Research

Hormonal

Caloric restriction via a hypocaloric protein diet reduces blood pressure in obese patients by lowering sympathetic nervous system activity (norepinephrine levels) and suppressing the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis.

For obese individuals with hypertension, a short-term, medically supervised very-low-calorie protein diet (approx. 320 kcal/day) can significantly lower blood pressure by reducing sympathetic nervous system activity and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone levels, independent of sodium intake. This suggests that caloric deficit itself, rather than just salt reduction, drives blood pressure improvements in obesity.

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Reductions in blood pressure in association with caloric restriction in these obese patients seems to result, in part, from reduced sympathetic nervous system activity as well as secondary effects of reduced adrenergic activity on renal sodium excretion and the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis.
James R. Sowers et al. · Hypertension · 1982

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial design with objective biochemical measurements (plasma catecholamines, PRA, aldosterone) and blood pressure monitoring over 12 weeks.

Source

Blood pressure and hormone changes associated with weight reduction in the obese.

James R. Sowers et al. · Hypertension · 1982

DOI 10.1161/01.hyp.4.5.686

clinical_trial · n=20Cited 166×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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