Diabetes: The Dramatic Impact it has on Blood Pressure

Another common diagnosis among the population is high blood pressure. Whenever high blood pressure comes up, another topic is bound to come up as well – salt. While, this may be a contributing factor, it is most certainly not the only cause. It is observed that high blood pressure occurs in the blood vessels, so that has to be where the problem started, right? … Maybe… But, often, when something appears to begin in a certain location within the body, the root cause often lies in a different location.

The body is one united structure. Every pathway, every reaction, has an impact on the rest of the system. I would offer that our digestive and blood sugar handling systems have an impact on our circulatory system. Therefore, our diagnosis of diabetes, may have a very important relationship with our other common diagnosis, high blood pressure.

In the previous post, Type II Diabetes: The Start of Insulin Resistance, I explained that our favorite little sugar molecule, glucose, enters the blood stream when we eat. From there, insulin aids in the absorption of this sugar molecule into our muscle cells. However, once those cells start to become insulin resistant, the glucose begins to accumulate in the blood stream. Now, this can never be a good thing… Our blood stream is a pathway for many vital nutrients and it depends on that fluid motion to be able to transport blood cells, nutrients and hormones to their various destinations. Compare this to rush hour in Houston, when more cars enter the highway, traffic slows down and the drivers are more likely to get into accidents and aren’t able to make it to their destinations as efficiently as they would like. Likewise, in the blood stream, the more traffic that exists, the less efficient our body can perform.

Additionally, when the blood stream continues to become crowded, the sugar molecules tend to interact with various other protein structures in circulation. One of which, can be the inner lining of our arteries. These linkages cause the artery to become firm and does not allow for the normal dynamic motion. This impacts the normal function of these vessels and as more accumulate – the walls become thicker and stiffer, like a pipe. These changes occur in a very familiar concept that many of us are aware of – “atherosclerosis”.

Under normal circumstances, arteries swell with the rhythm of the heart beat. They expand when the pressure first reaches their walls and it relaxes as the burst passes through. When this normal and dynamic movement is not possible, pressure begins to build within the vessels, leading to high blood pressure and often to tissue swelling and edema as well.

Lastly, our friend, insulin, can create quite the problem with blood pressure all by itself. Insulin can cause the blood vessels to narrow, therefore increasing blood pressure. However, on a much bigger scale, insulin talks to the kidneys. Here is where it gets interesting… insulin demands that the kidneys hold onto sodium. Before we get too far, let’s get some terminology straight: sodium versus salt. Salt’s chemical name is: sodium chloride. So when you eat salt, it is broken down in our digestive system into sodium and chloride. So as sodium continues through the system it has to have a chat with our kidneys before it can be excreted out in the urine.

Now, for all of my biochemistry scholars out there, we know that wherever sodium goes, water follows. Therefore, if sodium is retained in the blood stream, more water will be retained as well, increasing blood pressure. So, this is why sodium is demonized – because it causes water retention. Here’s the kicker- this effect with the kidney occurs no matter how little salt you take in. So if you decide to dramatically decrease your intake of salt, that little amount that you take in, would still be retained. Therefore, the much more effective tactic would be to try to decrease the insulin resistance, so the kidneys could return to their normal filtration system, allowing sodium to pass.