by Perry McCarney

Created on: June 02, 2009   Last Updated: September 16, 2010

High blood pressure is the result of two factors: excessive blood volume or constricted blood vessels. More often then not, it is due to some combination of the two. While medical science has determined factors that can and do influence both of these, the functioning of our bodies is the result of such a complicated mix of chemical triggers, both neurotransmitters and hormones, and sympathetic and parasympathetic electrical nerve impulses that we are a long way from being able to supply computer modeling systems with the necessary physiological data to enable them to tell us exactly what is going on. Basically, we might think of it as knowing that a car's engine causes it to move, but without knowing the specifics of how it does so.

Science is all about coming up with hypotheses about a single element of what is occurring, then conducting tests to try to either support or refute each hypothesis. While we do make many advances this way, it is also why many harmful practices in the past and present have continued well past the common sense realization that they are causing more harm than good. The debate on the harmful effects of smoking went on for many years for this very reason. As did the use of asbestos and many other substances that were eventually scientifically determined to be carcinogenic (cancer causing).

However, we do not need to know the specific causes of every individual case of hypertension (high blood pressure) before we can act to counter it. We have drugs that can reduce blood pressure, and we even have a reasonable idea of how many of them work, at least at a macro level if not necessarily the microscopic, molecular specifics.

We are also able to determine foods that are beneficial in reducing blood pressure, from statistical studies at least, even when we are uncertain of the exact mechanisms they employ. Foods that encourage the excretion of water through the kidneys, natural diuretics, decrease blood pressure by reducing blood volume. Foods that expand the size, the diameter, of blood vessels reduce blood pressure by increasing the holding capacity of the cardiovascular system; it is able to hold more so the volume it contains is at a lower pressure.

One of the things we do know about the physiology of our blood vessels is that an increased concentration of calcium ions causes contraction, reducing their diameter, while an increased concentration of magnesium ions causes dilation, the relaxation of the smooth muscles in blood vessel walls

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