A new study has shown that eating more fruits and vegetables can help lower blood pressure and improve both heart and kidney health.
This is especially helpful for people who already have high blood pressure. The findings were published in The American Journal of Medicine and suggest that food should play a bigger role in treating high blood pressure, also known as hypertension.
High blood pressure is a major cause of heart disease and kidney failure. It is even more dangerous for people who already have kidney problems. Many people take medicine for high blood pressure, but the number of people with heart and kidney issues keeps growing. For those with chronic kidney disease, heart disease is the number one cause of death.
Doctors already know that healthy eating can help lower blood pressure. One popular plan is the DASH diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.
This diet focuses on eating lots of fruits, vegetables, and other whole foods. Studies have shown that the DASH diet can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart problems. However, it isn’t recommended often enough, and many people find it hard to follow.
This new study adds strong evidence that eating more fruits and vegetables is very beneficial. The study was led by Dr. Donald E. Wesson, a kidney specialist from The University of Texas at Austin. He has spent years studying how the kidneys remove acid from the body.
Dr. Wesson found that eating too many acid-producing foods like meat and cheese can put stress on the kidneys. But fruits and vegetables reduce acid in the body, which helps protect the kidneys. These foods are also good for the heart.
To test this, Dr. Wesson and his team did a five-year study with 153 people who had both high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease. The people were divided into three groups. One group ate 2 to 4 cups of fruits and vegetables each day along with their regular meals.
Another group took sodium bicarbonate tablets, which are like baking soda and help reduce acid in the body. The third group received standard medical care with no changes to diet or supplements.
The results were impressive. Both the fruit and vegetable group and the baking soda group showed better kidney health. But only the group that ate more fruits and vegetables also had lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of heart disease. They even needed smaller doses of blood pressure medicine than the other groups.
Dr. Maninder Kahlon, another researcher in the study, said that while both the diet and the tablets helped the kidneys, only fruits and vegetables helped the heart too. Because of this, the researchers suggest that eating more fruits and vegetables should be the first step in treating high blood pressure, before adding medication.
Dr. Wesson admitted that changing your diet isn’t always easy. But he believes these changes can make a big difference in long-term health. He encouraged doctors to help patients get access to healthy foods and to talk more about how important diet is in treating high blood pressure.
The study also recommended that people with high blood pressure ask their doctors about a simple test called the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR). This test can show early signs of kidney problems, which are closely linked to heart disease.
In short, this study shows that food can be powerful medicine. By simply eating more fruits and vegetables, you could lower your blood pressure, protect your kidneys, and avoid serious heart problems—without needing more pills.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about why checking blood pressure while lying down is very important and lowering top blood pressure number to less than 120 mm Hg effectively prevents heart disease.
For more about blood pressure, please read studies that turmeric and vitamin D may boost blood pressure control in type 2 diabetes and scientists find link between blood pressure drugs and bowel diseases.
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