Mumbai, January 27: High blood pressure is a condition commonly seen among obese individuals. A recent research conducted among overweight or obese individuals who consumed a low on carbohydrates diet lost about the same weight when compared to those who reduced the fat intake in their diet or had the weight-loss aid orlistat, but had favorable impact on their blood pressure levels.
William S Yancy Jr of the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, People and his colleagues enrolled 146 patients to either eat a low-carbohydrate diet, by eating fewer than 20 grams of carbohydrate daily, or to take 120 mg of orlistat three times a day and eat a low-on-calorie as well as low-on-fat diet.
After 48 weeks of consumption of the instructed diet and observation, the low-carb group which had lost about 9.5 percent of their body weight, compared to 8.5 percent for the orlistat group, showed significant advantage in terms of blood pressure reduction.
Improvements in cholesterol levels were found to be similar between the two groups.
The low-carb group showed about a 6 percent drop in their systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) and a 4.5 point drop in their diastolic pressure (the lower number). In contrast, the orlistat group did not see a drop in blood pressure; the corresponding changes for the orlistat group were 1.5 (systolic) and 0.4 (diastolic).
Orlistat works by blocking the body's absorption of fat from food so people who use the drug need to cut down on their fat intake or risk unpleasant side effects like gas and even incontinence.
Also read: Moderately reduced carb diet increases sense of fullnessTags: Blood pressure, obese, carbohydrate, fatRead more: How to control your blood pressure Blood pressure check: How much salt should you have? New discoveries to cure high blood pressure Blood pressure control may prevent dementia in women 
