High blood pressure is a condition that means your heart has to work harder than usual to pump blood throughout your body. This puts extra stress on the heart, blood vessels and other organs over time. If it is not treated, it can have serious consequences, as high blood pressure is associated with medical emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks.
There are many factors that may cause high blood pressure, and diet is one of them.
Foods rich in salt should definitely be avoided for this reason, as salt helps the body retain water, which leads to high blood pressure.
However, what you eat and drink may also have the opposite effect. Therefore, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University recommended drinking Tomato juice Unsalted snacks every day, as it can significantly lower blood pressure. They also found that it reduces “bad” cholesterol, another factor that contributes to heart problems.
As part of the study, a total of 481 people were enrolled and provided with as much tomato juice as they wanted throughout the year. The researchers then screened them for markers of cardiovascular risk, such as blood pressure, serum lipid level, and glucose tolerance, before and after the study period.
Among those with high blood pressure or pre-hypertension, blood pressure levels decreased significantly. The average daily tomato juice consumption was between 215 and 84 ml, but most study participants consumed about 200 ml.
“Blood pressure was significantly reduced in 94 participants with untreated hypertension or prehypertension,” the study authors wrote. “Moreover, the serum LDL cholesterol level in 125 participants with untreated dyslipidemia decreased significantly.”
They continued: “These beneficial effects did not differ between genders and between different age groups. No significant difference was found in lifestyle before and after the study. “Consumption of unsalted tomato juice improved systolic and diastolic blood pressure and serum low-density cholesterol level in a local Japanese population at risk of cardiovascular disease.”
The team hypothesized that lower blood pressure could be linked to an antioxidant, known as lycopene, found in tomatoes.
They said: “Tomatoes contain a variety of bioactive components that make them and their products, including tomato juice, beneficial to health. Above all, lycopene is known for its strong antioxidant activity and inhibition of low-density lipoprotein oxidation, which plays a major role in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. “Several studies have indicated that lycopene may contribute to the prevention of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.”
Source: Express
#Fruit #juice #blood #pressure #levels #protect #heart
2024-09-28 14:32:13
