Nutrition for VSD: basic rules and recommendations

Principles of nutrition for VSD

A properly selected diet helps alleviate the pathology. The principles of proper nutrition for VSD look like this:

• include foods that contain potassium and magnesium in the menu;
• drink at least 2000 liters per day. water;
• regularly consume foods that contain many vitamins and help stabilize blood pressure.

Nutrition for VSD does not require adherence to strict diets. The patient is prohibited from fasting or fasting days.

What to eat with vegetative-vascular dystonia

Avoid eating refractory animal fats - interior fat, lard, margarine, etc. Replace butter with sunflower, rapeseed or olive oil.

Eliminate foods containing preservatives, dyes, and thickeners from your diet. Do not eat food from fast food services, fried or smoked foods.

Avoid sausages and old cheeses, as well as chocolate - this is especially important when blood pressure levels increase due to VSD. These products provoke migraines, vascular thrombosis, and stroke.

You will learn more about foods that are harmful to the brain and nervous system when organizing nutrition for VSD in the video:

Diet for VSD

Proper nutrition for all forms of VSD suggests that the patient should eat according to the Chichagov system. The basic rules look like this:

1. The stomach is especially active from 05:00 to 17:00. Breakfast should be hearty and consist of animal proteins. For lunch you should serve the first thing (soups with cereals, puree soups). It is advisable to have dinner with baked vegetables or porridge.
2. After 18:00, kidney activity increases. A person should take slightly salted water. You need to drink it in small sips.
3. You should not eat after 18:00. Otherwise, food rotting in the stomach will release dangerous toxins. The exception is people suffering from gastrointestinal diseases (gastritis, pancreatitis). They should eat according to the regimen recommended by the gastroenterologist. In accordance with this regimen, the last meal is 1-2 (not 4!) hours before bedtime.
4. Your diet must contain foods that contain sodium. This element promotes the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
5. You can't wash down your food. You can drink water 60 minutes before a meal, or the same time after it.
6. Portions should not be large. The recommended interval between meals is 120 minutes.
7. You should not eat set lunches. You can only eat one product at a time.

The duration of this regime is about 7 days. Then you should take a break for 10-14 days. If symptoms return, repeat.

Cereals

Buckwheat is light and cold, so it is not the best choice of cereals for VSD. The best choice would be oatmeal. Even millet porridge is preferable to buckwheat. However, buckwheat can be well seasoned with melted butter and warming foods can be added to it - fried onions, mushrooms, boiled eggs, pepper. In this case, you will get a useful product.

Rice is also a useful cereal. It has a neutral effect, but harmonizes the body's systems and has a positive effect on vegetative-vascular disorders. You can safely use it, in any quantity, but don’t forget to flavor it well with melted butter! Dry, hard, undercooked rice without oil is harmful for VSD.

Nutrition in different forms

Usually, 2 forms of vegetative-vascular dystonia are diagnosed - hypotonic and hypertonic.

Both forms are characterized by an abrupt increase in blood pressure. When this happens, drinking teas is helpful. These should be added:

• hop cones;
• Linden blossom;
• lemon balm leaves;
• mint leaves.

These plants have a beneficial effect on the hypothalamus.

The work of the ANS stabilizes, the person becomes less irritable. Symptoms of insomnia disappear.

Regardless of the form of the pathology, it is recommended to drink the following teas:

• Eleutherococcal;
• ginseng;
• aralium.

These plants help improve metabolism. Performance improves, vitality returns to normal. The functioning of the immune system is also normalized. Some herbs cause allergies. Therefore, the diet for VSD should be agreed upon with other specialized doctors.

Features of nutrition in hypertensive form

The hypertensive diet is intended to reduce the risk of developing arterial hypertension. The patient should not consume products that increase blood pressure and have a stimulating effect on the nervous system.

You should include as much fresh fruit as possible in your diet. Glucose-rich grapes are especially beneficial. You also need to eat citrus fruits and apricots.

You should be careful with bananas - this fruit, if consumed in large quantities, has a negative effect on the pancreas.

Cottage cheese is very useful for the patient’s body. It needs to be eaten in large quantities. The optimal fat content of the product is 5%. Cottage cheese with 0% fat content should not be included in the menu, since there are no beneficial substances in such a product.

Also, if you have hypertensive VSD, you should eat leafy greens. Essential oils of celery and dill contain substances that help expand the lumen of blood vessels.

Instead of coffee, you should drink cocoa, which contains a flavonol that lowers blood pressure.

If a person’s blood pressure regularly rises, it is necessary to reduce the amount of coffee and tea they drink. You should not drink coffee during the day, since the tart drink has a bad effect on the functioning of the pancreas.

Table salt consumption should be reduced to 4 g/24 hours. It is recommended to use hyposodium salt or its potassium substitute.

Features of nutrition in hypotonic form

The most common symptom of the hypotonic form of VSD is frequent dizziness. Depending on blood pressure readings, a person may be in an apathetic or faint state. Episodes of fainting are common.

The main goal of the diet is to reduce periods of dizziness. It is strictly forbidden to go hungry. Even if you don’t feel like eating, you should definitely eat something light and low in calories.

With this diagnosis, a person needs to include in his diet foods that contain a large amount of vitamins. Products containing ascorbic acid are useful. It has a general tonic effect. It is recommended to eat as much as possible:

• rutabaga;
• black currant;
• gooseberries;
• oranges;
• bell pepper.

Another important element is bioflavonoids. They help improve the elasticity of blood vessels. If there are no gastrointestinal diseases, it is recommended to add paprika to food and eat large amounts of beets.

It is allowed to drink green tea, sometimes energy drinks such as hibiscus and freshly squeezed fruit juices. Sometimes you can include coffee in your diet.

You can enhance the tonic effect of drinks by adding a small amount of fresh honey. You can't drink cocoa.

If you have no appetite, you can add to your dishes:

• chilli;
• ginger;
• turmeric;
• cinnamon.

You can raise blood pressure with licorice. It can be consumed in the form of dietary supplements, herbal raw materials or sucking candies.

Authorized Products

The diet for vegetative-vascular dystonia of the hypertensive type includes foods and dishes with a reduced salt content. Vegetable soups with cereals and soups not based on strong meat/fish broth with a minimum amount of extractive substances without the addition of spices and seasonings are allowed. It is preferable to consume whole grain bread or with bran; in small quantities, rye or wheat bread. Meat and poultry should be of low-fat varieties and are best consumed boiled and baked.

The diet should be dominated by various types of fish and seafood. It is recommended to include low-fat milk, fermented milk products, and low-fat cottage cheese in your diet. Among fats, preference is given to vegetable oils.

Cereals (millet, barley, buckwheat, oatmeal), and various vegetables (zucchini, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, beets, eggplants) are used as a side dish. As a dessert, various fruits/berries in any form are useful. Useful drinks include weak black tea with milk, freshly squeezed juices, coffee drinks based on barley and chicory, non-carbonated mineral water, and rosehip decoction.

The diet for vegetative-vascular dystonia of the hypotonic type involves the inclusion in the diet of foods and dishes with a moderately high salt content - canned meat and fish, fish caviar, pickles, smoked meats, sausages. The first and second courses should be richly flavored with herbs/spices (cloves, basil, bay leaves, allspice, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, dill, parsley), and various sauces (mustard, horseradish) should also be widely used. As first courses, preference should be given to solyanka, kharcho soup, and borscht. Healthy foods include fatty meats, poultry, butter, hard salty and spicy cheeses, full-fat milk and dairy products (cream, sour cream), chicken eggs, white rice, potatoes, various types of nuts, fermented milk products and beekeeping products.

An important component of the diet are foods rich in vitamins/microelements - sprouted wheat grains, liver, yeast, egg yolk, celery, sorrel, legumes, spinach. The diet must include caffeine-containing foods and drinks (natural coffee, cocoa, cola, chocolate, strong green tea, energy drinks). Fruits that are useful include lemon, black currant, pomegranate, cherry and freshly squeezed juices.

Table of permitted products

Sample menu

The following tables provide an approximate menu for vegetative-vascular dystonia:

Spices, herbs

Pepper and other spices - cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, allspice, nutmeg, cloves are very useful for Wind disorders. If you have symptoms of VSD, they must be included in your daily diet. A combination of garlic, hot chili pepper and ghee gives a good therapeutic and prophylactic effect. For greens, it is better to use dill and cilantro.

In general, Tibetan medicine recommends any warming products for VSD - poultry (chicken, goose, duck, turkey), lamb, liver, egg yolks, nuts (walnuts, pine, cashews).

Insufficient duration of sleep and rest

Another important contraindication in the presence of vegetative-vascular dystonia is nights deprived of proper sleep and rest. If a person does not sleep continuously for 8 hours, his body will work at its limit, which is fraught with the development of serious complications.

Insufficient sleep time can undermine the functioning of the central nervous system and also deplete the strength of a person suffering from dystonia.

When going to bed, it is important to follow a number of simple rules:

• cool and humid air in the bedroom;
• comfortable mattress and comfortable bed linen;
• darkness in the room, absence of extraneous sounds and a working TV;
• going to bed and getting up at about the same time.

Compliance with these rules will allow a person to fully rest, gain strength and prevent exacerbation of dystonia.

Lack of physical activity

Without physical activity, you cannot achieve a full life. Properly organized sports activities allow you to:

• get rid of bad thoughts and emotions;
• maintain muscle tone;
• relieve irritability and fatigue;
• cheer up.

We recommend reading: Breathing exercises and exercises for VSD: prevention

A properly selected set of exercises will not tire a person suffering from VSD, which will provide a surge of strength and excellent mood that arises after the training.

Principles of proper organization of training for people with VSD:

1. Mandatory measurement of blood pressure before and after training.
2. Classes are held in the morning or afternoon, from approximately 16:00 to 19:00.
3. Perform all exercises at a moderate pace, maintaining calm breathing.
4. Refusal of active jumping and running.
5. Reducing the pace of exercise when shortness of breath occurs.
6. Preference for swimming, cycling, fitness, volleyball.
7. Ban on wrestling, boxing, tennis and weightlifting.

Important! Physical exercise, even therapeutic, is not indicated for people who have problems with heart rhythm, angina pectoris, very high or extremely low blood pressure, or a recent hypertensive crisis.

Recommended diets

Due to the fact that VSD is inextricably linked with disturbances in the functioning of the central nervous system, many patients, especially suspicious ones, begin to severely limit themselves in food - it is very difficult to force them to eat something, even for their relatives.

Most often, nutritionists prescribe a low-carbohydrate diet to patients with vegetative-vascular dystonia, which is often used by people to lose weight. It is based on increasing the amount of protein consumed (fish, meat, low-fat dairy products) and reducing the amount of carbohydrates consumed. In accordance with the basic principles of a low-carbohydrate diet, the human body, experiencing a lack of carbohydrates, which are the main source of energy, begins to consume fat deposits.

When creating your own diet for VSD, there are no hard and fast rules, because the disease has a psycho-emotional origin.

Therefore, there is no urgent need to strictly limit yourself to any product. If excluding a certain food from the diet is stressful for a person, then there is no point in giving it up completely - this will only lead to a worsening of the condition.

Regardless of the type of vegetative-vascular dystonia, each developed diet should be supplemented with multivitamin complexes, which are recommended by nutritionists. Such drugs can help strengthen tone, general and local immunity, and reduce the likelihood of developing acute forms of chronic diseases.

General recommendations are as follows:

• You need to eat by the hour (for this it is important to follow a daily routine, which will be discussed later).
• Overeating should not be allowed - if you feel full, then you should refuse to continue eating food, even if it is very tasty. This is the basic rule of dietary nutrition.
• Fruits and vegetables should be consumed by patients in large quantities (the same is true for soups and broths, which should be for lunch every day).
• Fish should also be present on the menu (in the form of fish soup, boiled, steamed, etc.). Optimally – 2-3 times a week.
• It is recommended to eat cereals – buckwheat, oatmeal (optimally – every day).

If the main manifestations of VSD are disturbances in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and digestion, then it is necessary to reduce fat intake to a minimum.

In case of vegetative-vascular dystonia in a child or adolescent, parents should be involved in feeding him. You need to approach this especially responsibly and do not hesitate to ask for help from specialists, because... further development of the disease cannot be allowed.

This should be excluded

The main enemies of the patient are alcohol, tobacco and, of course, drugs. If he experiences serious addiction, then treatment must begin with narcology. As Robert Louis Stevenson's character Dr. Livesey would say, “one glass of course won't kill, but he won't stop at one... The consequences can be the most tragic, since tobacco and intoxicants affect the entire body. Alcohol affects the organs, nervous system and psyche.

In addition, you need to pay great attention to any medications you take.

Some drugs can cause so-called somatic depression or have side properties that will cause symptoms similar to vegetative-vascular dystonia. It is necessary to consult with specialists and replace medications with analogues or, if possible, abandon them altogether.

Alcohol and smoking

People with a history of VSD are contraindicated to drink alcohol and smoke tobacco products. These substances have a detrimental effect on the cardiovascular system, which already suffers from dystonia.

Alcohol can act as a provocateur for the development of unpleasant symptoms. For example, in patients with hypertensive VSD, taking even a small dose of alcoholic beverages leads to a sharp jump in blood pressure and a deterioration in overall well-being.

There is a misconception that cigarettes and alcohol increase a person’s resistance to stress and help him relax. In fact, the body receives only a short-term, imaginary respite, which is fraught with the development of serious complications from the central nervous system.

Recommended viewing: “Living Healthy” about VSD

“Living Healthy” program. Vegetative-vascular dystonia is also called a pseudo-disease and tells what to do for those who have been diagnosed with this.

https://www.1tv.ru/shows/zhit-zdorovo/syuzhety/vegetososudistaya-distoniya-zhit-zdorovo-fragment-vypuska-ot27092016

The presence of prohibitions will again and again remind the patient that he is sick, which means some kind of crisis will definitely happen to him. It is possible that for this reason it will definitely happen.

The program “Live Healthy” talks about many diseases, including VSD

Hormonal changes in the body

Hormones that maintain the balance of all systems have a significant effect on the body. Hormonal changes in the body, such as the onset of menopause, menstruation, pregnancy and breastfeeding, have a serious impact on the course of VSD.

In some people, these periods occur unnoticed, in others, the characteristics of the body cause exacerbation of the course of some symptoms of dystonia. In order to prevent a sharp change in the normal state, people suffering from VSD should follow all the recommendations of the attending physician during the periods indicated above, and also refrain from unauthorized use of hormone-containing drugs.

We recommend reading: Why does your heart hurt with VSD?

Climate change

Climate change has a serious impact on the human nervous system, including possible psychological discomfort and a change in the usual effect on blood vessels.

A sudden change of region of residence is unacceptable for people suffering from VSD. For them, such a situation can be fraught with an imbalance of power and the occurrence of mental breakdowns. Stress and climate change lead to neurological changes, which people with dystonia should avoid.