Dash Diet

The name dash means Dietary approaches to stop hypertension, and this type of diet it goes for a life course eating approach. The diet is designed specifically to help in the treatment and prevention of high blood pressure (Sattler et al., pg 42). The diet recommends that an individual should reduce sodium in their diet and entirely stick to foods that have more nutrients such as potassium, calcium and magnesium which help in the reduction of high blood pressure.

On sodium, diet dash recommends the consumption of vegetables, dairy foods that have low-fat levels and fruits and also regulate the amount of whole grain and nuts consumed. There is a recommendation on low levels of alcohol consumption when it comes to men and even lower when it comes to women. The diet does not allow people with high blood pressure to take anything rich in caffeine as it increases the levels of blood pressure.

The proponents of the diet claim that the when following the diet the blood pressure points reduce in few weeks and when followed strictly for a long time the points of blood pressure drop further and thus making a significant reduction of health risks one may be facing(Sattler et al., pg 42). They also state that apart from just lowering the blood pressure it has additional benefits like the prevention of cancer, diabetes and heart diseases.

Researchers have been working on the Dash diet since its formulation to determine whether it works. And the findings have shown that Dash diet is significant in lowering blood pressure making it an essential adjunct to pharmacological therapy for patients with metabolic syndrome. The diet is very appealing as it can be used by physicians to provide solutions to disease prevention and also the treatment of hypertension as it has clear guidelines to be followed as compared to other diets.

 

 

Works cited

Sattler, Elisabeth LP, et al. “2265 Effect of dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet on hemodynamic markers in advanced heart failure patients.” Journal of Clinical and Translational Science 2.S1 (2018): 42-42.