High uric acid, is a by-product of food metabolism, especially meat. Uric acid in the blood—hyperuricemia—may not exactly cause high blood pressure, according to the Mayo Clinic, but it may be a predictor of it. In other words elevated amounts have been found in the blood of patients prior to hypertension. Possibly that wouldn’t have been a problem had the kidneys quickly and swiftly removed the excessive uric acid and passed it off in the urine.
The causes of excess uric acid in the blood
Uric acid levels rise because more of it is being processed in the body or by inadequate means of eliminating it. A diet heavy with meat day after day will normally produce high levels of uric acid; and after years of this regimen expect the body to rebel. Gout, arthritic joints, high blood pressure and associated disorders will be the price paid for a meat rich diet.
Medications such as diuretics that drain fluid from the body may leave the body’s fluid supply inadequate to carry off excessive uric acid. Add to that excessive alcohol, beverages with caffeine and of course, genetics.
(Other ways of explaining genetic disorders are familial incidences, inheritances, it runs in the family. These are ways of saying there are probably some slight or not so slight irregularities in the family DNA.)
Diseases such as Hodgkin’s Disease and Leukemia can cause a rise in uric acid levels simply because they are disorders that interfere with the lymph and blood systems rendering them unsuitable to process or pass on waste products. Low or under functioning thyroid glands, excess weight and even psoriasis results in excess uric acid and may cause blood levels of uric acid to rise.
Foods with high blood levels of uric acid
Organ meats are especially frowned upon for people with gout and swollen joints and with high blood pressure resulting from this over abundance. Add to that wild meat such as deer, turkeys, rabbits, etc., and food from the sea such as anchovies and herring. As for vegetable those with more protein such as dried beans and peas and other protein rich foods may be the culprit.
Science Daily has an interesting and provocative spread about the role high uric acid levels may have in high blood pressure. They admit there’s no conclusive evidence but studies are being conducted that may shed more light on the deleterious effects of too high purine diets and its overall effect of high blood pressure.
High blood pressure is increased when the body demands more effort toward keeping the body balanced and working normally. And the only way this is carried out is to send signals to the heart to beat faster. This is considered normal at times such as walking, running, digesting food, but if it happens when the body is quiet and inactive, it then becomes a disorder. Too much uric acid may be the cause.
Uric acid levels are often discovered during routine blood tests. The doctor is often able to see a connection between a high blood pressure reading and the elevated uric acid levels. And too, it does no harm to suspect this as the cause of your high blood pressure if you know you’ve had too many heaping helpings of chicken, turkey, and other such rich foods.
If more vegetables and fruits and less alcohol and less coffee and sweetened drinks and more water does not bring down the blood pressure reading, by all means leave the diagnosis to the professionals. They have the ways and means of looking inside your body and finding out what’s causing the holdup, while you’re only guessing. But if there’s no immediacy, slackening down on hard to digest foods is cost effective and less traumatic than dumping it all on your hard overworked physician.
