This web page is a companion to Step 3 of our book:
Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

Step 3 discusses the role of salt in high blood pressure and how to lower your blood pressure without actually giving up salt. Step 3 also looks at the effect of sunshine on blood pressure and how to ensure you’re getting its benefits. Get some sunshine in your life – and failing that, some vitamin D!

Click here for more information on the book: Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

 

Back to Basics: Salt, sunshine and vitamin D

Salt

As discussed in Step 3, whether and how much salt contributes to high blood pressure is a more contentious issue than you might realise.

Some studies show that higher salt intakes are associated with higher blood pressure, while other studies don’t find these effects, or argue that they can be attributed to other concomitant factors (e.g., high sugar intake). There’s also the fact that the salt we use now (table salt and the salt added to processed foods) is far more highly refined and chemically processed than salt used in the past, and that may be part of the problem.

So is it the amount of salt, the type of salt, or other dietary factors that underlie the possible relationship between salt and high blood pressure? Here’s some interesting articles on the issue.

Overview of clinical studies into salt and health:

It’s time to end the war on salt (Scientific American)

What America can learn from the UK’s massive sodium experiment (The Washington Post)

Sea Salt

All salt is not equal, as Step 3 explains. Your best bet to find nutritious natural (unbleached!) sea salt is to look in your local health food shop. However, you can also buy good natural sea salt from Brittany, France online.

Vitamin D and blood pressure regulation

As Step 3 outlines, taking a daily vitamin D supplement is a really good idea for many of us, especially if we live in northern Europe. This is not just to achieve healthy blood pressure but for many other health reasons too. Certainly in the UK, there’s more and more research showing that we’re generally deficient in vitamin D. The Scottish government now recommends everyone in Scotland take vitamin D supplements:
All Scots advised to take vitamin D

For more details on how much much sun exposure is needed to make vitamin D in your skin:
How do I get the vitamin D my body needs? (Vitamin D Council) [website currently down]

 

Sunshine

This is an excellent article which covers the whole debate (historically and now) about the role of sunlight in human health, including information on sunlight and blood pressure:
Benefits of Sunlight: A Bright Spot for Human Health

 

Send us your ideas and suggestions

If there are other websites, resources or products you’ve found useful and you think would be useful to others, please email them to us and we’ll include them: simon [at] highbloodpressurebegone.com

 

NOTE: This page is designed to be a companion page to Step 3 of our guide, ‘Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally’. As such, it only contains supplementary resources rather than being a full discussion of salt and vitamin D and blood pressure.

For more information on the effects of salt and sunshine and vitamin D on blood pressure regulation, you can further browse this website or, of course, buy the guide..!

Click here for details: Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide