Simple Diet Change Lowers Hypertension Fast

Eating more fruits, veggies cuts it in only six months

TUESDAY, May 28, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- If you're one of those stereotypical Americans who will do healthy things only if you get fast results, a British study has some cheery news: Adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet will produce a potentially lifesaving reduction in blood pressure after just six months.

No drastic changes were advised, say the researchers at the University of Oxford. Instead, healthy individuals recruited for the study were told to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables to at least five portions a day. Specially trained nurses talked with them about potential problems in following the advice -- eating out, preparing children's meals -- and gave them helpful written materials. A second group of people recruited for the study were not given any advice about diet.

After six months, says a report in today's online issue of The Lancet, the people who got the advice increased their intake of fruits and vegetables by an average of 1.4 servings a day, up from an average of 3.4 portions. The unadvised group was eating just about the same 3.4 portions as before.

Measurements found a net reduction of 2.8 millimeters of systolic blood pressure (that's the higher number in the familiar 120 over 80 reading) and a drop of 1.1 millimeters of diastolic pressure (the lower number) among the people who got -- and followed -- the advice.

That might not sound like much, but H. Andrew W. Neil of the Oxford Institute of Health Sciences, who led the study, says that reduction "would substantially reduce cardiovascular disease at the population level."

"A reduction of two millimeters in diastolic blood pressure results in a decrease of about 17 percent in the incidence of high blood pressure, 6 percent in the risk of coronary heart disease, and 15 percent in the risk of stroke and transient ischemic attack [TIA]," Neil says. TIAs are temporary, dangerous stoppages of blood flow to the brain.

Blood tests also showed a measurable increase in antioxidants, known to protect against heart disease. There were no changes in either body weight or cholesterol levels, indicating that all the beneficial effects came from the simple and apparently minor change in diet.

The results of the study are pretty much in line with those of the U.S. DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) trial, Neil says. However, those results came in "a controlled feeding trial with meals prepared to a common protocol in research conditions." The new study shows the same results can be achieved in a community setting by people who determine their own feeding habits, he says.

The study results "are very encouraging, because they show that even a small increment in consumption of fruits and vegetables can have a significant effect," says Wahida Karmally, director of the Irving Center for Clinical research at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

"The advice that we are giving to the American public is to include more fruits and vegetables and whole-grain products in the diet," Karmally says. "Of course, weight control is also very important."

What To Do

You can get information about the DASH diet and some recipes from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The American Dietetic Association has a page on fun ways to increase consumption of fruits and veggies.

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