The Insulin Resistance to Hypertension Cycle

What If You Have Hypertension But Don’t Have Insulin Resistance?

While insulin resistance drives hypertension in 50-80% of cases, it’s not the only cause. However, the good news is that chronic inflammation is the common pathway – and our integrative approach addresses inflammation from multiple sources simultaneously.

The Inflammation-Hypertension Connection

Regardless of its origin, chronic inflammation damages your cardiovascular system through four key mechanisms:

1. Endothelial Dysfunction
Inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α, CRP) impair your arterial cells’ ability to produce nitric oxide – your body’s natural vasodilator. Without adequate nitric oxide, your arteries lose their ability to relax appropriately.

2. Arterial Stiffening
Chronic inflammation doesn’t just “tighten” blood vessels – it fundamentally changes their structure by promoting collagen deposition, breaking down elastin fibres, accelerating vascular calcification, and triggering smooth muscle cell proliferation. Your arteries literally become less elastic and more rigid.

3. Oxidative Stress
Inflammation generates reactive oxygen species (free radicals) that damage arterial walls and perpetuate even more inflammation – creating a vicious cycle.

4. Sympathetic Nervous System Activation
Inflammatory cytokines directly stimulate your stress response system, causing persistent vasoconstriction even when you’re at rest.

Multiple Sources of Inflammation

Even if you don’t have insulin resistance, our comprehensive protocol addresses the other major inflammatory driver which is Gut Permeability (Leaky Gut). When your intestinal barrier is compromised incompletely digested food & bacterial endotoxins (LPS) leak into your bloodstream, triggering massive systemic inflammation. Studies directly correlate circulating endotoxin levels with both arterial stiffness and elevated blood pressure. Our GAPS protocol, bone broth, and targeted probiotics restore gut barrier integrity.

Environmental Toxins – Non-organic foods expose you to:

– Glyphosate (damages gut barrier and microbiome)
– Organophosphate pesticides (increase oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction)
– Heavy metals like cadmium (accumulate in kidneys, activating blood pressure-raising hormones)
– Persistent organic pollutants (act as endocrine disruptors)

Switching to organic whole foods dramatically reduces this inflammatory burden.

Chronic Stress
Sustained cortisol elevation directly damages gut tight junctions, increases gut permeability, and activates inflammatory pathways. Transcendental Meditation addresses this by:

– Reducing cortisol levels
– Enhancing vagal tone (activating your calming nervous system)
– Improving gut biodiversity (meditation practitioners show increased beneficial bacteria)
– Lowering sympathetic drive that constricts blood vessels

Dietary Inflammatory Triggers
Even without insulin resistance, refined sugar and grains contribute to hypertension through:

– Increased sodium reabsorption in kidneys (sugar and sodium share transport mechanisms)
– Formation of inflammatory advanced glycation end products (AGEs)
– Blood sugar instability triggering adrenaline spikes
– Direct oxidative stress and endothelial damage

Evidence Base: Insulin Resistance as Disease Driver
This is a link to a group of studies where IR has been found to be the driver for the disease.

The Ayurvedic Perspective

For over 5,000 years, Ayurveda has identified Ama (toxins and undigested matter) as the root cause of disease and imbalance in the body. What modern science calls “chronic inflammation,” Ayurveda has long understood as the accumulation of Ama – arising from poor digestion, environmental toxins, processed foods, and mental stress. Ayurveda teaches that Ama clogs the body’s channels (srotas), including blood vessels, disrupting the natural flow of vital energy and nutrients. When Ama accumulates in the cardiovascular system, it manifests as what we now recognise as endothelial dysfunction, arterial stiffness, and elevated blood pressure.

Our protocol directly addresses Ama through two fundamental Ayurvedic principles:

Agni (Digestive Fire) Restoration – By eliminating difficult-to-digest foods (refined sugars, grains, processed ingredients) and supporting gut healing with easily digestible bone broth and fermented foods, we rekindle your digestive capacity and prevent new Ama formation.

Transcendental Meditation – Regular TM practice dissolves deep-rooted mental and emotional Ama (stress, anxiety, unprocessed emotions) that modern science now confirms drives inflammation through cortisol elevation and sympathetic nervous system activation. This ancient practice provides the deep rest needed for the body’s natural purification processes to function optimally.

By combining these time-tested Ayurvedic wisdom traditions with modern metabolic science, we address inflammation at its deepest roots.

Eating for Your Unique Mind-Body Type

Not everyone should eat the same way. Your Ayurvedic constitution (Prakriti) – determined by the unique balance of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha doshas you were born with – influences how your body responds to different foods, eating patterns, and lifestyle practices.

Constitutional Nutrition means selecting foods that balance your dominant dosha:

Vata types (thin frame, creative, variable appetite) benefit from warm, grounding, oily foods and regular meal timing to counter their natural tendency toward irregularity and anxiety-driven inflammation.

Pitta types (medium build, intense, strong digestion) thrive on cooling foods and need to manage their naturally fierce metabolism to prevent inflammatory heat from building excessively.

Kapha types (solid build, steady, slower metabolism) require lighter, warming, stimulating foods to counter their tendency toward sluggish digestion and Ama accumulation.

Through your comprehensive constitutional assessment, we identify your unique Prakriti and create a personalised nutrition plan that works with your natural tendencies rather than against them – making the dietary changes sustainable and effective long-term.

Regular Intermittent Fasting

This complements constitutional eating beautifully. Regardless of your dosha, giving your digestive system regular rest periods:

– Allows accumulated Ama to be cleared rather than adding more
– Reduces insulin levels and improves insulin sensitivity
– Activates cellular repair processes (autophagy)
– Decreases inflammatory markers
– Gives your gut microbiome time to restore balance

We tailor your fasting window to your constitution – Vata types may need shorter, gentler fasting periods, while Kapha types often thrive on longer fasting windows. The key is finding the rhythm that supports your body’s natural healing capacity.

This personalised approach is why our clients experience sustainable results – we’re not imposing a one-size-fits-all diet, but rather aligning your eating with your body’s inherent wisdom.

Why Conventional Treatment Falls Short

Standard hypertension medication works by forcing your arteries to relax or reducing blood volume – managing symptoms without addressing causation. It’s the medical equivalent of disconnecting your car’s oil warning light rather than changing the oil.

Our approach is fundamentally different: we identify and address the inflammatory drivers themselves.

This Multi-Mechanistic Advantage

This is why our Five Habits protocol produces such profound results – we’re not relying on a single intervention. We’re simultaneously:

✓ Reversing insulin resistance (when present) through intermittent fasting and low-glycaemic nutrition
✓ Healing gut permeability with GAPS protocol and bone broth
✓ Eliminating environmental toxins through organic whole foods
✓ Reducing stress-mediated inflammation with Transcendental Meditation
✓ Providing targeted nutrition based on your Ayurvedic constitution

Even if insulin resistance isn’t your primary issue, you’re still addressing the inflammation that’s damaging your cardiovascular system.

Other Causes of Hypertension

For the minority of cases where hypertension persists despite addressing inflammation, this signals the need for investigation into:

– Primary hyperaldosteronism (adrenal gland overproduction of aldosterone)
– Renal artery stenosis (physical narrowing of kidney arteries)
– Sleep apnoea (repeated oxygen deprivation during sleep)
– Rare endocrine tumours
– Advanced chronic kidney disease

Our initial assessment and HOMA-IR testing helps identify whether metabolic inflammation is your primary driver – and our comprehensive approach addresses inflammation from all angles regardless.

The bottom line: Chronic inflammation causes hypertension. Insulin resistance is simply the most common source of that inflammation in modern populations – but it’s not the only one. That’s precisely why our integrative, multi-pillar approach succeeds where single-intervention treatments fail.

The Evidence: Insulin Resistance Causes Hypertension
Three Key Studies from PubMed

1. Role of Hyperinsulinemia and Insulin Resistance in Hypertension
Researchers: John E. Hall et al., University of Mississippi Medical Centre
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32389340/
Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia interact with hypertension, creating vascular injury through metabolic effects including inflammation and dyslipidemia.

2. Insulin Resistance in Essential Hypertension
Researchers: E. Ferrannini et al., New England Journal of Medicine
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3299096/
This study demonstrated insulin resistance occurs in hypertension independently of obesity, with reduced glucose uptake directly correlated to blood pressure severity.

3. The Inter-relationship Between Insulin Resistance and Hypertension
Researchers: Multiple institutions, Clinical & Experimental Hypertension
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7512468/
Insulin resistance commonly occurs in untreated essential hypertension and represents a cause-effect relationship where metabolic dysfunction drives blood pressure elevation.

Get Tested: Prove the Root Cause

The HOMA-IR test is the gold standard for detecting insulin resistance.
Unlike standard blood tests (fasting glucose and HbA1c) that only detect problems after years of damage, HOMA-IR testing measures insulin resistance directly—often 10-20 years before hypertension develops.

Why test?
– Detects the root cause whilst it’s still reversible
– Provides a baseline to track your progress
– Proves whether your hypertension stems from insulin resistance
– Enables targeted intervention before complications arise

Book your HOMA-IR test here: £149 via Vitall [link to https://forradianthealth.com/homa-ir-testing-by-post/]
Or book a free 30-minute consultation to discuss whether testing is right for you [link to consultation page]

Why Ayurvedic Practitioners Cannot Detect Insulin Resistance

Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis (Nadi Pariksha) is a sophisticated traditional diagnostic method that assesses dosha imbalances, digestive fire (Agni), and constitutional patterns. However, pulse diagnosis cannot detect insulin resistance.
Here’s why:
Pulse diagnosis reads the qualities of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha through the radial artery, assessing patterns of imbalance, tissue states, and metabolic tendencies. Whilst it can identify digestive weakness, inflammatory patterns, and metabolic dysfunction at the dosha level, it cannot measure the specific biochemical markers that define insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is a molecular phenomenon requiring laboratory measurement of:
– Fasting insulin levels (measured in µIU/mL)
– Fasting glucose levels (measured in mmol/L)
– The mathematical relationship between them (HOMA-IR calculation)
Even the most skilled Ayurvedic practitioner reading the pulse cannot detect elevated insulin levels circulating in the bloodstream. The pulse may reveal imbalances associated with poor metabolism (weak Agni), accumulation of toxins (Ama), or Kapha-related sluggishness—all of which can correlate with insulin resistance—but it cannot diagnose insulin resistance itself.
This is why HOMA-IR testing is essential: It provides the objective, quantifiable data needed to confirm insulin resistance and track its reversal. Think of it as the difference between sensing that “something feels off” versus having a precise diagnostic measurement.

The integrative approach combines the best of both worlds:
– HOMA-IR testing to detect and measure insulin resistance
– Ayurvedic constitutional assessment to personalise the dietary and lifestyle interventions
– Evidence-based protocols (GAPS, intermittent fasting, organic food) to reverse the condition
– Periodic HOMA-IR retesting to prove remission
This is why our Integrative Remission Programmes begin with HOMA-IR testing—we need to know the starting point, prove the root cause, and track your progress towards complete metabolic restoration.

You can book HOMA-IR test here. This leads to a test kit coming to your home and someone arranging to come round and take the two blood samples, one for fasting glucose and one for fasting insulin. Or book a consultation for free to assess the probability of you having insulin resistance, here.