Today a colleague of mine told me he dropped his BP from mild hypertensive to normal simply by stopping drinking the local tap water. It occurred to me that I have been drinking gallons a day, at home, at the gym, at restaurants, at the drinking fountains at work. Our local water is VERY high in sodium...I have been warned not to water houseplants with it as it will kill them, and when it doesn't rain for awhile, all the outdoor plants show signs of mild salt damage.
So I wonder if its plausible for water to have THAT much sodium to do damage to BP? I am going cold turkey on tap water today, but I wonder has anyone else had experience with their local tap water raising their BP?
At least it gives me a tiny glimmer of hope that it might make a difference...
Honestly I've known for some time...our water supply sits on an ancient seabed, and it is massively high in sodium. If we don't get steady rain, our gardens all die due to salt poisoning. It tastes terrible. I spilled some on top of my black coffee maker once, and when it dried there was a weird blue dust there!!!
It is all too easy to grab a drink from the faucet, the tap at work, or glasses at restaurants. Not to mention all the vegetables I grow out back that are probably taking it up into their systems.
I could be over-exagerrating the effects of this, but we'll see if going cold turkey makes a difference. At least its something I sort of have control over.
I grew up with good hard water all my life, and I wonder if my system is extra sensitive to this?
Tamu-why don't you call your municipal water supplier and ask for info on the sodium in the water. Then you could estimate how much sodium you are getting a day.
Our water office sends a report about twice a year on all the chemicals etc in the water. I talked to the staff about my concerns once I went over the report. Checking one's water supply should be on a checklist for all HBP pts. There are chemicals in the water that can elevate one's b/p.
As far as I know there isn't a good test for sodium intake. One can measure the sodium in urine against one's sodium intake. My Dr. just goes by the blood sodium which isn't a good measure of sodium intake as far as I have read.
Don't stop drinking all water because you will really mess things up if sodium doesn't have a way to leave the body.
Sodium has to have water to exit the body. So I guess you will have to use bottled water & check the sodium content of that.
It would be a good idea to track the amount of fluid you do drink in a day to see if it is excessive thereby losing potassium which helps b/p control.
We really need a check list for new hypertensive patients to go through. I guarantee your Dr. will not come up with one!!! <removed>
Fam
Last edited by mod-anon; 11-13-2007 at 04:32 AM.
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I am going to make some inquiries. I think the public works department should have this information and hope it's available to the public on request. Our water tastes pretty bad and has an unpleasant odor. God only knows what they add to it at the treatment plant. I buy bottled water because I hate the smell of our tap water so much. It smells like bleach and has a chemical taste.
Also, I would call the local health department & ask if there are more hypertensives in the community than normal. Fam
That's a really good idea, I will. I asked one of the women who runs the local health food coop about the water, and she acted like I was asking about cyanide. If garden plants die of salt poisoning from it (and I find salt deposits around the base of plants after awhile when it fails to rain!) I am guessing the sodium levels are virtually lethal.
So we'll see what going cold turkey does...can't hurt!
