DASH Diet: Lower Blood Pressure in Diabetics

A modified DASH diet helps people with type 2 diabetes lower their blood pressure. This works even for those on medication. Researchers at Johns Hopkins found that a ‘DASH for diabetes’ diet with less sodium can reduce blood pressure. This diet offers a way to lower heart disease risk without more medicine.

Understanding High Blood Pressure and the DASH Diet

High blood pressure can lead to serious diseases like heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure. It’s often called a ‘silent killer’ because it has no clear signs or symptoms.

The DASH diet is known to help control blood pressure. Researchers found that a modified DASH diet for people with type 2 diabetes can lower blood pressure. This is true even for those already taking blood pressure medicine.

What is the DASH Diet?

DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It’s a balanced eating plan that promotes heart health. This diet includes:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Low-fat dairy products

It’s low in saturated fat and cholesterol. It also limits foods high in saturated fat, like fatty meats and full-fat dairy. It avoids tropical oils like coconut and palm oils. Plus, it cuts back on sugary drinks and sweets.

The Modified DASH Diet for Diabetics

Johns Hopkins researchers changed the original DASH diet for people with type 2 diabetes. They did this by:

• Lowering carbohydrates
• Adding more healthy fats
• Reducing potassium to make it safe for those with kidney disease

Many people with diabetes have kidney disease.

The Overlooked Risk

People with diabetes often focus on blood sugar levels. But high blood pressure is also common and dangerous. It raises the risk of stroke and heart disease. The blood pressure goal for people with diabetes is less than 130/80 mmHg.

Blood pressure medicine usually lowers systolic blood pressure by about 10 points. But with the low-sodium DASH4D diet, people with diabetes lowered it by about 5 more points. This 5-point drop in blood pressure lowered the risk of:

• Stroke by 14%
• Heart disease events by 6%
• Heart failure by 8%

The Study

The study had 102 people. 85 of them finished all parts of the diet study. Most were older adults (average age 66), mainly Black (87%), and 66% were women. Two-thirds were taking two or more blood pressure medicines.

The people in the study ate four different diets in a random order:

• DASH4D diet with less sodium
• DASH4D diet with more sodium
• A typical American diet with less sodium
• A typical American diet with more sodium

They stayed on each diet for five weeks. The average starting blood pressure was 135/75 mmHg. Compared to the typical high-sodium American diet, the lower-sodium DASH4D diet lowered systolic blood pressure by 4.6 mmHg and diastolic pressure by 2.3 mmHg. Most of this drop happened in the first three weeks.

The researchers said the DASH4D diet could be a good, non-drug way to help people with diabetes lower their risk of heart disease caused by high blood pressure.