title: Protecting arteries against hypertensive injury.
abstract: For the first 98.5% of mankind's existence, prehistoric people all ate low-sodium, high-potassium, low-fat diets. With evolutionary forces working all this while, humans became very well adapted to the low-sodium, high-potassium, low-fat diet. In modern times, man has deserted his ancient cuisine and now favours a high-sodium, low-potassium, high-fat diet, which has produced several 'diseases of civilization', including hypertension. Many studies indicate that a 'normal'-potassium diet can prevent many of these arterial and renal lesions, even though the blood pressure remains equally hypertensive. The high-potassium diet also tends to retard the development of hypertension. The use of the high K diet is a prime example of protecting arteries in a hypertensive setting. This is the new dimension in hypertension therapy, protecting the arteries in addition to normalizing the blood pressure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tobian
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000293:injuries*; D004032:Diet; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications / Q000178:diet therapy*; D011188:Potassium / Q000008:administration & dosage; D051381:Rats; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D011188:Potassium