THE ROLE OF DIET IN THE GENESIS AND TREATMENT OF HYPERTENSION

In this brief review, we have not been able to address all of the various dietary factors which have been implicated as causal in hypertension. Because of the heterogeneity of hypertension, it is quite difficult to find a simple answer to the question of how important dietary factors are in causing hypertension and even more difficult to answer the question of how diet should be therapeutically altered in treating a hypertensive patient. Given the difficulties in achieving good compliance to almost any dietary prescription and the lifestyle changes these therapies often require, significant benefit must be demonstrated to justify the efforts. It is worth emphasizing that many of the dietary alterations which have been proposed for treating hypertension have even better established preventative health rationales which justify their use. Although salt intake is a factor in the genesis of hypertension, the effectiveness of salt restriction varies between patients. Despite the absence of good predictors of response, moderate sodium reduction is a reasonable first step when dealing with a hypertensive patient. In obese hypertensive patients, weight loss provides a modest but significant BP reduction. Added benefit may be obtained by lowering total fat content and increasing the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fats. The reduction in cardiovascular risk with these changes in dietary fat, over and above the lowering of BP, make this approach appropriate in all hypertensive patients. Potassium supplementation, while sometimes effective, is more difficult to recommend broadly. Calcium supplementation is certainly reasonable in women, for whom such therapy should be seen as good dietary advice for the prevention of osteoporosis. Moderate alcohol intake probably has little deleterious effect, whereas heavy alcoholism does contribute to increased BP. Again, reduction of alcohol intake is important for reasons other than the modest BP reduction attained.