Substantial and Sustained Improvements in Blood Pressure, Weight and Lipid Profiles from a Carbohydrate Restricted Diet: An Observational Study of Insulin Resistant Patients in Primary Care

David J. Unwin, Simon D. Tobin, Scott W. Murray, Christine Delon and Adrian J. Brady
Additional contact information
David J. Unwin: General Practice, Norwood Surgery, Southport PR9 7EG, UK
Simon D. Tobin: General Practice, Norwood Surgery, Southport PR9 7EG, UK
Scott W. Murray: Department of Cardiology, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Liverpool L7 8XP, UK
Christine Delon: Independent Researcher, Data and Research Analyst, London, UK
Adrian J. Brady: Department of Cardiology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G4 0SF, UK

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 15, 1-11

Abstract: Hypertension is the second biggest known global risk factor for disease after poor diet; perhaps lifestyle interventions are underutilized? In a previous small pilot study, it was found that a low carbohydrate diet was associated with significant improvements in blood pressure, weight, ‘deprescribing’ of medications and lipid profiles. We were interested to investigate if these results would be replicated in a larger study based in ‘real world’ GP practice. 154 patients with type 2 diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance were recruited into an observational cohort study in primary care. The effects of a low carbohydrate diet sustained for an average of two years (interquartile range 10–32 months) on cardiovascular risk factors were examined. Results demonstrate significant and substantial reductions in blood pressure (mean reduction of systolic BP 10.9 mmHg (interquartile range 0–22 mmHg) ( p < 0.0001), mean reduction in diastolic BP 6.3 mmHg (interquartile range 0–12.8 mmHg) ( p < 0.0001) and mean weight reduction of 9.5 Kg (interquartile range 5–13 Kg) ( p < 0.0001) together with marked improvement in lipid profiles. This occurred despite a 20% reduction in anti-hypertensive medications. This novel and potentially highly effective dietary modification, done very cheaply alongside routine care, offers hope that should be tested in a large prospective trial.

Keywords: hypertension; low carbohydrate diet; sodium; essential hypertension; lifestyle medicine; obesity; deprescribing; salt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2680/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2680/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:15:p:2680-:d:252152

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().