Protecting arteries against hypertensive injury.

Abstract

For the first 98.5% of mankind's existence, prehistoric people all ate low-sodium, high-potassium, low-fat diets. With evolutionary forces working all this while, humans became very well adapted to the low-sodium, high-potassium, low-fat diet. In modern times, man has deserted his ancient cuisine and now favours a high-sodium, low-potassium, high-fat diet, which has produced several 'diseases of civilization', including hypertension. Many studies indicate that a 'normal'-potassium diet can prevent many of these arterial and renal lesions, even though the blood pressure remains equally hypertensive. The high-potassium diet also tends to retard the development of hypertension. The use of the high K diet is a prime example of protecting arteries in a hypertensive setting. This is the new dimension in hypertension therapy, protecting the arteries in addition to normalizing the blood pressure.