What Is Dehydration?
Dehydration is defined as the excessive loss of body fluid. Symptoms generally become noticeable with mild dehydration, which is the loss of 1- 2% of one’s normal water volume.
What Causes Dehydration?
At Optimum Health, the main cause of dehydration is drinking less water than is needed. Your need depends on your size and how much you sweat. A protein deficiency is what we have found to be the main reason people drink less water than they need. In more severe cases, people can develop thickened, dry skin, brittle hair, a tongue that sticks to the roof of the mouth, decreased urination, and more.
Can Dehydration Cause Hypertension?
Absolutely. Dehydration is one of the primary causes of hypertension. Think of cooking oatmeal with plenty of water in the pot. Once the oatmeal is cooked, you can turn the pot upside down, and it will run out. Why? 
Because gravity is strong enough to pull the oatmeal from the pot. If you put too little water in the pot when cooking oatmeal, it will not run out when you turn the pot upside down. Why? Because gravity is not strong enough to pull the thick oatmeal from the pot.
This is what happens when you don’t drink enough water and end up dehydrated. When you don’t drink enough water, you don’t put enough water in your blood, causing it to become too thick. When the heart squeezes and pushes the thick blood up into the aorta, the blood has to flow back down out of the aorta where it bends. This is the equivalent of turning the pot of oatmeal upside down.
“I can keep up with my children again.
My blood pressure stays normal!”
Gloria C, Richmond, Virginia
How Do I Know If Dehydration is Leading To My Hypertension?
When I first heard the explanation of how dehydration leads to hypertension, I (Tianya S. Clark, B.S., CNHP) remember thinking, “This sounds good, but as my professor used to say, ‘There is nothing like an ugly little fact to mess up a perfectly beautiful theory. As if reading my mind, Dr. Anstett went on to explain to our class that Chinese medicine represents the heart as burning wood. If a wood fire is burning too high (the heart working too hard), what do you do to slow it down? You put water on the fire. In the same way, you would drink more water to slow the burning wood (hypertension). In other words, Chinese medicine’s official stand is “drinking water can lower hypertension”.
Well, how does Western medicine view it? When a person has hypertension, they are often given diuretics to make them urinate. Drinking more water will make you urinate. They are also given blood thinners. Drinking more water will thin your blood. Finally, they are often given calcium channel blockers to prevent the muscles from squeezing the blood vessels. Drinking the water to thin the blood will prevent the need for these muscles to squeeze. Makes sense, doesn’t it!
“I feel wonderful. I can walk long distances again and my
blood pressure sits right at 121/80.”
Valerie G, Richmond, Virginia
Should I Stop My Hypertension Medicine?
Please take your hypertension medicine! Drinking lots of water does not mean that you get to just stop taking your hypertension medicine. The medical community calls hypertension the silent killer because it kills without notice. Therefore, continue taking your medicine while you closely monitor your blood pressure and maintain good records to present to your physician.
Increase your water to the proper amount, unless you have been told by a qualified health professional not to do so. Tell your physician what you are doing and that you want him/her to be on alert that your pressure should be monitored closely and that your medicine may need to be decreased. Most physicians won’t believe you. That is understandable as this goes against their training. Fortunately, you don’t need for them to believe you. You just need for them to be cooperative. As time goes by, your pressure should keep dropping until it becomes normal. At that point, the medicine will make your blood pressure too low, and your physician will decrease your medicine. Eventually, the physician will take you off of all of your hypertension medicines. We have this happen time and time again at our center.
“I feel great! Even better, my doctor has taken me off 3 of my
hypertension medicines and decreased the last one.”
Forestine B, Heathsville, Virginia
There are times when drinking the proper amount of water will not eliminate your high blood pressure. This is another reason you should continue taking your medicine. If you are one of the people whose blood pressure does not normalize with drinking the proper amount of water, recognize that you have more than one reason for your hypertension. Then consider other root causes of hypertension, such as mercury exposure from amalgams (the silver- or black-colored fillings) in your teeth and from seafood.
Mercury toxicity is the second most common cause of high blood pressure that we see at our natural healthcare center. Mercury usually causes the top number of your blood pressure (systolic) to go up while the bottom number (diastolic) stays fairly normal or even low. This is called split systolic hypertension. A typical split systolic hypertension reading could be 140/75 or possibly 160/90. We theorize that the mercury may thicken the blood. At Optimum Health, we use the total body cleanse process to help your body lower mercury levels, which usually results in normal blood pressure.
Dehydration and High Blood Pressure: Related Topics
What are the symptoms of dehydration?
How much water should I drink each day?
Should I drink water with my meals?
Why don’t I like to drink or crave water?
What might make me drink more water?
Dehydration and High Blood Pressure: Most Visited Topics
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