Maintain healthy blood pressure levels with vitamin C
Added 16.01.2009
If you want to maintain healthy blood pressure levels, the answer lies in vitamin C. In a first-of-its-kind study, vitamin C was found to lower blood pressure in healthy, young individuals, which researchers believe could reduce the risk of future increases in high blood pressure and age-related vascular problems.
Why is it important to keep your blood pressure under control?
High blood pressure is often referred to as the "silent killer" because it has no symptoms. The only way to know if you have it is to have your blood pressure checked. If left untreated, however, high blood pressure increases your risk of developing stroke, heart attack, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and kidney failure.What the study says about regulating your blood pressure
In about 80 percent of all high blood pressure cases, the cause is unknown. It is common knowledge, however, that adopting a healthy lifestyle that includes eating more fruits and vegetables, quitting smoking, losing weight, reducing caffeine and alcohol intake and exercising moderately leads to healthier blood pressure levels. A study now confirms that adding vitamin C to this equation can make controlling your blood pressure even easier.Daily supplementation with vitamin C lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressures of study participants by 4.1 mmHg and 4.0 mmHg respectively. The study, which followed healthy young individuals, is promising because results show that vitamin C not only "lowers blood pressure or attenuates increases in blood pressure in healthy young adults," but may also "lead to lower blood pressure in older adults and reduced risk of age-associated vascular events." This in turn "suggests that vitamin C may be an important factor in blood pressure regulation even among healthy young adults."
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Dr. Bo Nielsen's comments:
High blood pressure is unfortunately increasing your risk of stroke, which is the third leading cause of premature death. As traditional hypertension drugs often have unpleasant side effects this new study from University of California, Berkeley is very promising. To achieve an even more effective hypertension treatment, I would add all the other vitamins and minerals as well as Coenzyme Q10 to the treatment.
