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Hypertension: The B vitamin that could lower your risk of hypertension
High blood pressure isnt a disease, in the same way that a high fever isnt a disease - its a sign that something else is wrong. If you and your doctor discover and address the root problem of hypertension, youre more likely to successfully treat it.
Obviously, blood pressure is closely tied to the health of your heart, so its no surprise really to find a new study that demonstrates how the intake of a key nutrient that promotes heart health may also alleviate hypertension risk.
Nursing the heart
In a January issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers at Harvard Medical School in the US report on a study that examines the association between hypertension risk and the intake of folate; a B vitamin.
Researchers collected data from two phases of the Nurses Health Study. The first phase examined eight years of medical and dietary records for well over 93,000 women under the age of 44. The second phase included the records of more than 62,000 women, aged 43 to 70. None of the women in either phase had been diagnosed with hypertension at the outset of the study.
When the Harvard team compared medical records to information about folate intake from regularly updated dietary questionnaires, they found a general correlation between a high intake of folate and reduced risk of high blood pressure.
More specifically, among women in the younger group who consumed a minimum of 1 mg of folate daily, hypertension risk was decreased by more than 45 percent, compared to women who consumed less than 0.2 mg every day. In the group of older women, risk was cut by nearly 20 percent when folate intake was at least 1 mg. Folate intake included both dietary and supplemental sources.
Here are some foods that contain high folate concentrations:
Chicken Liver: 3.5 oz. contains 770 micrograms (mcg)
Braised Beef Liver: 3.5 oz. contains 217 mcg
Lentils: cup (cooked) contains 180 mcg
Asparagus: cup contains 132 mcg
Spinach: cup (cooked) contains 131 mcg
Kidney Beans: cup contains 115 mcg
Orange: one medium orange contains 47 mcg.
Folate therapy
Studies show that hypertension patients often have high levels of homocysteine - the amino acid that promotes plaque build-up on blood vessel walls.
As Ive noted in previous e-alerts, folate is a key nutrient for heart health because it reduces homocysteine - especially when taken with vitamins B-6 and B-12; a combination sometimes referred to as folate therapy. The idea behind the therapy is simple: This set of nutrients promotes the efficient metabolism of homocysteine, which brings the level down.
In a past e-alert , HSI Panellist Dr Allan Spreen, told us that low doses of folic acid (the synthetic form of folate) arent effective except in a small percentage of cases. He recommends 1.6 mg per day, although he believes that a dosage closer to 5 mg is better for those who want to address cardiovascular problems.
Unfortunately, folic acid is only available in very low doses of 400mcg. Dr. Spreen explains: Thats all from the conventional medical dogma that folate can mask a vitamin B-12 deficiency if you take too much folate and no B-12. So... take more B-12. Problem solved!
Dr. Spreen recommends 1 mg of B-12 per day in sublingual form. To complete the folate therapy combination, he also recommends 100 mg per day of B-6, and 400-500 mg of magnesium per day to make the B-6 more effective.
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