Category: Blood Pressure

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).

The food that can reverse the damage done to blood vessels caused by a high-sodium diet.

Eating dairy products like cheese can cancel out the damage caused by salt to the body, a study has found.

Eating cheese helps protect blood vessels from injury caused by salty foods due to the high amount of antioxidants it contains.

However, a diet high in salt increases oxidative stress, which is an imbalance between antioxidants and free radicals in the body.

This will result in vascular dysfunction which causes high blood pressure and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study examined a group of healthy adults without salt sensitivity who were non-smokers and taking no medications.

Salt sensitivity in blood pressure terms means sudden or immediate increase of blood pressure after eating a food high in salt.

These subjects, when given a diet containing 5.5 gram (g) of sodium per day, experienced stiffness, narrowing of the arteries and dysfunction of blood vessels.

But, the negative effect of a high sodium diet was removed when they ate four servings of cheese — equivalent to 170 g of cheese a day.

Past studies have shown a link between dairy products such as cheeses high in sodium and an improvement in heart health.

Professor Lacy Alexander, study co-author, explained:

“Studies have shown that people who consume the recommended number of dairy servings each day typically have lower blood pressure and better cardiovascular health in general.

We wanted to look at those connections more closely as well as explore some of the precise mechanisms by which cheese, a dairy product, may affect heart health.

Sodium is a mineral essential to the human body, but high sodium intake can cause high blood pressure which increases the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

According to the American Heart Association, the ideal amount of daily sodium consumption is 1.5 g (or 3.75 g salt) with a limit of no more than 2.3 g of sodium (or 5.75 g salt) intake per day.

Dr Billie Alba, the study’s first author, said:

“While there’s a big push to reduce dietary sodium, for a lot of people it’s difficult.

Possibly being able to incorporate more dairy products, like cheese, could be an alternative strategy to reduce cardiovascular risk and improve vessel health without necessarily reducing total sodium.”

Choosing cheese over non dairy sources of sodium might help people to have a balanced and tastier diet as well as accruing the health benefits from dairy foods.

The study was published in The Journal of Nutrition (Alba et al., 2019).

By following this simple but effective step, you can keep high blood pressure at bay.

Simple self-monitoring of blood pressure can help motivate people to keep the level down, research finds.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a dangerous condition that causes damage to the blood vessels and leads to life-threatening diseases such as heart attacks and strokes.

The study suggests that self-monitoring blood pressure encourages people with hypertension to stick with an exercise training program.

Dr Amanda Zaleski, the study’s first author, said:

“We know that hypertension is the most common and costly, but modifiable, chronic condition in the U.S. and world.

We know that regular aerobic exercise lowers blood pressure on average to the order of five to seven points, and these reductions are even greater for those with higher baseline blood pressure.”

The problem is that high blood pressure doesn’t show any obvious symptoms.

Besides that, not knowing or understanding blood pressure levels can cause frustration in patients.

For the study, subjects with hypertension were engaged in a aerobic exercise training program for 12 weeks.

The researchers trained half of them to self-administer a blood pressure test before and after exercising, while the other half did not do so.

All had to do a moderate-intensity aerobic exercise for 40-50 minutes three times a week.

Dr Zaleski said:

“This is really powerful for someone with hypertension because it enables them to demonstrate to themselves that their blood pressure is lower on days they exercise than on days that they do not.

There are very few chronic conditions that respond this way to exercise.

Imagine if an individual with overweight/obesity lost five to seven pounds after a single bout of exercise?”

By the end of the 12 weeks, the self-monitoring group had a 10 point reduction in blood pressure, whereas the other group lowered their pressure by only five points.

Four weeks after the study ended, the self-monitoring group were still engaged with exercise at about 70 percent of the level of their previous training.

The other group, though, were only exercising at 30 percent of their previous level.

Continuing to self-monitor blood pressure also encouraged this group to get involved in more physical activity and exercise for at least 45 minutes, around 3 times a week.

In comparison, the other group’s physical activity was down to only 19 minutes one day a week.

Dr Zaleski said:

“That was really promising to us, demonstrating that if they’re out on their own in the free living world, with all of the other confounders that can come into play — like stress, family, vacations — that even without our team holding them accountable, the favorable effects of blood pressure self-monitoring still held true.”

The study was published in the Journal of Hypertension (Zaleski et al., 2019).

This fun exercise will lower blood pressure and arterial stiffness.

Training and completing a marathon or a fun run will lower blood pressure, decease arterial stiffening, and reverse the aging of blood vessels, a study has found.

First-time marathon runners, after training and completing the run, had a 4-year reduction in cardiovascular aging.

Artery stiffness is a sign of aging and also increases the risk of cardiovascular and kidney disease.

Routine aerobic exercise has been shown to have positive effects on heart health and to increase longevity.

Dr Charlotte H. Manisty, the study’s senior author, said:

“As clinicians are meeting with patients in the new year, making a goal-oriented exercise training recommendation — such as signing up for a marathon or fun-run — may be a good motivator for our patients to keep active.

Our study highlights the importance of lifestyle modifications to slow the risks associated with aging, especially as it appears to never be too late as evidenced by our older, slower runners.”

This study focused on the effect of long distance running on the vascular health of 138 healthy adults who had no previous marathon experience.

The researchers wanted to see if this type of exercise can reduce blood pressure and arterial stiffness.

Also, if it reverses age-related aortic stiffening, in other words reduces the ageing of blood vessel.

During the 6 months of training for the London Marathon their hearts were scanned to measure aortic stiffness.

The aorta is the main artery that takes blood from the heart to the body.

Participants went through a “Beginner’s Training Plan” which involved three runs a week for 17 weeks before the event.

Marathon training led to a reduction in blood pressure by 4 mmHg and reduced stiffness of the descending aorta.

The descending aorta is a part of aorta and runs down through the chest and abdomen.

The decrease in arterial stiffness was 9 percent which is equivalent to 4 years reduction in vascular age.

The cardiovascular health benefits were greater in older participants and those who were slower runners and less fit.

Dr Manisty said:

“Our study shows it is possible to reverse the consequences of aging on our blood vessels with real-world exercise in just six months.

These benefits were observed in overall healthy individuals across a broad age range and their times are suggestive of achievable exercise training in novice participants.”

The study was published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Bhuva et al., 2020).

A practice that reduces blood pressure and circulation problems in obese adults.

Mat Pilates can lift cardiovascular health by lowering blood pressure and early vascular complications risk in obese people.

Constant high blood sugar, which is known as hyperglycemia, can lead to vascular complications.

The condition occurs when the arteries get blocked, making blood circulation difficult, hence diabetes is a major risk factor for peripheral vascular disease.

Scientists have shown that exercise in general is essential for managing or avoiding cardiovascular related health issues.

Obesity is growing fast in young adults and obese people, especially women, have the tendency to avoid regular exercises.

A new study shows that mat based Pilates is a powerful approach to reducing cardiovascular disease in young obese women.

Mat Pilates has attracted millions of people including celebrities in such a way that it has become a popular wellness practice among Americans.

The exercise aims to improve flexibility, body posture, controlled breathing patterns, and strengthen muscles.

In this study, a group of obese women aged 19 to 27 with hypertension followed a 12-week course of mat Pilates classes.

The training was 1 hour sessions, three times a week, each session consisted of initial warm up, a 40-minute mat Pilates workout, finishing with a 10-minute cool down.

Over the course, regular mat Pilates showed improvement in vascular function in participants by effectively lowering their blood pressure and arterial stiffness.

The study authors wrote:

“We hypothesized that Mat Pilates might decrease the risk of hypertension in young obese women.

Our findings provide evidence that Mat Pilates benefit cardiovascular health by decreasing blood pressure, arterial stiffness, and body fatness in young obese women with elevated blood pressure.

Because adherence to traditional exercise (both aerobic and resistance) is low in obese individuals, Mat Pilates Training might prove an effective exercise alternative for the prevention of hypertension and cardiovascular events in young obese adults.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Hypertension (Wong et al., 2020).

Brief exposure to these plant chemical compounds reduces blood pressure and heart rate.

Essential oils can lower heart rate and blood pressure, but only if the exposure is less than 60 minutes, research finds.

Next time you go to a health spa for stress relief, make sure you aren’t exposed for longer than an hour to aromatic essential oils as the scents can have the reverse effect.

Essential oils are essences from plants and often used in aromatherapy to reduce anxiety, improve moods, treat headaches and improve skin conditions.

A study has found that short-term exposure to essential oils is an effective way to reduce blood pressure and heart rate as well as improve relaxation.

However, the downside is that being exposed for longer than an hour will reverse the beneficial effects and can do harm to heart health.

The study recruited one hundred young healthy non-smoking spa workers to monitor their resting heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure during each exposure.

Participants were exposed for two hours to bergamot essential oil that was released from an ultrasonic aroma diffuser.

Results showed that subjects’ heart rate and blood pressure was decreased between 15 and 60 minutes after exposure to the aroma.

The duration of exposure was significantly linked to these two cardiovascular risk factors.

Dr Kai-Jen Chuang, the study’s first author, said:

“Our results suggest that exposure to essential oil for 1 hour would be effective in reducing heart rate and blood pressure.

However, the most interesting finding of our study is that exposure to essential oil for over an hour was associated with elevated blood pressure and heart rate.”

For example, after 45 minutes exposure there was a reduction of 2.10 mmHg in average systolic blood pressure (SBP) and 2.21 beats per minute for heart rate.

Whereas at 60 minutes the SBP reduction had changed to only 0.89 mmHg and 0.82 beats per minute for heart rate.

As the time duration to aromatherapy exposure was increased the situation was reversed.

For example, after 120 minutes the average systolic blood pressure went up by 2.19 mmHg and the heart rate was increased by 1.70 beats per minute.

The authors, concluded:

“Prolonged exposure for longer than 1 hour to essential oils may be harmful to cardiovascular health in young, healthy subjects.”

The study was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (Chuang et al., 2012).