Green Tea for Hypertension
By Editorial Staff
An estimated 119 million U.S. adults suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension), increasing their risk for experiencing a life-threatening event such as a heart attack or stroke. While medication remains a mainstay of hypertension treatment, lifestyle changes – including diet and exercise – are proven nondrug options without the potential side effects of drugs.
On the diet front, green tea has been proposed as a natural alternative to blood pressure medication – and current research supports its value. Case in point: an analysis of randomized, controlled trials that compared green tea supplementation with placebo (an inactive pill patients thought was green tea). When evaluating changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure before and after the intervention, researchers, whose findings appear in the appropriately named journal
Blood Pressure, found that the studies showed reductions in both variables attributable to green tea supplementation.
Drinking green tea also may help lower blood pressure, which gives you two options if you're suffering from high BP – or doing your best to stay healthy and keep your blood pressure in the ideal range (below 120/80 for most adults, with the first number representing systolic BP and the second diastolic BP). Talk to your doctor for more information.
