Category: Blood Pressure

Higher intake of these minerals has been shown to reduce blood pressure in the long run.

People who took higher amounts of magnesium, potassium and calcium displayed lower blood pressure, a study has found.

Also, participants who consumed a daily intake of 3.2 grams of potassium combined with 3.7 grams of sodium were shown to have the lowest blood pressure.

Magnesium is an important mineral for the body since it helps calcium in bone formation, improves blood sugar level, helps nerves and muscles function, lowers blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Our body requires a relatively large amounts of magnesium.

Healthy men should take 400 to 420 mg of magnesium per day and women should take 310 to 320 mg daily (source: the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements).

Good sources of magnesium include legumes, avocados, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, oily fish such as salmon and mackerel, and green leafy vegetables.

Calcium is another important mineral as it is responsible for strong bones and teeth, heart health, and helps blood to clot.

The recommended amounts of this nutrient for a healthy adult is about 1,000 mg per day.

Dairy such as milk, cheese, and yogurt are the main source and lentils, dried fruit, kale, broccoli, whole grains, sardines, and salmon are also sources of calcium.

Potassium is the other vital nutrient that plays a role in lowering blood pressure and improving heart, muscle, and kidney function.

Potassium and sodium are electrolytes and together are needed in maintaining fluid balance, nerve impulses and muscle contractions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a potassium consumption of at least 3,510 mg a day for adults in order to reduce the risk of CVD and stroke.

Fruits such as bananas, grapefruits, dried apricots, and prunes, vegetables like tomatoes, squash, broccoli, potatoes, and spinach are rich in potassium.

Dr Lynn L. Moore, the study’s first author, said:

“This study and others point to the importance of higher potassium intakes, in particular, on blood pressure and probably cardiovascular outcomes as well.

I hope that this research will help refocus the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans on the importance of increasing intakes of foods rich in potassium, calcium and magnesium for the purpose of maintaining a healthy blood pressure.”

The research followed 2,632 people for 16 years to see if low sodium intake in the diet can reduce blood pressure levels.

However, they found that eating less sodium won’t necessary lower hypertension, adding more evidence to other studies that sodium limits recommended by dietary guidelines may be incorrect.

High blood pressure or hypertension is a medical condition and an important risk factor for CVD.

The current US dietary guideline for healthy adults is less than 2.3 grams per day of sodium intake and the UK guideline for adults is less than 2.4 grams per day.

But, after the 16 years of follow-up, the study found that participants whose sodium intake was less than 2.5 grams a day had higher blood pressure than those with higher sodium diets.

Past studies found that people with either very high sodium diets or low sodium diets were at higher risk of CVD.

In contrast, people who had a middle intake of sodium in their daily foods exhibited the lowest risk of heart disease.

Dr Moore, said:

“We saw no evidence that a diet lower in sodium had any long-term beneficial effects on blood pressure.

Our findings add to growing evidence that current recommendations for sodium intake may be misguided.”

The study was published The FASEB Journal (Moore et al., 2017).

A review of 13 studies reveals what physical activity is effective in bringing down blood pressure.

Exercising at least four hours a week reduces the risk of high blood pressure by 19 percent compared to those who exercise less than 60 minutes weekly, research finds.

Activities outside work, like walking or cycling to work, jogging, swimming, and in general playing any sport, or doing any sort of exercise can be helpful.

Leisure time activities help lower blood pressure, enhance insulin sensitivity, help weight loss, reduce anxiety and depression symptoms and more.

Researchers checked the effect of physical activity on blood pressure by reviewing studies involving 136,846 people in Europe, East Asia, and USA.

One to three hours weekly exercise during leisure time lowered the risk of high blood pressure by 11 percent, compared to those who exercised less than 60 minutes weekly.

In short, increasing physical activities will bring the blood pressure to its healthy level.

The most common risk factor for heart-related disease, stroke, and kidney disease is high blood pressure, which can lead to many disabilities.

Researchers predict that 1.56 billion adults will suffer from high blood pressure by 2025.

At the moment, 1 in 3 US adults aged 20 and over have high blood pressure — tabout 80 million people.

High blood pressure is defined as a reading of 140/90 mmHg (millimetres of mercury).

The issue is that high blood pressure in many people can remain untreated since it shows no symptoms.

Dr Wei Ma, study co-author, said:

“Hypertension is a risk factor for cardiovascular and kidney disease — thus, it is important to prevent and control hypertension. To try to lower your risk of high blood pressure, you should exercise more in your leisure time.

Recreational exercise may affect several factors tied to high blood pressure — helping people keep off extra pounds, improving poor insulin sensitivity or reducing the blood vessels’ resistance to blood flow.”

The study was published in the journal of Hypertension (Huai et al., 2013).

Symptoms of high blood pressure include a pounding in the chest, blood in the urine, and severe headaches.

Exercise is highly effective in lowering blood pressure but scientists say there is one condition.

Antibacterial mouthwash will ruin the effect of exercise on lowering blood pressure by killing oral bacteria, a study has found.

Rinsing the mouth with antibacterial mouthwash rather than water destroys oral bacteria that are vital for cardiovascular health.

Exercise increases the production of nitric oxide, which relaxes the muscles of the blood vessels and so this enhances blood flow circulation in the body.

A compound called nitrate is produced by the salivary glands, then converted into nitrite by bacteria in the mouth.

This molecule is the main source of nitric oxide, therefore if oral bacteria are destroyed, there won’t be any production of these molecules.

As a result, exercise will be ineffective in lowering blood since the blood vessels remain narrow.

Dr Raul Bescos, the study’s lead author, said:

“It’s all to do with nitric oxide degrading into a compound called nitrate.

Nitrate can be absorbed in the salivary glands and excreted with saliva in the mouth.

Some species of bacteria in the mouth can use nitrate and convert into nitrite — a very important molecule that can enhance the production of nitric oxide in the body.

And when nitrite in saliva is swallowed, part of this molecule is rapidly absorbed into the circulation and reduced back to nitric oxide.

This helps to maintain a widening of blood vessels which leads to a sustained lowering of blood pressure after exercise.”

In this study, a group of healthy adults were told to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes on two separate occasion.

After exercise, they were asked to rinse their mouth with antibacterial mouthwash or a placebo (mint-flavoured water) without knowing which one was real.

Their results showed that after rinsing with antibacterial mouthwash, the effect of exercise on lowering blood pressure was shrunk by 60 percent within 1 hour after exercise.

The blood pressure lowering effect was completely destroyed after only two hours of exercise.

The blood nitrite levels in participants didn’t increase after exercise once they used antibacterial mouthwash.

But, when participants used the placebo, their nitrite levels were increased, suggesting the importance of oral bacteria.

Mr Craig Cutler, the study’s first author, said:

“These findings show that nitrite synthesis by oral bacteria is hugely important in kick-starting how our bodies react to exercise over the first period of recovery, promoting lower blood pressure and greater muscle oxygenation.

In effect, it’s like oral bacteria are the ‘key’ to opening up the blood vessels.

If they are removed, nitrite can’t be produced and the vessels remain in their current state.”

The study was published in the journal of Free Radical Biology and Medicine (Cutler et al., 2019).

A thoroughly pleasant method for lowering your blood pressure.

Taking a short nap in the afternoons lowers blood pressure, new research finds.

An afternoon nap is as powerful as reducing alcohol and salt and almost as good as taking medication.

Taking naps could reduce heart attack risk by 10 percent — possibly more if the naps are longer.

Around half of all Americans have high blood pressure (the figure is around 30 percent in the UK).

Many, however, are unaware since it typically has no symptoms.

The condition raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Dr Manolis Kallistratos, the study’s first author, said:

“Midday sleep appears to lower blood pressure levels at the same magnitude as other lifestyle changes.

For example, salt and alcohol reduction can bring blood pressure levels down by 3 to 5 mm Hg.”

The study included 212 people whose average age was 62.

People took an afternoon nap for an average of 49 minutes.

The results showed that taking a nap each day was linked to lowering blood pressure by an average of 5 mm/Hg.

Dr Kallistratos said:

“These findings are important because a drop in blood pressure as small as 2 mm Hg can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack by up to 10 percent.

Based on our findings, if someone has the luxury to take a nap during the day, it may also have benefits for high blood pressure.”

In addition, the results showed that for each hour of napping blood pressure was reduced by 3 mm/Hg.

Dr Kallistratos said:

“We obviously don’t want to encourage people to sleep for hours on end during the day, but on the other hand, they shouldn’t feel guilty if they can take a short nap, given the potential health benefits.

Even though both groups were receiving the same number of medications and blood pressure was well controlled, there was still a significant decrease in blood pressure among those who slept during midday.”

The study was presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 68th Annual Scientific Session (Poulimenos et al., 2019).

The vegetable lowered the blood pressure of those already taking medication.

Eating potatoes reduces blood pressure without causing weight gain, a study has found.

Two servings of spuds per day, with skins, are almost as effective at lowering blood pressure as eating oatmeal.

Most of the people in the study were already taking blood pressure medication, but the potatoes had an additional effect.

However, the potatoes need to be cooked without oil, and preferably in a microwave oven, to preserve their nutrients.

Unfortunately, for those who like French fries, the frying process appears to destroy the healthy substances in the potatoes.

The potatoes used in the study were purple skinned, because they contain beneficial phytochemicals.

Red and white skinned potatoes probably contain these as well.

Dr Joe Vinson, the study’s first author, said:

“The potato, more than perhaps any other vegetable, has an undeserved bad reputation that has led many health-conscious people to ban them from their diet.

Mention ‘potato’ and people think ‘fattening, high-carbs, empty calories’.

In reality, when prepared without frying and served without butter, margarine or sour cream, one potato has only 110 calories and dozens of healthful phytochemicals and vitamins.

We hope our research helps to remake the potato’s popular nutritional image.”

The study included 18 people with high blood pressure who were mostly overweight.

Half the participants ate 6-8 small microwaved purple potatoes twice a day for four weeks.

The other half ate no potatoes four weeks, then each group switched to the other diet.

The results showed that diastolic blood pressure dropped 4.3 percent when people ate the potatoes.

Systolic blood pressure dropped 3.5 percent while eating potatoes.

Most were already taking blood pressure medication, but still saw a further drop.

The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (Vinson et al., 2012).

The most popular medication to treat high blood pressure is not as effective as this drug.

ACE inhibitors such as Benazepril (Lotensin) and Captopril are commonly prescribed to treat blood pressure.

These work by relaxing and widening the blood vessels.

However, a study suggests that these popular drugs are less effective than thiazide or thiazide-like diuretics.

Thiazides are diuretic drugs that are often prescribed to lower blood pressure as they help the kidneys to remove extra salt and water through urine.

Researchers analyzed the health records of 5 million patients who were on antihypertensive drugs.

They found that those who were on thiazides had 15 percent fewer hospitalizations for heart failure, heart attacks, and strokes than those on ACE inhibitors.

According to this study, if patients were started on thiazides instead of ACE inhibitors, about 3,100 major cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, could have been avoided.

What is more, patients on ACE inhibitors experienced more side-effects than those who began with thiazide diuretics.

Researches also noticed that non-dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers treatment was the least effective of all five first-line drug classes.

The other two first-line drugs for treating hypertension are dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs).

First-line drugs are the first medication that doctors use to treat a disease or illness based on clinical effectiveness and fewer side-effects.

Surprisingly, 48% of hypertensive patients are treated with ACE inhibitors, whereas 17% of patients are prescribed a thiazide diuretic.

Current clinical guidelines consider all these five different drugs effective and safe but there is not enough evidence to help doctors choose which one to start with.

Dr George Hripcsak, study co-author, said:

“Randomized clinical trials demonstrate a drug’s effectiveness and safety in a highly defined patient population.

But they’re not good at making comparisons among multiple drug classes in a diverse group of patients that you would encounter in the real world.”

Unintentionally or not, journals and authors tend to publish studies that have exciting results, and researchers may even select analytical methods that are best suited to getting the results that fit their hypotheses.

It comes down to a cherry-picking exercise, which makes the results less reliable.”

The study was published in The Lancet (Suchard et al., 2019).

A simple “prescription” for those with high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Moving more and sitting less is the best “prescription” and should be the first treatment option for lowering blood cholesterol or hypertension, according to an American Heart Association (AHA) statement.

Physical activity (referring to all movement) should be the first-line of therapy for people with mild to moderately elevated blood pressure or cholesterol.

Healthy adults should incorporate movement — including during leisure time — in their daily lifestyle to reduce heart disease risk.

High blood pressure is a common health condition, nearly 1 in 2 of American adults has hypertension and only 1 in 4 keep the condition under control.

According to the study, increasing physical activity is an excellent treatment option for the 37 percent of US adults with slightly to moderate raised cholesterol levels and 21 percent with mild to moderately raised blood pressure.

Dr Bethany Barone Gibbs, the study’s first author, said:

“The current American Heart Association guidelines for diagnosing high blood pressure and cholesterol recognize that otherwise healthy individuals with mildly or moderately elevated levels of these cardiovascular risk factors should actively attempt to reduce these risks.

The first treatment strategy for many of these patients should be healthy lifestyle changes beginning with increasing physical activity.”

Individuals at low risk of heart disease or stroke, but having a systolic (top number) blood pressure between 120-139 mm Hg and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure between 80-89 mm Hg, or those with an LDL cholesterol level of above 70 mg/dL would meet the AHA statement on lifestyle-only treatment for high blood pressure.

Dr Gibbs said:

“Increasing physical activity can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, along with many other health benefits.”

Increasing physical activity reduces systolic and diastolic blood pressure at least 4 mm Hg and lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol level by 6 mg/dL.

According to the physical activity guidelines, people should do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity plus two or more sessions of muscle strengthening exercises per week.

Although, as Dr Gibbs says :

“Every little bit of activity is better than none.

Even small initial increases of 5 to 10 minutes a day can yield health benefits.”

According to the statement ‘Exercise is Medicine’, so clinicians should provide training “prescriptions” including:

• Patients to report their physical activity by answering specific questions or using a wearable device.
• Provide patients with exercise plans and link them to health coaches or local resources to improve their physical activity.
• Encourage patients to enjoy activities and increase exercises like climbing stairs and brisk walking.

Dr Gibbs concluded:

“In our world where physical activity is increasingly engineered out of our lives and the overwhelming default is to sit — and even more so now as the nation and the world is practicing quarantine and isolation to reduce the spread of coronavirus — the message that we must be relentless in our pursuit to ‘sit less and move more’ throughout the day is more important than ever.”

The study was published in the journal Hypertension (Gibbs et al., 2021).

Around one-in-three people in the US suffer from high blood pressure.

Spinach, beans, bananas, avocados and even coffee are among the foods that could lower blood pressure, research finds.

All contain potassium which, along with lower sodium, can help to reduce hypertension.

Around 5 grams of potassium per day is required to lower blood pressure.

Three-quarters of a cup of black beans would provide half this amount.

Around one-in-three people in the US suffer from hypertension (high blood pressure).

Around half of all deaths from heart disease and stroke are caused by hypertension.

Professor Alicia McDonough, the study’s first author, said:

“Decreasing sodium intake is a well-established way to lower blood pressure, but evidence suggests that increasing dietary potassium may have an equally important effect on hypertension.”

The conclusions come from a scientific review of the link between sodium and potassium intake and blood pressure.

The results showed that people who consumed more potassium had lower blood pressure, regardless of the amount of sodium they had in their diet.

The body automatically balances sodium and potassium levels.

Professor McDonough said:

“When dietary potassium is high, kidneys excrete more salt and water, which increases potassium excretion.

Eating a high potassium diet is like taking a diuretic.”

Salt tastes so good because our ancient ancestors got little in their diet.

On other hand, they got plenty of potassium since their diet was high in fruits, roots, vegetables and beans.

Modern processed foods, though, contain high levels of salt to satisfy our inbuilt cravings.

Professor McDonough said:

“If you eat a typical Western diet, your sodium intake is high and your potassium intake is low.

This significantly increases your chances of developing high blood pressure.

The study was published in the American Journal of Physiology – Endocrinology And Metabolism (McDonough et al., 2017).