demarcated as, “when your heart pumps the blood, the blood exerts pressure on the walls of blood vessels.”
The part of your brain, namely the hypothalamus regulates blood pressure and the blood pressure depends on a heart-pumping, the volume of blood, electrolytes, and other dynamics.
While measuring blood pressure, you got two parameters: systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure.
Systolic blood pressure: blood pressure is when your heart beats and forces the blood to move toward the body.
Diastolic blood pressure: blood pressure between heartbeats when your heart receives blood from the body.
According to American Heart Association, the average systolic blood pressure is
120mm hg and diastolic pressure is 80 mm hg.
Above or below this range can make you Hypertensive or hypotensive, and it is a fact that obese people are hypertensive, i.e. they have high blood pressure.
How Does Keto Help in Lowering Blood Pressure
Obesity is the main factor of high blood pressure because an obese person takes a high-carb diet, alcohol, and other things that impair the electrolytes balance and leads to hypertension.
When you shift to ketosis which is a without-carb high-fat diet, it forces the body to burn stored fats. On the other hand, keto suppresses your appetite, elevates energy consumption, and lowers insulin levels. These high energy and low insulin levels reduce blood pressure.
2 Case Studies That Support the Fact That Keto Diet Lowers the Blood Pressure
Here, we have included two case studies that prove keto reduces blood pressure. Let’s dive into it:
Case Study 1
Low-fat+Orlistat vs. Keto
Two groups were taken for this study. Group-1 takes a low-fat diet and the drug Orlistat which reduces blood pressure and weight. Group-2 only follows the keto diet. There were 30% hypertensive people in both these groups.
The result: blood pressure rises in the group-1 people who are taking medicine and a low-fat diet while there is a fall in blood pressure in group-2 who were on the keto diet.
Case Study 2
Mediterranean Keto
40 overweight people were kept on the Mediterranean diet for 3 months. The Mediterranean diet includes 30g of carbs, red wine, vegetables, and olive oil.
The Result: The systolic bp of every subject fell to 109 from 126 mm hg and diastolic to 75 from 85 mm Hg.
Conclusion
If you’re a hypertensive bulky individual and wish to lower your weight along with blood pressure deprived of using medicine then the keto diet is the best option for you.
It’s better to ask your doctor first before altering your diet as it is a matter of your fitness.
