Going to your doctors office can seem gruelling when hypertension issues can’t seem to back down. Medications sometimes two to four at a time can wreak havoc on the body from severe fluctuations that may lead to side effects and even hospitalizations when mixing new drugs. After some time, liver toxicity can develop. Granted that hypertension is due to lifestyle, one way to change your lifestyle is to add blood pressure lowering foods into your diet.
The bioflavonoid quercitin to have blood pressure lowering affects. Quercitin is found in certain foods such as onions and radish leaves. Some fruits such as apples, plums and pears have small levels of quercitin. Although dry black tea has high amount of quercitin, once brewed only minute amounts are extracted. See the table on foods with quercitin.
The study included 93 participants between the ages of 25 and 65 years with metabolic X syndrome. These received 150 mg of quercitin supplements per day in a double-blined, placebo-controlled, crossover trial for a period of six weeks separated by a 5 week clean out period.
Quercitin not only decreased LDL or low density lipids but decreased tumor causing groups. Most significantly it lowered the blood pressure of certain obese individuals.
One particular spice that contains high amounts of quercitin is Lovage (Levisticum officinale). According to the USDA nutrient base the amount found in 100 grams of edible portion is 170 mg. This spice is derived from the seeds, leaves and fruit and commonly used in south European cuisine. When purchasing caution needs to be taken as sometimes the lovage seed bears likeness to celery seed and may be sold as lovage when in actually celery or ajwain seeds. It has diuretic action when taken as medicine and used to treat those with low sodium in plasma or hyponatremia.
Other foods researchers have found to help lower blood pressure are aged garlic, soy, hibiscus or Tisane tea, other green teas, DHA found in polyunsaturated fats such as safflower and sunflower oils and good old oats to name some.
Studies strongly support that foods such as fruits and vegetables help reduce blood pressure. Grapes contain resveratol a polyphenol which has shown promising results. Walnuts are packed rich in mono and poly unsaturated and other nutrients such as arginine and polyphenols that when taken in place of regular food helped to supplement a good diet.
Although diet is a main component when achieving a normal blood pressure, other factors such as exercise, rest and stress reduction promote more rapid changes.
