Wondering if anyone can help with us two who have increasing blood pressure??? Anyone?

No change in my eating habits over the 6 months I’ve been doing fasting or the 8 years before!! As my bp was coming down, I can’t understand why it has jumped back up. No change in exercise either (I’m doing DrM’s HIIT protocol). I wonder about lipids circulating during fasting affecting the cardiovascular system, or the large drop in weight affecting catecholamines or a decrease in renin making the ACE inhibitor less effective. I’ve heard about a potential pressor effect in people with low renin (not been tested for renin). Or a change in thyroid function which although still in normal limits may affect things (t3 was on the low side). Perhaps Dr M might have a view? I’m getting catecholamines tested and hopefully an echo done in case of LVH.

Likewise one of my main aims for this diet was to reduce BP. I had been on medication Diovan 80 mg, my BP with medication had dropped and my Doctor suggested I try and manage it with diet and exercise. This I failed to do. Months down the track of excess with high fat, processed food, alcohol,and no exercise I could tell that my BP was high and would need to get it checked again, knowing I would have to go back onto medication. On the home BP machine my reading was 153/95. Then I saw the documentary and read the Fast Diet Book. I commenced the diet and 4 weeks in went to my doctor, he was impressed with BP 120/70. Some other strategies apart from the diet are; on my non-fast days very conscious of eating more Veggies and Fruit, less meat, down to twice a week, smaller portions, no wine through the week, completely stopped drinking coffee, walk for an hour every day, included Chia seeds into my home made muesli, making my own veggie juices (Carrot, Apple, Celery & Parsley) I have heard the last two help with reducing BP, include very little dairy, (one table spoon of yoghurt on my muesli). Also totally eliminated Salt. I believe it is all the lifestyle/dietary factors that you need to take into account when looking at BP not just the Fast Diet.

Yes, but I still want to know why if I have changed NOTHING at all in my lifestyle except for fasting why I would get an initial decrease in blood pressure but then an increase??? Most studies show that a 5% decrease in body weight is enough to cause a reduction in BP but I have lost around 20%! I would welcome a medical opinion on the possibility that a decrease in renin as a result of a large weight loss would result in the ACE inhibitor not having any ACE to work on or that cortisol may have increased due to the prolonged stress of fasting?

Hi caroline.j.rees,
Have just come across your post about your blood pressure not reducing in line with your excellent weight loss of 20% (for which well done!).
In a study by Dr Michelle Harvie of 115 women followed for 3 months on a 5:2 calorie restricted diet they found that on average the women saw an 11% fall in blood pressure, with some dropping by up to 38%. So although overall a drop is statistically expected unfortunately some frustratingly may see their Bp increase. Bp as you know is affected by a whole variety of factors and tends to gradually increase with age and will fluctuate across time.
Great that your other tests have come back normal – You may already have tried some of Roger’s very sensible strategies like cutting out coffee, decreasing alcohol, walking more and cutting down salt but I hope some of these may help bring your readings down again. Stress also puts up BP, though it doesn’t sound as if this is a factor for you at the moment.
If you are really motivated you could even try reducing certain food products like dairy or meat for a few weeks to see if these have any impact on your Bp? You might however find that over time your BP comes down again anyway.
Good luck with this and even if your Bp is not dropping as you would hope, you will still be getting considerable benefits for your impressive weight loss. So do stick with it! Good luck with your Bp and let us know how you get on

Thanks, Clare. I was wondering, though, if you had any thoughts on the drop in renin seen with weight loss? As I am on ramipril, a drop in renin would result in it not being able to work as no angiotensin 1 means no ACE converting it to angiotensin 2 so no vasoconstriction.

Update: I decided to test my renin hypothesis in the spirit of self-experimentation shown by Michael! I stopped taking the ramipril 25 days ago. As it has a very long half-life (about 5 days) I did not expect any kind of rapid increase in BP so I have monitored twice daily and found no obvious change in BP until last week, when it has started to decrease, now being around the 125/85 level. My weight loss has not been anything special during those weeks (about 1.5 kg), so I don’t think that is a likely candidate for the BP dropping. The ACE inhibition should have decreased to around 1/32nd of the concentration during treatment, so I’m happy that my baseline BP is now only a little above normal. I can foresee an interesting discussion with the GP when I next see her!

Fast: Some people have a paradoxical reaction to sodium such that lowering salt intake actually increases blood pressure…might be worth some self-experimentation???

@jens BP: As you said any suggestion welcome: you could scan the internet for ‘Andreas Michalsen blood pressure’ or use the link http://www.biomedcentral.com/presscenter/pressreleases/20120528.

I myself have BP issues and tried things like DASH diet, sport, weight reduction and also out of the way things like beetroot juice. So far blood donation evenly distributed throughout the year has been the most effective tool for me.

feeling a bit dissapointed reading these threads,this is one of the reason am doing this diet,heard its good for lowering bp…had high bp since been pregnant with my 1st daughter now aged 19,had ecg blood tests and doctors just say im a unluck 1 as there is nothing causing me to have high bp.i take ramipril and ampoldine..

I am no physician, but I know my bp med needs to be taken with food, so that it lasts the 12 hours it is prescribed for. Perhaps that is why some of you find your bp raising, particularly on fasting days? Not enough food to help your bp med last the full amount of hours it is supposed to work? Just a thought.