There seems to be some kind of conundrum regarding BCAA and keto. I’m sure you’d like to know the answer to 3 burning questions regarding bcaa and keto.
And the questions are:
Can you use BCAA on keto, do bcaas kick you out of ketosis and is bcaa good for keto. You’ll get your answers here straightaway.
Let me swift with the first question.
Can you use BCAAs on keto?
Answer: Yes, you can use BCAAs on keto. There’s nothing wrong in using BCAAs on the ketogenic diet. But you must time the use of BCAAs on keto to avoid the BCAAs kicking you out of ketosis.
The timing of the bcaa use is very crucial though, if you are to succeed when combining bcaa and keto.
BCAA supplements can play a fantastic role on the ketogenic diet. So, it is okay to have bcaas on keto. Not a problem.
In fact, using bcaa on keto should be encouraged. Why, because BCAAs offer immense benefits on the ketogenic diet. I shall be letting you into the benefits and the best timing for using bcaa on keto shortly.
So, keep reading…
Will BCAAs kick you out of ketosis?
In answering the question of whether bcaas kick you out of ketosis, I shall illustrate with my personal experience. I have tested BCAAs on the ketogenic diet and on various intermittent fasting regimes successfully.
I don’t need to introduce BCAAs to you. They are here and it looks like BCAAs are here to stay.
So, will bcaas kick you out of ketosis?
Answer: In all my testing, I can confirm that BCAAs will not kick you out of ketosis if you satisfy the following conditions:
Use BCAAs at the right dosage
Time your BCAA use appropriately
Yes, if you use the right dosage of bcaa supplements and you are on keto, you won’t be kicked out of ketosis.
And what is the right dosage of bcaas, I hear you ask?
The right dosage of bcaas is 5 – 10 mg daily. If you use this dose of bcaas on keto, you will remain in ketosis.
This is because this dosage is too small to trigger gluconeogenesis (the process of forming glucose from amino acids).
Gluconeogenesis is what kicks people out ketosis when they consume too much protein on the keto diet.
That won’t happen with such a small dose of BCAAs on keto. More so, if you satisfy the next condition.
And the next condition that protects you from being kicked out of ketosis when taking BCAAs on keto is; you have to use the bcaas at the right time.
What is the right time to use the BCAAs?
The right time to use bcaas on keto is around the time of your work out.
Preferably 30 minutes just before your workout. That is the best time because you set the nutrients ready for your muscles to soak up once the workout begins.
That way the amino acids in the BCAA get used up straightaway and do not run any risk of being converted to glucose.
If the amino acids do not have an opportunity to get converted to glucose, they will never kick you out of ketosis. Perfect!
If you don’t take your BCAAs 30 minutes before workout, make sure you take them straightaway after workout. That’s the second-best way of using bcaa on keto without running any risk of being kicked out of ketosis.
Before we talk about bcaa and ketosis, it’s important I redefine what ketosis actually is. I know I have touched on the subject already but let’s zoom in, because it will give us a better understanding of the effect of bcaas.
What is Ketosis anyway?
Ketosis is a state where your body uses ketones for fuel instead of glucose. This is usually self-induced by changing the way you eat.
You consume very few carbs. Usually not more than 20 gm of carbs a day. In its place, you eat more of fat. You substitute carbs for fats.
By consuming so few carbs, you deplete your glycogen stores. This ensures your body uses fat for fuel. Your body has no choice but to use fat as energy source.
This is physiological ketosis as opposed to pathological ketosis that happens in diabetes, in particular type 1 diabetes. There is a difference.
So now let’s answer the 3rd question. Is bcaa good for keto?
Is bcaa good for keto?
Answer: The straight answer is; BCAA is actually good for keto.
But beyond that answer, you would also want ask yourself the question: do I need bcaa whilst doing keto?
That is a very valid question.
Truth be told. You don’t need BCAAs on ketogenic diet for it to work.
BCAAs are supplements and must be seen as such. You may or may not use them.
Whether you should use bcaas on keto or not would depend on what you are trying to achieve.
If you are on keto diet for simple fat loss without the need for muscle gain, then you do not need BCAA supplements at all.
You will lose weight on keto without bcaas.
However, if muscle gain and muscle protection are your objectives, then using BCAA supplements are a good thing on keto. In fact, you should welcome them into your training regime.
Mainly because BCAAs are good fit for those objectives.
So, yes, bcaa supplements are good for keto if you want to gain muscle with keto training regime mainly because of the positive effects of bcaa on muscle metabolism.
Let me give you 4 solid reasons why bcaa is good for keto.
Here we go…
1. BCAAs on Keto Prevents Restricted Diet Induced Muscle loss
Most weight loss programs result in some degree of muscle loss. Practically all of them. Some more than others.
This study for instance, seems to suggest that free fatty acids circulating during fasting has a protein conservation effect i.e muscle-sparing effect in humans.
Even though that experiment was carried out in fasting individuals, you could extrapolate that to the ketogenic diet. Why, because the physiologic events taking place in ketosis on ketogenic diet are more or less similar in intermittent fasting episodes.
Regardless, muscle loss happens more when the individual does little or no exercise whilst on the weight loss journey.
Muscle loss occurs because of the dietary restrictions that are necessary to induce fat loss.
BCAAs can prevent this muscle loss. This is one valid reason why bcaa supplements are good for keto.
One major physiological advantage of BCAAs is that they by-pass the liver, heading straight to muscles where the amino acids in the BCAA are needed most.
If you need reminding, the amino acids in BCAAs are leucine, Isoleucine and Valine. Leucine in particular plays a huge role in protein synthesis in the muscle.
BCAA amino acids presence inside the muscle is a major step in averting this nemesis of muscle loss in weight loss enthusiasts.
2. BCAAs on Keto Prevents Muscle loss during from exercise
You will be surprised to know that exercise paradoxically can lead to muscle loss. This is because exercise involving weights can be catabolic just like it can be anabolic.
Yes, there is a fair amount of protein breakdown that occurs during resistance training. If you do not feed your muscles properly before, during or after weight training, you can lose muscle because of the protein breakdown.
Remember, muscle is mainly protein. Breakdown a huge amount of protein during exercise through amino acid oxidation without replenishing it, will ultimately lead to muscle loss.
This muscle loss is however preventable. Preventable, only if you can provide your muscle cells with the right amino acids especially the essential amino acids that your body cannot synthesize.
A rich supply of essential amino acids. At the right time. During Exercise.
Enter BCAAs and you have just saved the day. Another valid reason why bccas are good for keto.
3. BCAAs on Keto Promote Muscle gain
I have already alluded to the fact BCAAs promote protein synthesis through the mTOR pathway. You need amino acids for protein synthesis to materialize.
If you are going to gain muscle at all with your weights, you are going to need to synthesize some new proteins. There’s no workaround.
Muscle growth and new muscle could use some help from the amino acids in BCAAs.
That’s not all. BCAAs have a positive effect on Human Growth Hormone secretion as demonstrated in this study.
There was a consistent elevation of growth hormone following exercise supplemented by BCAAs. And this persisted in a chronic fashion. So, it wasn’t a fluke.
I do not need to tell you about the positive effects of human growth hormone on muscle building. If you don’t already know, please be aware that human growth hormone does wonders for your muscle gain amongst other things.
So, the muscle gain effect on keto is another reason why bcaas are good for keto.
4. BCAAs on Keto Prevents Exercise Fatigue
Nothing is worse when you want to exercise on a set diet like the ketogenic diet and you can’t reach your goals because of fatigue.
A lot of the time, exercise fatigue is a thing of perception rather than reality. And the chemical responsible for that feeling of fatigue resides in the brain.
It’s called 5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT for short.
The more 5-hydroxytryptamine you have circulating in your brain, the worse your perception of fatigue. Once that feeling becomes overwhelming, your exercise regime grind to a halt.
Well, using BCAAs during keto can stop that from happening. This means bcaas on ketogenic diet can help you exercise for longer enabling you reach your goals.
Why…because the amino acids in BCAA compete with tryptophan in the brain. This competition between the BCAA amino acids and tryptophan leads to a reduction in 5-hydroxytrytamine levels in the brain.
You want that.
Less 5-hydroxytryptamine, less perception of fatigue. Equates to longer exercise sessions. Goals achieved. Hurray!
So, even though you don’t necessarily need BCAAs on the ketogenic diet, they can constitute an important element of your ketogenic journey.
If your diet and fitness goals are best complemented by exercise, then BCAA supplements are a good fit for your keto goals.
Especially if muscle protection and muscle building are important to you.
Let me clarify this common question regarding high blood pressure and feeling hot. I often get asked: does high blood pressure make you hot?
So, I thought I might as well deal with the issue of high blood pressure causing you to feel hot all of a sudden right here on this page.
Largely speaking, high blood pressure is a symptomless condition. That is why hypertension is a nasty condition. High blood pressure creeps in on you. You get on with your life, going to work, doing your regular daily chores and you are completely oblivious to the fact that you may have hypertension.
You are probably under the impression that you should have symptoms like feeling hot when you have high blood pressure. And when you experience such symptoms, only then would you request a medical opinion to have your blood pressure checked. That would be a wrong approach.
The truth of the matter is; high blood pressure does not play ball like that. 8 out of 10 people with high blood pressure do not know they have the condition. This is because of what I said earlier. High blood pressure usually does not show up with easily recognisable symptoms for the most part.
Only occassionally does high blood pressure reveal itself with symptoms.
Does high blood pressure make you hot?
The straight answer to the question: does high blood pressure make you hot is; No, it doesn’t.
High blood pressure does not make you feel hot.
But some co-factors surrounding high blood pressure can make you feel hot. These co-factors may give the impression that the feeling of warmth is caused by the high blood pressure. That would be a wrong impression.
What do I mean by that?
Here are some of the co-factors that may make you feel hot if you have high blood pressure.
Menopause and Andropause
As men and women get older, andropause and menopause set in respectively. One of the classical symptoms of menopause is hot flashes (hot flushes). There are few women who go through menopause without experiencing hot flashes. Hot flashes can be distracting and uncomfortable.
It is said that some men do experience the same thing when their levels of testosterone drop. These group of men experience an intense feeling of warmth just like the menopausal women. The so-called low-T syndrome.
I should emphasize that a small percentage of men experience this problem of feeling hot but for the ladies, it’s almost universal. Hot flashes in women is caused by low estrogen levels.
So, what’s the connection between feeling hot in menopause and feeling hot with high blood pressure?
The connection is that the average age of menopause and andropause coincides with the age when most people with high blood pressure will be diagnosed. It is therefore easy to confuse the two condition.
If you are feeling hot and you suffer from high blood pressure and you are menopausal or andropausal, it is likely the cause of your warmth is the latter rather than the former.
Anxiety
Anxiety can present in a variety of ways. Quite apart from feeling keyed-up when you are anxious, you may experience a feeling of warmth all over. This can easily be confused with the high blood pressure as being the cause of your feeling hot.
Overactive Thyroid
An overactive thyroid is a condition where your thyroid gland is working overtime. Your thyroid gland over-produces the hormone called thyroxine. Thyroxine is a hormone that regulates our metabolism.
Excess thyroxine in circulation will result in metabolic overdrive. An extremely high metabolic rate will make you feel hot. This is another condition that may need to be excluded if you feel hot and have high blood pressure as well.
All medications have side effects. High blood pressure medications are no exception. if you are taking high blood pressure meds and you are feeling hot, there’s a good chance those high BP medications may be responsible for the problem.
The combination medications are worse. Combination medications for high blood pressure are those that have different modes of action put together into one single pill.
The idea of combination blood pressure drugs is to attack the hypertension from different angles with the convenience of taking just one single pill as opposed to taking 2 or 3 different pills.
For instance, Vaseretic which is enalapril and hydrochlorothiazide combined will make you feel hot. Lotrel which is a combination of amlodipine and benazepril will make you feel hot if you have high blood pressure.
Tribenzor which combines 3 different high blood pressure pills into one namely hydrochlorothiazide, amlodipine and olmesartan is another HBP med that may make you feel hot if you have high blood pressure.
Single high blood pressure meds aren’t left out either.
An example are the vasodilator drungs like Hydralazine and Minoxidil. They will most certainly make you feel hot with your high blood pressure. Just because of the way they work.
Vasodilators open up your blood vessels allowing a rush of blood through, if you like. That is bound to make you feel flushed and warm.
Also calcium-channel blockers like Adalat, Norvasc, Cardizem, Cardene, Dilacor XR, Tiazac, Plendil may make you feel hot too with your high blood pressure.
There is a good list of all of these drugs on the FDA website along with potential side effects here. Follow that link, if you would like to explore these medications and their side effects further.
Bottom line is:
High blood pressure will not make you feel hot but associated factors and conditions may make you feel hot.
Can high blood pressure make you tired? This is a common question that bothers people with high blood pressure.
The problem with tiredness and fatigue is that they are non-specific symptoms. Tiredness and fatigue can be caused by a huge array of medical and non-medical conditions.
It is therefore not surprising that tiredness can become a diagnostic nightmare for both you and your doctor.
For instance, it is very easy to blame your tiredness on menopause, if you are a woman who is post-menopausal. Of course, menopause may make you feel tired but the problem of feeling exhausted most of the time may well be due to your high blood pressure.
Men may blame constant tiredness on low testosterone which may well be the cause. But when you have high blood pressure, you may be barking at the wrong tree there blaming your testosterone level.
Your doctor being confused as well may well tell you “there’s no magic bullet” to solving the constant tiredness and fatigue. He might suggest you start getting used to it because he too has become helpless.
Sometimes as human beings we have a better ability to deal with situations when we know the reasons why we are having a particular symptom. Not knowing why is just as exhausting as the problem itself.
So, can high blood pressure make you tired?
You already probably know the answer from the forerunner to this but for avoidance of doubt, if you want the answer to the question: can high blood pressure make you tired?
The answer is; yes, high blood pressure can make you tired. Yes, high blood pressure can cause fatigue. Yes, high blood pressure can make you feel exhausted most of the time.
For the most part, people with high blood pressure tend not show any symptoms. Hence, if you are not someone already diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure) the finger-pointing exercise will probably be in the wrong direction.
This is particularly so if you are one of those with masked high blood pressure. These are individuals with high blood pressure that is not obvious to their doctor when their blood pressure is measured.
These folks have “normal blood pressure” in front of their doctor; but in actual fact they have high blood pressure in their day to day lives. The exact opposite of ‘white coat hypertension‘. The only way to diagnose these folks is through ambulatory 24-hour blood pressure monitoring.
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring will reveal the aha moment. High blood pressure diagnosed. Cause of tiredness and fatigue uncovered. Problem solved.
It will be unusual to talk about the relationship between tiredness and high blood pressure without mentioning the other symptoms of high blood pressure.
As I said earlier on, hypertension (high blood pressure) is usually without symptoms in the vast majority of people with the disease. But one or two symptoms will lead your physician to suspect high blood pressure as the cause of your problem.
Some symptoms of high blood pressure will include:
We have already established that lethargy, fatigue, feeling tired all the time, are some of the symptoms of high blood pressure.
In fact, in older folks, the problem of fatigue can be so bad, they find it difficult to have a productive day. That can make for a frustrating experience. But how does high blood pressure cause fatigue?
High blood pressure causes tiredness through a variety of ways.
The high blood pressure itself
The high blood pressure medicines can cause tiredness
Lifestyle issues
High blood pressure condition itself
When you have high blood pressure, it means there’s relative narrowing of your blood vessels. Your blood vessels have stiffer walls. Meaning your blood vessels aren’t very compliant to the rush of blood coming through from the heart.
With this relative narrowing and hardening of your blood vessels, the flow of blood through the vessels is sub-optimal. You need an unimpeded flow of blood through your vessels to bathe your cells.
If the flow of blood is not free, then the supply of oxygen and nutrients will be sub-optimal. This relative deprivation of rich oxygen and nutrients to your tissues inclusive of your muscles will make you feel tired, fatigued and lethargic.
Because sup-optimal supply of nutrients and oxygen means sub-optimal metabolism.
So, it is not unusual for someone with high blood pressure to feel exhausted most of the time.
The high blood pressure medicines can cause tiredness
High blood pressure is one disease where both the diseaseand the treatment can cause the same symptom(s). How bizarre.
For instance, high blood pressure can cause erectile dysfunction. At the same time, the medications used for the treatment of high blood pressure can cause the same erectile dysfunction. Sad, isn’t it?
The same thing applies to tiredness and fatigue. Just like high blood pressure can make you feel tired, so can the medications used for the treatment of high blood pressure.
One of the commonest complaints from people on high blood pressure medications is feeling tired and having low energy.
This problem of fatigue with high blood pressure medications is particularly so at the start of treatment and when a new medication had just been added to an existing one.
Blood pressure medications are a pain in the backside. Just as they save lives, they can make one’s life miserable as well.
How do blood pressure medications make you feel tired?
Some blood pressure meds like diuretics also called water pills, work by contracting your blood volume. They make you pee more. This reduces what we call the pre-load of the heart. It reduces the amount of ‘fluid work’ the heart has to do.
In doing so, these diuretics like Lasix, Thiazides may unintentionally make you lose electrolytes like potassium. A low potassium in the body is a guaranteed way to feel lethargic all day. Not what you want.
The beta blockers, like Atenolol, Bisoprolol, Propanolol, slow down your heart rate and reduce your heart’s output. This mode of action might not be liked by your body. The net result being; feeling tired all the time.
Centrally acting blood pressure medications like Clonidine, Methyl dopa, depress the central nervous system. With a mode of action like this, it is little wonder if you are taking one of these medications, you feel lethargic all the time. You need your central nervous system to be ‘firing on all cylinders’ for you to have the right energy levels.
So, if you are someone who always wonders why you feel so tired with your BP, your blood pressure medications could be playing havoc with your current low energy problem.
Yes, it’s nice to have your blood pressure under control but this may come at a price. Fatigue.
Lifestyle issues
This is linked with some of the causes of high blood pressure.
Are you overweight? Being overweight does not help your blood pressure control. Even though your hypertension can cause your fatigue, problems related to weight issue can exacerbate your tiredness.
A lot of people overweight especially if obese have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea leads to poor sleep. Poor sleep is neither good for your physical nor your mental health. Poor sleep from sleep apnea will certainly make you tired practically everyday.
Is your diet unhealthy? Eating heavily processed meals may give you the buzz of yummy tasty food but you pay the price by getting tired as this will make your blood pressure control a lot harder.
The same thing applies to your level of physical activity. If you are not physically active, you may gain weight.
But beyond weight gain issues, not getting enough physical activity is a recipe for stubborn pressure which in turn will make you feel tired. Fatigue which may be made worsened further by your blood pressure meds.
So, it is clear as daylight. High blood pressure can make you tired.
But all is not lost. If you are having high blood pressure fatigue issues, have a chat with your physician. Between the two of you, a management plan can be drawn up.
And you could have a resolution. The resolution won’t be swift but it will happen…eventually.
Can alcohol cause high blood pressure? That’s the subject of this piece. I will try and explore the research and give you an insight into the problem of alcohol and high blood pressure.
The issue of alcohol use in our society is not new. People have been using and dare I say, abusing alcohol for centuries. There is no sign that this lifestyle is ever going to change despite advice form government agencies.
It does look like there’s something about alcohol that seems to attract people to it. Young adults now start young and continue with the habit for as long as possible. To imagine that doctors are now seeing alcoholic liver disease in people in their 30s is something quite puzzling.
Anyway, this piece is not about the why we drink but more about the effect of alcohol on blood pressure.
Can alcohol cause high blood pressure?
Seeing as high blood pressure is the leading single risk factor for morbidity and mortality – responsible for 10·7 million deaths and 211·8 million disability-adjusted life-years worldwide in 2015, it makes sense to take this probable causative agent seriously.
The simple answer to the question: can alcohol cause high blood pressure is; Yes, it can.
Alcohol can cause high blood pressure and the word “can” is very important in that sentence.
Because even though alcohol does cause high blood pressure, it’s not as straightforward as you might think. Like everything scientific and related to the human body, there are some other factors that come into play.
For instance, the way women deal with alcohol is different from the way men handle alcohol. This in turn affects the outcome of drinking overall and blood pressure consequences.
The gender differences in alcohol metabolism has to do with body fat percentage, body fat distribution, body size and alcohol solubility.
This difference is illustrated in this cross-sectional analysis study of US National Health and Examination Survey data that looked at alcohol consumption in 3 groups – Non-binge drinkers, Binge drinkers of 12 times a year and Binge drinkers of more than 12 times a year.
That survey data found that the women in the binge drinking groups did not have raised blood pressure or high cholesterol but had high blood sugar instead. But the men who drank more than 5 drinks or more episodically had raised blood pressure and raised cholesterol.
Binge drinking in that study was defined as drinking 5 or more drinks per episode. They looked at men and women aged between 18 and 45 years of age who reported their alcohol use and had no cardiovascular disease.
The idea behind the study was to explore the relationship between blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar and alcohol use. But an additional outcome measure was to compare gender response to alcohol use. Their findings supports the differences in the way men and women respond to alcohol use.
I should add that the study being a cross-sectional one means the results are interpretable for that point in time only. It’s not a long term study but nevertheless shows that young adults may be exposing themselves to high blood pressure problems, if they continue to binge drink.
Effect of alcohol on blood pressure is dose-dependent
What is clear is that consistent drinking of alcohol leads to high blood pressure but as this meta-analysis suggests the effect of alcohol on blood pressure is dose-dependent.
What confuses people is the conflicting advice offered. Whereas research tells us that 16% of high blood pressure disease is due to alcohol consumption, we are also told in the same breadth that alcohol is good for our cardivascular health.
We are told and indeed there is evidence to support the view that light drinking may not do our cardiovascular system a lot of harm. In fact, light to moderate drinking is thought to reduce cardivascular complication and all-cause mortality even those with hypertension.
The safe alcohol dose where this “magic” appears to happen according to that meta-analysis is 8 – 10 gm of alcohol per day.
This view is also supported by the previous meta-analysis. It says:
“In people who drank 2 or fewer drinks per day (12 g pure alcohol per drink), a reduction in alcohol intake was not associated with a significant reduction in blood pressure. In people who drank at least 3 drinks per day, a reduction of alcohol consumption to near abstinence was associated with a reduction in blood pressure. Reductions in systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were strongest in participants who drank 6 or more drinks per day for a 50% reduction in alcohol intake”
If heavy drinkers discontinue and abstain from alcohol, their blood pressure improves. This was shown in this study that used 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to assess the effect of alcohol cessation over a 1 month period.
The study authors concluded:
“These results show that heavy alcohol consumption has an important effect on BP, and thus cessation of alcohol consumption must be recommended as a priority for hypertensive alcohol drinkers”
From all of the data that I looked at, it is clear to me that alcohol can cause high blood pressure. There is no doubt in my mind that, alcohol has the potential to make the control of high blood pressure harder to achieve.
This is particularly so in people who drink consistently. In people who drink every now and again i.e the social drinkers, the effect of alcohol on blood pressure is transient and inconsequential.
And the threshold for alcohol use to cause the rise in blood pressure seems to be 3 drinks or more per day.
It becomes important for us to define what a drink is. Because all the research papers refer to “a drink” and we cannot assume everyone knows what “a drink” is.
A standard drink in the United States is usually defined as 14 g of alcohol which is ethanol. Seeing as we are talking about alcohol and alcohol is present in spirits, wine and beer, how do we correlate this amount of alcohol in the different drinks on offer.
Here we go. 14 g of ethanol will be found in:
12 oz of beer
5 oz of table wine
1.5 oz of 80 proof (40%) distilled spirits
That guide above is not perfect. Why…because the alcohol concentration in different drinks within the same class varies. For instance, you can have 10% wine, 12% wine, 14% wine etc which confuses the picture but the guide should give you a rough idea.
How does alcohol cause high blood pressure?
The deal with alcohol and blood pressure is that there is both a direct effect and an indirect effect.
The direct effect is the fact that alcohol stimulates the sympathetic nervous system. There is a direct pressor effect on the blood vessels by alcohol.
This study gave a group of youg adults alcohol at a dose of 0.75 g/kg body weight and measured their blood pressure, heart rate and sympathetic nervous activity afterwards.
They found a raised heart rate, raised blood pressure and an increase in muscle sympathetic activity once their blood alcohol level got high.
A similar study using wine on their subjects produced similar results. The researchers found that both arousal and sympathetic activity were increased by the alcohol intake after 20 min of consuming the wine.
The way it works is this.
Initial consumption of alcohol results in what we call vasodilatation. Alcohol relaxes the blood vessels initially which means your blood pressure will be lowered. Hence, you feel flushed and warm initially when you have your drink.
Probably the reason alcohol may have some beneficial effects when consumption is at a low level.
Higher blood levels of alcohol caused by sustained intake however will reverse the relaxation of the blood vessel walls. Instead alcohol will stiffen the blood vessel walls leading to a rise in blood pressure. This is mediated by an overdrive of the sympathetic nervous system.
Alcohol also depletes some minerals like calcium and magnesium. These minerals help to relax blood vessels just like nitric oxide. When blood vessel walls are relaxed, blood pressure is lowered. Alcohol gets in the way of that.
Indirect effect of alcohol on blood pressure
Alcohol is high in sugar and calories. Regular consumption of alcohol will lead to weight gain. Gaining excess body fat will lead to high blood pressure.
Also bear in mind, people who drink are likely to eat unhealthy diet which ultimately will lead to further weight gain. This worsens the problem of raised blood pressure in regular heavy drinkers.
Coupled with the fact that; when you are intoxicated most of the time, exercise will be the last thing on your mind. Lack of exercise will certainly have a negative impact on your blood pressure.
I should also add that alcohol intereferes with REM sleep as you saw in the video above. Not getting good REM sleep may affect your blood pressure negatively.
Below is a summary of what you need to know regarding alcohol and blood pressure:
Low level consumption of alcohol has only a temporary effect on blood pressure
Low level alcohol consumption may not affect blood pressure adversely long term
Low level drinking may have beneficial effect on cardiovascular system
The threshold for alcohol harmful effect on blood pressure is 3 or more drinks per day
A drink is defined as 14 g of alcohol – see above for guidance
Safe limits will be 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men
Sustained drinking of 3 or more drinks will cause high blood pressure in a normal person
Having 3 or more drinks per day will make your high blood pressure worse
High blood pressure caused by alcohol affects all races equally – white, black, hispanics, asians alike
Cessation of alcohol will cause a reduction of high blood pressure
Resumption of alcohol consumption after cessation will cause high blood pressure again
Poor response to blood pressure pills may be due to alcohol intake
So, there you have it.
Alcohol does cause high blood pressure in regular drinkers of 3 or more drinks per day. That is not say if you drink less, then you should mandatorily carry on drinking.
Everyone is different. Have regular checks. You will be doing your health a favour by toning down your level of alcohol consumption, if you are having blood pressure concerns…
…even if all you have is 1 or 2 drinks per day. Use your judgement.
One of the things high blood pressure sufferers talk about and feel bewildered about is why we recommend home monitoring of blood pressure to be done after they have rested.
Well, the truth is; checking your blood pressure after resting is the best way to get your true blood pressure reading.
Why…because a lot of positive things can happen to your blood pressure in those precious 5 minutes. The 5-minute rest allows time for your circulatory system to come to a rest. Doing so stabilises your blood pressure.
I have written a piece on this previously. That article explains why we measure resting blood pressure as opposed to measuring it during active times.
Not doing the at-rest blood pressure measurements means you have to consider the alternative. The alternative is 24 hours blood pressure monitoring. This is a continuous home blood pressure monitoring over a 24-hour period.
The secondary terminology for this pratice is ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
What is ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and how is it done?
As the name implies, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is a blood pressure monitoring system that measures the pressure inside your blood circulatory system outside of the clinical setting. Checking your blood pressure when you are ambulant.
Of course, the ambulatory blood pressure monitor will measure your blood pressure when you are active and inactive. For instance, when you are sitting on your sofa watching TV and when you are asleep too.
In short, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring checks your blood pressure regardless of whatever you are doing at fixed intervals. Fixed intervals BP checks could be every 30 minutes or much more frequently.
As long as you have the ambulatory BP monitoring attached to you, it will do its own thing whether you are active or inactive. Readings are certainly more accurate than wrist monitors.
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring can be done over a longer time but usually ambulatory blood pressure takes readings over a 24-hour period.
The cuff of the ambulatory monitor is wrapped around your arm and the blood pressure reading device or meter is given to you along side it.
You go about your business during the day and night and at fixed intervals, the blood pressure cuff will inflate and deflate spontaneously to measure your blood pressure at that moment in time.
These readings are recorded digitally over the 24-hour period.
It helps if you can manually record your activities over the 24-hour period you have the ambulatory BP device on you. In particular, a timeline of your activities will help your doctor interprete the results a lot better.
There is evidence that ambulatory blood pressure monitoring provides lower blood pressure readings compared to clinic setting readings. That can make them desirable.
Who needs 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring?
Anyone with high blood pressure really, truth be told.
But it is not practical to use the ambulatory device on everyone. Don’t forget millions of people have problems with high blood pressure all over the world.
So, getting the device to everyone will be an expensive undertaking. Although the companies making the ambulatory blood pressure monitors will not complain.
That would be good business for them. But for now, with limited resources, it makes sense to strategically deploy the devices to those in whom the need is strongest.
Who are these people?
People for whom the need for 24-hour ambulatory moniring is strongest include:
Anyone with suspected wild blood pressure swings during the day
Individuals with suspected huge blood pressure rises at night
Someone with suspected sustained high blood pressure
If white coat hypertension is thought to be an issue
An individual who may actually have masked high blood pressure
Poor response to high blood pressure medications
Borderline high blood pressure individuals
A need for prediction of risk of blood pressure complications
Why is ambulatory blood pressure monitoring important?
In 2018, we woke up one morning in spring, with screaming headlines in 3 newspapers – The Times, The Daily Mail and The Telegraph, all UK Newspapers trashing the use of clinic blood pressure readings. The implication was that current methods were not just outdated but bordered on being unsafe.
Whilst the headlines may be true such as stated by Laura Donelly of the Telegraph:
“White coat syndrome is real, confirms a new study, showing blood pressure measurements taken by a doctor are 50 per cent less accurate than those taken at home. The research confirms theories that readings taken in a doctors’ surgery bear little relation to the true state of heart health”
So, should we throw away our regular blood pressure monitors used in hospitals and clinic settings because they are useless?. Nope!
Because these regular BP monitors still have a huge role to play in the diagnosis and management of high blood pressure in clinic settings. And as it happens we now have digital versions that blood pressure patients can use to monitor their own BP at home.
For one, they are convenient to use and the digital versions are now widely available to blood pressure patients.
We should not underestimate the role of these new digital blood pressure monitors. They are very easy to use. They only require very little training. Meaning patients can have an input into their high blood pressure management.
In any case, doctors hardly use one-time readings in clinical settings to make decisions anyway unless the reading is astronomically high. Even then the measurement needs to be repeated a couple of times before intervention is suggested.
By the way, these newspaper headlines were the result of a study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It’s a Spanish study that tracked the health of over 63,000 adults over 18 years of age. Over a 10-year period. They measured their blood pressure the usual standard way in the clinic and were given the 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitor to take home.
The monitors were set to record blood pressure at 20-minute intervals during the day and 30-minute intervals at night. The participant’s records were entered as valid and included in the study only if 70% of the readings included both systolic and diatolic.
What the researchers found:
They found out the ambulatory 24 hours blood pressure monitoring was a better predictor of cardiovascular death than one-time blood pressure readings in the clinic. This was particularly linked to 24-hour systolic blood pressure rises.
They also found that masked high blood pressure had the highest risk of death.
Hear them:
“In our study, unlike most previous studies, we observed consistently greater mortality associated with masked hypertension than with sustained hypertension, which might be due to the delayed detection of masked hypertension in patients, who consequently could have more organ damage and cardiovascular disease than patients with sustained hypertension”
Interesting!
Another thing is that we tend to be dismissive of white coat hypertension as nothing to worry about. Well, be careful of how quickly you reassure yourself or doctor reassures you.
Because white coat hypertension was associated with increased risk of death. Although not as high as masked hypertension.
By the way, masked hypertension are individuals who were thought to have normal blood pressure with the standard clinic blood pressure measurement techniques but in actual fact aren’t.
The net effect is silent damage to target organs. This exemplifies the ‘silent killer’ image of high blood pressure. You couldn’t make it up!
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Dr. Joe