Hibiscus Tea After A Stressful Day

Not only is the hibiscus pretty to look at but nature has given it some pretty potent medicinal properties.

Hibiscus is high in Vitamin C, calcium, iron, niacin and riboflavin. It's even more beneficial property comes from the presence of Anthocyanin, a powerful antioxidant. Studies have shown that Hibiscus tea can help decrease the levels of bad cholesterol and decrease blood pressure.

Hibiscus is in fact a large group of plants, shrubs and small trees that usually grow in tropical or subtropical parts of the world. Mostly they are grown for their flowers, but it is also a main component of many herbal teas.
Some cultures also use it as an antibiotic, antifungal and anticancer agent and as a contraceptive. The bark of the tree is used to make the famous Polynesian"grass" skirts.

In 2004 a clinical trial, published in the medical journal Phytomedicine, compared the effects of a standardized tea preparation of Hibiscus sabdariffa to the potent prescription medication captopril on mild high blood pressure. The participants took either the hibiscus tea or captopril daily for 4 weeks. The data showed that the hibiscus tea preparation was as effective as captopril in reducing blood pressure.

An earlier trial, published in the journal of Ethnopharmacology (1999), concluded that hibiscus tea significantly reduced blood pressure for those with moderate hypertension.

Similar results were found when hibiscus tea was consumed by diabetics with high blood pressure. This study, reported in 2008 in the Journal of Human Hypertension, compared hibiscus tea with black tea. Sixty non-insulin dependent diabetics were randomly assigned to drink either hibiscus or black tea twice a day for one month. Blood pressure was measured at the beginning, middle and end of the 30-day clinical trial.

As expected there was a significant drop in blood pressure for the hibiscus tea group, but blood pressure slightly increased in the black tea group, possibly because of its caffeine content.

Hibiscus tea is considered to be very safe and may also be used as a potent diuretic or "water pill." It has few interactions with medications but if you already take one or more high blood pressure medications it could cause hypotension. It also has reported anti-fertility effects and, in one study, was effective against head lice, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

The bottom line is it seems that drinking a little hibiscus tea, after a stress filled day, might be both relaxing and help lower your blood pressure a bit. In today's world, I’ll take what I can get.

Simple Ways For Women To Prevent Heart Disease

Some simple adjustments to your lifestyle can help you avoid cardiovascular problems down the road.

If you have reduced or eliminated saturated fats, cheese and butter from your diet, don’t smoke and exercise 6 days a week, your heart may still be in jeopardy. The American Heart Association says that is all part of the story but there is more to it. Over half of heart attack and stroke sufferers have good cholesterol levels, according to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Other research suggests that there are two other potent risk factors women and their doctors aren’t addressing well enough. Borderline high blood pressure and inflammation get overlooked by physicians in young women they assume are healthy and fit. The longer they go unnoticed, the more damage they can do on your cardiovascular system.

The good news is there are a number of ways you can reduce these risk factors right away with just a little tweak to your routine.

Take a minute next checkup to ask your doctor, or the nurse who takes it, what your blood pressure is. Even if she didn’t tell you it was high (a reading of 140/90 or higher), don’t assume you’re in the clear. If they’re above 119/79, start making changes. Hypertension forces your heart to work harder to pump blood through the body, which can cause arteries to narrow and increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.

The University of California, San Francisco did a study and found nearly 20 percent of people under the age of 35 have prehypertension (between 120/80 and 139/89). The study found that these young adults were more likely to develop high blood pressure, or hypertension, over the next twenty years than those who had healthy readings.

We have probably all heard at one time that to prevent hypertension, lower our sodium intake. The average American consumes 41 percent more sodium a day than the recommended 2,400 milligrams. Much of this sodium comes from processed foods, like canned soups, salad dressings, and frozen entrées.

Next, think about nutrition. Eat more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, poultry, low-fat dairy, and nuts, as well as less saturated fat, red meats, and sugar. Following a diet like “DASH” will help you get sufficient nutrients proven to lower blood pressure. If you can stick with the plan you’ll reduce your heart disease risk by 24 percent. For more details, search “DASH” on http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/.

Be sure to put a bunch of bananas in your shopping cart. Potassium works with sodium to regulate the water balance in the body, which promotes normal blood pressure. Most women get only half the 4,700 milligrams of potassium they need daily; in addition to bananas (422 milligrams each), eat your way to this quota with foods such as halibut (490 milligrams for 3 ounces) and tomato sauce (453 milligrams per half cup). An alternative to eating enough is to use a supplement instead. You can save some bucks by getting quality supplements on line. Just click on these links for Potassium and Fish Oil.

Those dark circles under your eyes aren’t the only consequence of partying too long. Some research at Harvard stated that people who slept five or fewer hours a night had a 39 percent greater risk of having heart disease than those who had at least eight hours of down time. Your body needs time to repair the daily damage to cells and tissues. Try a power nap on the weekend. It’s also a way to relieve built up stress. Snoozing for 30 minutes at least three times a week reduce the odds of dying from heart disease by more than one-third.

Make yourself a PBJ to fight inflammation. Peanut butter is loaded with magnesium, and researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina found that people who consumed at least 320 milligrams of the mineral daily halved their risk of having elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, which signal inflammation. A 2-tablespoon serving of peanut butter provides 49 milligrams of the mineral; beans are also an excellent magnesium source, as are spinach and artichokes.

One last thought is to rethink your birth control plan. The same hormones that prevent pregnancy (estrogen and progestin) could also make your blood vessels less flexible and, over time, and raise your blood pressure. Go over your options every once in a while with your gynecologist. As an example research in Obstetrics & Gynecology said that women who use the birth control patch, have double the risk for blood clots as those who take oral contraceptives. This might be because they’re exposed to 60 percent more estrogen.

For most women, the benefits of birth control pills outweigh the drawbacks. But if you smoke or have pre-hypertension or hypertension and you’re on the pill, check your blood pressure with a home monitor at least once a week. If there are any changes let your family doctor and gynecologist know so they can keep an eye on your immune system.

Salt Overdose = Heart Overload

As I am looking ahead to the Superbowl I wonder about how much salt people eat. As I understand it eating out and packaged foods from the grocery make up about 80% of the sodium in our diets, and another 11% comes from our salt shakers.

Current guidelines suggest people eat no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day or about a teaspoon of salt. Actually that’s about half of what many people actually use.

Those at risk for high blood pressure, like African-Americans and older people, are advised to eat much less. Genetics indicate that different people have different reactions to sodium. Some people are more sensitive to high levels of salt, and in others, low levels of sodium can be unhealthy.

When I stop and think about it I have grown up eating really salty foods (which I need to reverse) and so has the rest of our whole society. If I could just cut my salt or sodium in half it would be a major boost to staying heart healthy.

My cardiologist told me that other nutritional issues get more attention but high blood pressure is a leading factor in the number of heart attack and stroke, and salt causes it to rise. I take medicine for hypertension, but not everybody has access health care to get the medication. He has been telling people to watch their salt for years, it hasn’t been working.

There are certain food categories I have to watch like cheese, breakfast cereals, bread, macaroni and pastas, cake mixes, condiments and soups.

The federal government has been trying to control sodium levels for decades. In the 1980s, the federal dietary guidelines warned about excess sodium, and the FDA also asked the food industry to reduce sodium levels in processed foods voluntarily.

Surprise … It didn’t work. By 2000, a study showed that men were consuming 48 percent more salt than they did in the early 1970s, and women, 69 percent more because food got saltier and people were consuming more calories.

For me the whole idea of controlling my diet is incredibly complicated. My overall strategy is just find ways to balance diet and exercise and keep on my weight loss program. If I remember to eat in moderation as I lower my weight I increase my health.

Is One Teaspoon Bad Luck Or A Good Thing

The Archives of Internal Medicine just published some findings on research about the effects of salt in on our health. The research determined that too much sodium and too little potassium in your diet may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. The study also suggests that increasing potassium consumption along with lowering one's salt intake may reverse the risk.

Researchers found that for people with high normal blood pressure levels, every unit increase in the person's sodium-to-potassium ratio raised his or her chance of cardiovascular disease by 24 percent.

Since around one third of American adults have high blood pressure, defined as 140/90 or higher, while another 37 percent have pre-hypertension, that is a pretty significant health concern.

High blood pressure can damage the heart because the extra pressure means the heart has to work harder to pump blood around the body. This damage can lead to heart failure and increase the risk of having a heart attack.

High blood pressure also increases the risk of atherosclerosis, where fatty deposits are laid down inside the arteries. This makes the blood vessels narrower and stiffer, which can raise blood pressure further and increase the risk of having a heart attack.

Therefore lowering your blood pressure reduces the risk of developing heart disease, even if your blood pressure is already within the normal range. The recommended maximum amount of salt you need on a daily basis is 6 grams. That is about a teaspoon full.

When we think of salt, we think in terms of what we add to our food or what we cook. It is much harder to know exactly how much salt you eat in a day, because you would need to know the salt content of each food and measure the exact quantities you eat.

If you know how much sodium is in a few of the foods you normally eat, then you'll see how easy it can be to eat more than 6g. Salt is often listed as sodium on food labels.

About three-quarters (75%) of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy, including processed foods like frozen dinners, snacks, and pizza.

Almost all of us eat at least some of these types of foods. Even if you make all your own meals from scratch, you probably buy bread and cheese, which have salt in them.

So, before you assume that you don't eat too much salt, take a look at what you're buying, as well as how you use salt at home. The amount you eat also affects how much salt you get also.

Some categories of products that are usually high in sodium are baked beans, cereals, bread products, pasta sauces, Pizza, frozen foods, Soup, lunch meat, Sausages, Tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and other sauces.

Foods that are often high in salt include Anchovies, Bacon, Bullion cubes, Cheese, Chips, Ham, Olives, Pickles, Salami, Salted and dry roasted nuts, Smoked meat and fish, Soy sauce.

You don't need to stop eating high-salt foods altogether, but it makes sense to cut down on the amount you eat or eat them less often. Also, when you're shopping, take a look at the label and try to choose brands/recipes that contain less sodium.

True or False … Low Potassium Means High Blood Pressure

As I am sitting here eating my banana I remembered reading recently an article by Megan Rauscher in My Health. She wrote about a correlation between high blood pressure and low potassium levels. At least half of the population tested were African American. This was true regardless of the level of salt in the diet or cardiovascular risk factors.

The significance of what was observed is that it agrees with an earlier idea that potassium deficiency plays an important role in the development of high blood pressure.

Doctor Hedayati told Reuters Health that this association was stronger in African Americans than non-African Americans, which suggests possible racial differences in the development of high blood pressure.

In addition to having lower levels of potassium in the urine, individuals with hypertension were older, heavier, and more likely to be African American. These people also had lower glomerular filtration rates, which correlates with poor kidney function.

According to Hedayati, the potassium level in urine samples was strongly related to blood pressure. "The lower the potassium in the urine, the lower the potassium in the diet, the higher the blood pressure," This effect was even more significant than the effect of salt on their blood pressure.

My doctor always tells me to cut down on salt in order to keep my blood pressure under control, but he has not mentioned anything about low potassium having an effect on it.

This is another case of needing more studies to see how much of a factor potassium may be in treating hypertension in humans. This may be something to check with your doctor about next time you are in for a checkup.