High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a big health problem in America. Half of the adults in the U.S., which is over 122 million people, have this health issue.
It can lead to serious heart diseases and even death. People with high blood pressure often take medicine. But even with these medicines, they are still at a big risk of heart problems.
Scientists are constantly trying to find better ways to control high blood pressure. Recently, a group of scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University found a new idea.
They found out that a special type of plum juice might help reduce the risk of heart diseases. This juice comes from a fruit called the Japanese plum.
The Japanese Plum Juice
The Japanese plum, also known as “ume”, is a common fruit in Asian countries. It is particularly famous in Japan as a healthy food. People usually don’t eat raw fruit because it contains some harmful things.
Instead, they turn it into safe-to-drink juices or wines. A special type of juice called “bainiku-ekisu” is very popular in Japan. It is like a health supplement and people have been using it for centuries.
There have been many claims that this plum juice can prevent heart disease. Some studies have shown that these claims might be true.
In lab experiments, this juice has shown that it can block signals that cause blood vessels to grow bigger, a process that leads to high blood pressure.
Testing the Plum Juice
To test this plum juice, two scientists, Dr. Satoru Eguchi, and Dr. Hirotoshi Utsunomiya, conducted a study. They used mice for this experiment.
Some of the mice were given a hormone called angiotensin II, which is known to cause high blood pressure.
Then, these mice were divided into two groups. One group drank regular water while the other group drank water with plum juice.
When the scientists looked at the heart health and blood vessels of the mice, they noticed some big differences. The mice who drank the plum juice didn’t get high blood pressure.
Their blood vessels didn’t get bigger, unlike the mice who drank regular water. The plum juice also helped prevent inflammation, which is another thing that leads to high blood pressure.
How Does the Plum Juice Work?
Dr. Eguchi and his team then tried to figure out how the plum juice works. They found out that it has something to do with how cells use sugar for energy, a process called glycolysis.
When there’s high blood pressure, cells switch to glycolysis because there’s less oxygen. But this switch causes a lot of oxidative stress, which is bad for the cells.
This stress leads to inflammation, more stiff blood vessels, and severe heart diseases.
The experiments showed that plum juice can stop this switch to glycolysis. This means it can help prevent high blood pressure and the problems it causes.
The scientists plan to find out exactly which parts of the plum juice are helping to prevent high blood pressure.
Dr. Eguchi said that there might be two or three substances in the juice working together. This could explain why the juice is so popular as a health supplement in Japan.
This research has given hope for a natural remedy for high blood pressure. But there is still a lot of work to do before this remedy can be made available to everyone.
Until then, it is important for everyone to continue to take care of their health in the best ways they can.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure and an effective way to treat resistant high blood pressure.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies about added sugar in your diet linked to higher blood pressure, and results showing vitamin B can help reduce drug-resistant high blood pressure.
The study was published in Hypertension Research.
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