Drinks to Lower Blood Pressure
Beverages To Help Lower Blood Pressure
Hypertension is responsible for roughly one out of six adult deaths in the United States every year, and is associated with five of the top nine causes of death. (Source) While around 45% of Americans suffer from hypertension, about 25% of Canadians also have this potentially life-threatening condition.
Symptoms
Unfortunately, people often do not have obvious symptoms of this malady, which means they can be carrying a ticking time bomb, given its link to heart disease and stroke, as well as cognitive and eye problems, and kidney failure. However, there are some early warning symptoms, including chest pains, ear noises, irregular heartbeat, frequent headaches, nosebleeds, and changes to one’s vision.
So, clearly it’s a good idea as we age to keep an eye on this benchmark of health, even if it is as simple as dropping into a pharmacy and checking it out with one of their public blood pressure machines on a semi-regular basis.
The Natural Approach
There are of course medications prescribed to treat this condition when it becomes dangerously high, though in the field of natural healing we suggest people begin with certain supplements before resorting to medications.
The primary nutrients to naturally treat hypertension are:
Magnesium: 300 mg (elemental) twice daily
COQ10: 200 – 300 mg daily
Vitamin D: 5,000 – 10,000 IU daily
From a dietary perspective, certain foods have a reputation for helping to control high blood pressure including garlic, regular fish consumption and olive oil.
But, this newsletter is going to look at beverages we can easily add to our daily life, which can help both prevent and reverse hypertension.
Beet Juice
The juice from beetroots contain nitrates which the body converts into nitric oxide, which in turn dilates blood vessels, allowing blood to flow more freely thus reducing blood pressure.
One overview of many studies had this to say: “In conclusion, this systematic review with meta-analysis supports that the NO3 of the BRJ is an effective intervention in reducing the Systolic BP of patients with arterial hypertension in interventions of up to 2 months duration.” Source
(For more information on the benefits of beet juice follow this link.)
Tomato Juice
A group of Japanese scientists, in 2015, did a study giving middle-aged women unsalted tomato juice for 8 weeks, finding that it reduced high triglyceride levels in the blood. This prompted them to see what effect tomato juice might have on other cardiovascular risk markers, such as blood pressure.
That study, published in 2019, gave participants 200 ml (just under one cup) of unsalted tomato juice daily for one year. “At the end of the study period, researchers noted a decrease in systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure in 94 people with untreated high blood pressure or prehypertension.” Source
There are many nutritional compounds found in tomatoes, and it is believed that the two playing the strongest role here are lycopene (also helps prevent prostate cancer) and potassium. A cup of tomato juice provides about 500-600mg of potassium, but even higher in potassium is Low-Sodium V8, which provides over 800mg per cup.
Of course I would suggest that ideally one uses organic tomato juice (though to be fair, this study did not), however this therapeutic food should be avoided by those sensitive to the nightshades (blood types A and B, according to The Blood Type Diet), as it can aggravate arthritic conditions.
(Follow this link for more information on tomatoes.)
Pomegranate Juice
A meta-analysis of pomegranate studies released in 2017 looked at eight placebo-controlled trials, involving a total of nearly 600 participants. Subjects received either pomegranate juice or the placebo from two weeks up to 18 months.
“The analysis found that pomegranate juice reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and the reduction in systolic pressure occurred regardless of treatment duration.” Source
(Follow this link for more on pomegranate juice.)
Cherry and Cranberry Juice
Another overview of collected juice studies, released in 2020, sought to see what effect cherry and cranberry juices would have on blood pressure.
“Two separate cherry juice interventions lowered systolic blood pressure after 300 ml for 20 days, and 330 ml for 6 weeks.”
“Cranberry juice interventions had a mean length of 8 weeks and a dose of 432 ml and reduced both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.” Source
As always, choose organic if possible, and keep in mind that most commercial cranberry juices are full of sugar, mostly because cranberry juice alone is not pleasant tasting. One option is to mix your pure cranberry juice into cherry juice, getting a two-for approach to high blood pressure and making the cranberry juice more palatable.
For more about the benefits of cherries for heart health, follow this link.
Tea
A meta-analysis from 2020 found that drinking either black or green tea “over extended periods of 3 months or more resulted in decreases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure”. However, green tea reduced blood pressure more than black tea did.
Mild benefits were observed with as little as one cup of tea daily for a year, but faster and far more valuable effects were gained by those who drank 5 cups daily. Source
Both black and green tea contain caffeine, though black tea has a higher caffeine content than green tea. (Learn about the caffeine content of tea.)
Drinks to Avoid
Some beverages contribute to increasing blood pressure, so avoiding them is a good idea for those with hypertension.
Alcohol
A recent meta-analysis (2023) looked at seven studies that totaled over 19,500 participants to assess the relationship between alcohol intake and blood pressure.
“Systolic blood pressure had a direct and linear association with alcohol dose.”
While one drink per day had little effect on blood pressure, it nonetheless did raise it somewhat compared to non-drinkers. Four drinks per day raised blood pressure significantly, though moreso in men than women. Source
Soda
Next, we have a 2022 study looking at the relationship between soft drinks and high blood pressure in a total of 1,300 participants. “The study found that even a single-serving increase in regular soft drink consumption has associations with increases in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.”
This result is based on a baseline of no soft drinks daily, and then observing the addition of one, two or more in daily consumption. Source
Caffeine
We saw that tea, though it contains some caffeine, can actually help lower blood pressure. However, higher caffeine drinks such as coffee and energy drinks (“Red Bull”, etc) can do the opposite, as revealed in another meta-analysis, from 2021.
The effect of caffeine is most pronounced in adults who already have high blood pressure, however the most dramatic elevation in blood pressure occurred among adolescents, especially if their blood pressure was also higher than average for their age group. This is worrisome as the rates of hypertension among young people is on the rise. Source
Conclusion
Keeping an eye on our blood pressure is one of the easiest things we can do to help protect ourselves from some of the deadliest diseases we face in modern times.
More blood pressure lowering tips
(Author: All newsletters and blogs are written by Ken Peters who has worked as a nutritional consultant for the last 30 years, and as product designer for NutriStart for the last 25 years. He has also authored two books – Health Secrets Vol. 1&2. He may be reached at: kenpetersconsulting@gmail.com)