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Fructose is Raising Blood Pressure in Men

blood pressure and fructose

We all know how crucial it is to make sure we eat healthy, and now men have one more thing added to their plate. It has been found that a diet saturated with foods that include large amounts of fructose sugar, such as soft drinks, will increase blood pressure in men.  Also, it was found that a medication used to treat gout, an acute, recurrent disease characterized by painful inflammation of the joints, could block this effect.   After two weeks, men that took part in the study who ate a high-fructose diet had their blood pressure rise by approximately 5 percent.

Others were given a treatment for gout along with the diet saw an increase of less than 1 percent.  Therefore, eating great amounts of fructose minus the medication also raised the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which are a group of risk factors that are known to increase the developments of diabetes and heart disease.  This study is one of the first to show that the intake of high-fructose foods raises the blood pressure in people.

The medication for gout lowered the body’s uric acid, which is connected at elevated levels to diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.  The lesson here is to reduce your sugar intake, that too much sugar and high fructose corn syrup may not be a good thing.  Certainly more in depth trials would be needed to validate the findings, particularly before treating anyone with any medications including the gout drug, allopurinol.

According to the background data that was found by the American Heart Association, fructose is only one of various sugars in food and makes up approximately half of all sugar molecules in high-fructose corn syrup and regular table sugar.   The Heart Association stated that high-fructose corn syrup is the only known common sugar that elevates the levels of uric acid.  The men who participated in the study who had elevated blood pressure saw their levels drop to normal within two months of the study ending when they returned to their normal diets.  Those that were eating the high-fructose diet that were also given allopurinol did not show any significant raise in their systolic or diastolic blood pressure, the study showed.

The incidence of metabolic syndrome as it is described in the United States, more than doubled to 44 percent in the group that was ingesting the high-fructose diet without the allopurinol.   This syndrome is defined as having at least three out of the five risk factors including high fasting-blood sugar, high blood pressure and increase weight gain around the waist.  Because the medication for gout stopped their blood pressure from rising, those that were in the group receiving the allopurinol did not experience a elevation in their metabolic syndrome.  Most of the sugar consumed in the United States tends to come from sweetened drinks and foods that are high in fructose corn syrup or table sugar.  The findings of this research suggest that it is possible that lowering uric acid levels could become a routine practice in the near future, much todays process for lowering cholesterol.  This could become a risk factor that is adjustable and that lowering the uric acid levels could be of considerable advantage. However,  need more studies to prove it.

This new study analyzed 74 adult men in Spain that were the average age of 51. The men were given generally 200 grams (7.5 ounces) daily of high- fructose corn syrup in addition to their normal diet. In the United States, most adults consume approximately 50 to 70 grams of fructose per day.   It is exciting data that suggests uric acid may have a role in hypertension.

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