Can Drinking Water Increase Blood Pressure?

Jul 06, 2024, 13:49 IST

Prajvi Mathur

Drinking water may not necessarily increase your blood pressure. However, dehydration may result in changes in the blood pressure.

Our blood is made up of 90% water. Drinking less water may result in lowering the blood volume causing low blood pressure. This may also cause a lack of nutrients and oxygen in your organs resulting in a shock.

Dehydration can also lead to high blood pressure due to the hormone vasopressin. When the fluid level in the blood reduces, vasopressin may cause blood vessels to shrink and raise the blood pressure.

Although drinking water is not a treatment for low or high blood pressure, chronic dehydration can make things significantly worse. Therefore, it is important to drink plenty of water.

The water intake required by an individual may differ depending on a lot of factors. However, the National Institute of Sciences of the US recommends males consume 2.7 litres or about 91 ounces and females consume 3.7 litres or about 125 ounces on average.

Drinking enough water has many other health benefits as well such as improving digestion, maintaining electrolytes, removing toxins from the body, transporting and absorbing nutrients, etc.

For maintaining blood pressure, it is important to have a healthy diet and lifestyle. For high blood pressure, it is recommended to avoid caffeine and alcohol. Physical exercise and getting proper sleep can also help in maintaining blood pressure.

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