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How Insulin Resistance Causes Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
The Simple Explanation
Think of insulin resistance like a chain reaction that directly raises your blood pressure through your kidneys:
Step 1: Insulin Resistance Creates High Insulin Levels
When your cells become resistant to insulin, your pancreas pumps out MORE insulin to try to force the cells to respond. This means you have chronically high insulin levels circulating in your blood.
Step 2: High Insulin Tells Your Kidneys to Hold Onto Salt
Your kidneys normally filter your blood and decide what to keep and what to flush out in urine. High insulin sends a direct signal to your kidneys saying: “Hold onto sodium (salt)! Don’t let it go!”
This happens in a specific part of the kidney called the proximal tubule where insulin increases sodium reabsorption.
Step 3: More Salt = More Water Retention
Where salt goes, water follows. It’s a basic law of chemistry. When your kidneys hold onto more sodium, they automatically hold onto more water to keep the salt balanced.
Step 4: More Water in Arteries = Higher Blood Pressure
Imagine your arteries are like garden hoses. If you keep the same hose size but pump MORE water through it, the pressure increases. That’s exactly what happens:
– More water retained = more blood volume
– Same size arteries + more blood volume = HIGHER PRESSURE
This is literally what we measure as “blood pressure”
Step 5: The Sympathetic Nervous System Kicks In
High insulin ALSO activates your sympathetic nervous system (your “fight or flight” response), which:
– Makes your heart beat harder and faster
– Constricts (tightens) your blood vessels
– Both of these further INCREASE blood pressure
The Vicious Cycle
This creates a dangerous cycle:
1. Insulin resistance → High insulin
2. High insulin → Kidneys retain salt & water
3. More fluid volume → Higher blood pressure
4. High blood pressure → Damages arteries and kidneys
5. Damaged kidneys → Even worse at regulating fluid
6. Worse fluid regulation → Even higher blood pressure
This is why Type 2 diabetics almost always develop hypertension – they’re the same disease process!
The Kidney-Water-Pressure Connection Explained Simply:
Think of it this way, normal kidneys:
– Filter 180 litres of blood per day
– Decide what to keep, what to release
– Release excess sodium → excess water follows → normal blood volume.
With Insulin Resistance:
– High insulin tells kidneys: “KEEP the sodium!”
– Kidneys hold onto sodium
– Water must stay with the sodium (osmosis)
– Blood volume INCREASES
– Same arteries + MORE blood = HIGHER PRESSURE
It’s like trying to squeeze more water into the same water balloon – the pressure inside HAS to go up.
The Result:
– Systolic pressure (top number) rises because more fluid is being pumped
– Diastolic pressure (bottom number) rises because vessels are tighter and fuller
How to Reverse This:
1. Eliminate grains and refined sugars → Lowers insulin
2. Lower insulin → Kidneys stop hoarding sodium
3. Release sodium → Release excess water
4. Less blood volume → Blood pressure drops
This is why people on very low-carb diets often see their blood pressure normalise within weeks – sometimes so fast they need to reduce blood pressure medications to avoid going too low!
The recipe above does exactly this while being perfectly suited to balance Kapha dosha.