Pomegranate Juice For Hypertension
What would you rather take: 2 glasses of pomegranate juice per day or your hypertension medication? I’d opt for the pomegranate juice. Not only because it is tasty, but because medications have side effects while pomegranate juice has only “side benefits.” A new study has just reported a decrease of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure by an average of 6 mmHg achieved by drinking pomegranate juice in just ONE WEEK! Along with this result came other significant benefits….
Pomegranate juice benefits: lowering cortisol
Pomegranate Juice To Lower Blood Pressure
This study has also shown that drinking pomegranate juice causes a significant drop (55% on average) in cortisol levels in blood and urine. Cortisol just got converted into another hormone that is not nearly as harmful.
What’s the problem with elevated cortisol?
Many problems in our body start with elevated cortisol, from insulin resistance and kidney problems, to excessive abdominal fat and hypertension. Cortisol gets produced from cholesterol in the adrenal glands and can increase blood pressure by altering salt and water balance in the kidneys and colon.
• Short term increase is the body’s natural response to stress, for example, to exercise, and is a normal beneficial reaction of the body.
• Chronically elevated cortisol levels cause a lot of unwanted effects, one of which is hypertension. This is one of the reasons why it is very important to keep it down.
Chronic stress is what keeps cortisol levels up. But how can you do it if your life is just stressful and this is your reality, and it won’t go away anytime soon?
How to reduce cortisol and high blood pressure naturally?
You could meditate or undertake major changes in your life, such as changing your job or quitting a bad relationship. These changes take time; and, frankly, some stressful situations are not that easy to exit. You don’t stop caring for your elderly parents or unruly teenagers. You just deal with them and feel stressed. And as you deal with them, chances are your cortisol level is going through the roof.
At this point, two glasses of pomegranate juice to take it down by half can mean the difference between life and death. It is not hard to rely on antioxidant-rich pomegranate juice to keep your high blood pressure under control naturally.
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About the study
Researchers Dr. Emad Al-Dujaili, Catherine Tsang and Gillian Wood measured levels of cortisol before and after exercise in both pomegranate juice drinking group and placebo group.
This study’s results were presented at the 2001 Society of Endocrinology conference in Birmingham, UK on April 12, 2011. Abstract: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/221961.php