Question

Derrick is a 35-year old African American advertising executive with a very hectic schedule. He's fairly active, has a BMI of 23, and is in generally good health. However, at his annual physical, his doctor discovered that Derrick has high blood pressure. Derrick assures his doctor that he eats well and can't understand why his numbers are so high. Derrick's doctor recommends that he limit his salt intake and eat more whole foods rather than packaged products. Derrick takes his doctor's advice to heart and takes the time to prepare some of his favorite meals. He takes a ham and cheese on rye sandwich to work instead of ordering Chinese food with his coworkers, even though it means giving up his favorite dish, General Tso's Chicken. For dinner he has smoked trout with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli rather than his usual frozen dinners that have about 650mg of sodium. He no longer salts his food at the table. Derrick even replaces his usual snack of salted peanuts with dry cereal, his favorite being Corn Flakes. His bedtime snack is now a pudding cup instead of chips or salty, buttery popcorn. Derrick sips on water or 100% fruit juice during the day, but he rarely drinks milk. After a month on his new diet, Derrick returns to his doctor, confident that his numbers are down. To his surprise, his blood pressure remains unchanged! "I don't understand! I don't put salt on anything and I'm eating whole foods!" he laments to his doctor. Question 1: Explain how sodium is a contributing factor to Derrick's hypertension, detailing the role(s) that sodium plays in the body that affect blood pressure. You will need to defend your answer using specific facts, data, and other information drawn from the textbook and at least one other supplemental source. Amanda is a 20-year old college student who is on the college tennis team. To stay lean and perform her best, she now only eats low-fat, nutrient-dense foods and is mostly vegetarian, although she still eats eggs and nonfat dairy. At the start of the year, Amanda was in the best physical condition of her life, but lately she's noticed that she's feeling fatigued and is having difficulty finding the energy for class every day and is experiencing shin splints that are inferring with tennis. She's also looking pale, gets frequent headaches and is irritable. This may be because she's having trouble sleeping lately. This winter has also been particularly cold, and Amanda can't seem to warm up. She's getting a bruise with every little bump and any little cut becomes infected and takes a long time to heal. Amanda suspects that because of her diet, she may need iron and begins taking a 60 mg iron supplement daily. Because she's heard that vitamin C enhances iron absorption, she takes the supplement with her morning orange juice. She also tries to eat more iron-rich foods while maintaining her vegetarian diet. She loves spinach and eats it daily. Amanda quickly begins to feel better, but this doesn't last long. After a month, her symptoms return, and additional symptoms develop. Amanda was constipated when she first began iron supplementation, but lately, she's experiencing nausea and diarrhea. Question 2: When Amanda suspects that her iron is low, she immediately makes dietary changes. Explain the misconceptions she has about iron intake and absorption. You will need to defend your answer using specific facts, data, and other information drawn from the textbook and at least one other supplemental source.

Answer 1

Answer 1

Some of the main contributing factors for the elevated blood pressure even after dietary modifications are

• African Americans in natural are at high risk for cardiovascular diseases like hypertension because of their genetics, increased salt intake and obesity
• The patient though has avoided foods from outside but stated to eat foods prepared from home which also contains a substantial amount of sodium in his diet from the cheese which may contain roughly above 1600 mg of sodium,Tso chicken has about 3200 mg of sodium content in it.Even pudding a minimal amount of sodium content
• Apart from this, the stress level if it is poorly managed will lead to frequent imbalances in the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine or adrenaline and noradrenaline and causing an elevated blood pressure.

All this can contribute to increase in the sodium levels in the body altering the renal and cardiovascular function resulting I'm elevated blood pressure