Scientists from Imo State University and other institutions have found that eating walnuts daily may help reduce “bad” blood cholesterol and high blood pressure.
Nuts have long been recognized for their heart-protective benefits.
In particular, walnut-enriched diets have been shown to lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, which are the most common fats circulating in the bloodstream.
In this study, the researchers set out to examine whether walnuts could act as an adjuvant—an additional supportive therapy—to statin treatment in people with high blood pressure.
They conducted a three-month clinical trial involving 45 adults aged 45 to 65 who were receiving treatment for high blood pressure.
The participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a placebo group using blood pressure criteria defined by the American Heart Association. In addition, 15 adults without high blood pressure were recruited as a comparison group.
Participants in the intervention group consumed 7 grams of boiled walnuts daily as a snack. The researchers focused primarily on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL cholesterol), often referred to as “bad” cholesterol because of its strong link to heart disease.
The results showed that people in the walnut intervention group had much lower LDL cholesterol levels compared with those in the placebo group. They also had higher levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL cholesterol), the “good” cholesterol that helps remove excess cholesterol from the bloodstream.
Total cholesterol levels were also significantly lower in the walnut-consuming group. In addition to these improvements, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were much lower in the intervention group compared with the placebo group. The researchers observed strong improvements in overall metabolic health among participants who consumed walnuts.
Based on these findings, the team concluded that incorporating walnuts as an adjuvant to statin therapy may effectively reduce LDL cholesterol, increase HDL cholesterol, and support healthier blood pressure levels in people undergoing treatment for hypertension.
The research was published in Clinical and Experimental Hypertension and conducted by Peter U. Amadi and colleagues.
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