Green Tea helps lower high blood pressure....

Today's post: Monday, 7-7-2008

One of the causes of high blood pressure is called endothelial dysfunction. That’s when the lining of your blood vessels is inflamed or not performing its function of relaxing the blood vessels as it normally does when needed.

Endothelial dysfunction is caused by or is often found when blood vessels have built-up plaque &/or calcified plaque in their linings. Being over fat or not doing regular exercise also has this effect.

There are many things that tend to make endothelial dysfunction better or allow your blood vessels to relax anyway. Taking the amino acid arginine or eating foods high in it helps to do that. Adding regular exercise or losing even part of your excess fat or both can also do this.

We’ve already posted that drinking green tea & to a slightly less degree, drinking black tea also helps to relax your blood vessels and increase blood flow. And, we’ve posted that drinking it with milk seems to turn off the effect.

Some new studies have found that drinking green tea may not only help reduce high blood pressure & improve blood flow, it may also have other benefits for your heart.

This one was reported last week. And, I found it in the online health news on Yahoo.

“LONDON (Reuters) Weds, 7-2-2008

Green tea protects against heart disease: study By Michael Kahn

A few cups of green tea each day may help prevent heart disease, Greek researchers said on Wednesday.

A study published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation showed further evidence of the potential health benefits from a brew already linked to a reduced risk of a range of cancers and other conditions.

The study showed that green tea improves blood flow and the ability of arteries to relax, said Charalambos Vlachopoulos, a cardiologist at the Athens Medical School in Greece who worked on the study.

Other studies have shown that black tea also has benefits for cardiovascular health.

The Greek team said they believed green tea might be even better because it had higher quantities of beneficial compounds called flavonoids -- some of which are lost in the oxidation process that black tea undergoes.

Flavonoids are also found in cocoa, tomatoes and grapes.

"A couple of cups a day would probably be a good dose for people," Vlachopoulos said. "This is the first study to show these effects for green tea."

The researchers gave 14 healthy volunteers either green tea, diluted caffeine or hot water on three separate occasions and then measured the function of endothelial cells lining the circulatory system.

These cells help relax arteries and ease blood flow.

"What is important is these effects are evident fairly rapidly, within 30 minutes," Vlachopoulos said.

The measurements taken 30, 90 and 120 minutes following consumption showed an almost immediate benefit among people who had drunk green tea, he said.

Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death. It is caused by fatty deposits that harden and block arteries, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels, and other factors.

While the researchers looked only at a short-term impact, Vlachopoulos said the team's not-yet-published studies suggest the protection is long lasting.

"Green tea is consumed less in the Western world than black tea, but it could be more beneficial because of the way it seems to improve (circulatory) function," he said.”

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For more things that lower high blood pressure without drugs, keep reading our blog. Within a few weeks, we will announce an eBook on how to lower high blood pressure without drugs listing the most effective things that do this & many others.

The really good thing about these nondrug methods is that they all tend to help remove the causes of high blood pressure to lower it. And, virtually all of them protect or improve your health in many other ways.