Is there published data on using pulse pressure & WFPB diet

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Is there published data on using pulse pressure & WFPB diet

Postby Mike Deadmonton » Thu Jan 09, 2020 5:01 pm

I have seen reports from Dr Bernard, Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr., MD, and Dr Ornish where they document how switching to a whole food plant based diet (WFBP) has reversed atherosclerosis in patients over time using angiograms and other medical techniques to document improvement. While this is great, I was wondering if they or any other medical author used pulse pressure changes as evidence of improvement over time.

For example, you have indicated that your resting blood pressure is 90/60 for a pulse pressure of 30, which I think we could call the gold standard. In my example, you decided that WFPB diet was no longer working for you and you now are on the bacon ice cream diet. Year 1, your pulse pressure increases to 40 and in year 2, this number increases to 55. By year 3, your pulse pressure is 75 and your GP is going to feed you multiple medicines to get your blood pressure under control.

You decide that the WFPB diet may be the better choice and after a few years, your blood pressure is 90/60 again. Has anybody documented the change in pulse pressure with the improved diet?
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Re: Is there published data on using pulse pressure & WFPB d

Postby JeffN » Thu Jan 09, 2020 6:27 pm

No that I know of.

I don’t see how it would really add anything

As of right now, SBP is the best indicator,

It is also hard enough to get accurate blood pressure readings as is.

However, if someone wanted to, it would be fairly easy to add in if they are already getting SBP and DBP. Or one could go back and review existing data from the names you mentioned that included BP readings.

In health
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Re: Is there published data on using pulse pressure & WFPB d

Postby Mike Deadmonton » Sun Jan 12, 2020 10:03 pm

Thanks.

My background included organic deposition (i.e. wax) in oilfield production and one way to measure deposition is to look for an increase in "pulse pressure" or deltaP. Even in this application, all other variables such as flow and temperature, etc being equal, you don't see much of a change in pressure until there is significant blockage,

When I went looking in the literature, there were papers citing pulse pressure as a better indicator of cardiac events then systolic. You would have to be careful though as the patients were in poor health and had high systolic pressures to begin with.

The one study I am looking at, it is eye opening to note they used 54-67 mmHg for mid pulse pressure and >67 for high. Unfortunately, even with the reduction in systolic, my diastolic decreased significantly as well so that my pulse pressure is in the mid point.

I think I will use this study to back up why my wife shouldn't be using that tiny amount of oil on vegetables.

Now a blood vessel is significantly different than a pipeline and the change in pressures can be affected by more than plaque buildup. Taking an accurate blood pressure reading is difficult so I strive for repeatability over accuracy to look for a trend rather than an absolute.

There really isn't a cheap and easy method to determine if plaque buildup is going down (I think there is ultrasound, though this is not an at home technology). I guess the question would be what would one do if there is no trending down? I still believe the WFPB diet is the best diet and if strictly followed will allow one to obtain the best results an individual is capable of. Maybe I would increase my intake of beets (I have done this when I was experimenting with systolic and you get a minimum of a 5 mmHg decrease, if not more). Alternatively, if it dropped a lot, maybe I would feel it would be ok to splurge on some fat in the diet.
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