Don't fall for this lie about lowering blood pressure, Mom and Dad!

Hypertension, for many people, is an increasingly common 'old friend'.

The survey results published by the National Cardiovascular Center in 2018 showed that

The prevalence of hypertension among adults aged 18 and above in China is

23.2%

That means almost 1 in 4 adults has high blood pressure, and this figure is still rising.

For people with high blood pressure, lowering and stabilizing blood pressure has become an urgent task.

However, if you search the Internet for "lowering blood pressure", you will find a variety of miracle foods coming ...... hypertension, so good to cure?

There are many netizens helplessly spit out.

Dad believed in celery to lower blood pressure, celery as a life-saving medicine, fried celery, mixed celery, and celery juice ...... I am almost eating vomit

I don't know where the family heard that onions can lower blood pressure, eat three times a day, drink milk for breakfast also the onion, which tastes punch

My blood pressure is a little high, my mother forced me to drink celery juice, bitter gourd juice, and carrot juice, my bitter only I know

Our background message also received a lot of readers begging for the truth.

Today, we will pick up those online rumors of "magic blood pressure food".

Blood pressure is indeed related to food

But no single food can lower blood pressure

Let's start with what high blood pressure is all about.

Just like the flow of tap water in the water pipe will cause a certain pressure on the wall of the water pipe, the blood in the body will also cause a certain pressure on the wall of the blood vessel when it flows in the blood vessel.

In the case of people with high blood pressure, the pressure on the walls of their blood vessels is consistently higher than normal due to their genetic predisposition or acquired risk factors.

Simply put, there are two main ways to lower blood pressure.

Allowing blood vessels to stretch and become "wider".

Slowing down the pressure of blood flow to make the blood "smoother".

At present, it has been confirmed that the effect of lowering blood pressure is "antihypertensive drugs", their pharmacological effects have been confirmed by large-scale animal experiments and clinical trials, and the effect of lowering blood pressure has also been confirmed in clinical applications.

Diet, on the other hand, does have some relationship with blood pressure.

For example, foods high in salt contain a lot of sodium, which raises blood pressure; foods high in potassium promote the excretion of sodium and play a protective role only to make blood pressure rise more slowly and less.

However, this does not mean that if you eat more of a certain kind of high-potassium food, you can achieve the effect of lowering blood pressure instead of medication.

In addition, there are usually multiple minerals in a single food. For example, celery contains potassium, but is equally high in sodium, in addition to various minerals such as calcium, zinc, and copper.

Excessive sodium intake can increase blood pressure by swelling blood vessels

Potassium can help to drain sodium and control blood pressure

Calcium can make the peripheral blood vessels dilate, and also help control blood pressure

Unfortunately, no one food has an absolute balance of mineral ions, and it is difficult to achieve the goal of "eating one food can lower blood pressure".

So where do all the online "foods that lower blood pressure when eaten" come from?

Rumors of blood pressure-lowering foods

They are all generalizations

The celery, fungus, and onion rumors on the Internet ...... are indeed very good vegetables, but unfortunately, their effectiveness in lowering blood pressure is not that amazing.

But if they are ineffective, why are they still being passed around decently? Let us help you analyze it.

➊ Celery?

The legendary "celery can lower blood pressure" started because an animal experiment found that the extract of celery, apigenin, has a vasodilatory effect. But don't forget.

The results of animal studies cannot simply be realized in humans.

The doses of apigenin used in animal experiments are very high, and the amount of apigenin within celery is very low.

If it works, it means eating several kilograms of celery at a time, for months on end, without lowering your blood pressure, your gut will first be burnt out.

And celery is a proper high-sodium vegetable, sodium eating too much, but will make blood pressure higher and higher.

➋ Mullein?

Mullein is also known as the "vascular scavenger" because mice experiments have found that mullein extract has a blood pressure-lowering effect.

Again, the results of animal experiments are not necessarily effective for humans, and the high doses in animal experiments are far from enough for people to eat in their lives.

➌ Onions?

One study found that prostaglandin A, an extract from onions, has a vasodilating effect. But 1 gram of prostaglandin A needs to be extracted from 6000 grams of onions, imagine how many plates that would take ......

Have you noticed the pattern?

These "blood pressure lowering foods" are indeed supported by some research, only in the process of dissemination, from "XX food ingredients have a hypotensive effect on rats", to "eat XX can lower blood pressure".

At first glance, it seems that there is no difference, but it is not the same thing at all.

we humans and mice do not have the same physiological mechanisms and the effects cannot be directly equated.

The ingredients in the study are usually found in very low amounts in food, and it is impossible to eat enough experimental doses in real life.

To date, no specific food has pharmacological efficacy in lowering blood pressure. Neither garlic nor fungus nor kelp nor celery is supported by any rigorous scientific evidence.

Most of these anecdotes are deliberately spread by blackmail, or by some people with ulterior motives to market blood pressure-lowering foods with biased generalizations.

Simple, natural, and low-cost, the magical legend of blood pressure-lowering food has been widely spread, but it has also planted a terrible hidden danger as a result.

Eating "antihypertensive food" and stopping the medicine

It's dangerous.

Continuously elevated blood pressure, not only will make people feel dizzy that simple, it silently and continuously impact the body's major organs: blood vessels, heart, brain, and kidneys, and even bring atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, stroke, and other dangerous complications.

If only occasionally eat these so-called "antihypertensive food", there is no harm, after all, they are also considered good ingredients, but if you listen to the food that can lower blood pressure, the antihypertensive drugs to stop, it is dangerous.

According to the Chinese guidelines for the prevention and treatment of hypertension (revised version 2018), people who need medication are

With an improved lifestyle, blood pressure is still ≥ 140/90 mmHg and/or higher than the target blood pressure.

For this group, antihypertensive drugs firmly control not only the blood pressure value, but also the defense line of major organs against hypertension; once the drugs are discontinued, the defense line is breached and dangers such as heart attack and brain infarction may occur at any time, so the drugs must not be discontinued easily.

And those who temporarily do not need to take medication, is carrying out lifestyle intervention for mild hypertension people, they eat fungus, onions, etc. will have benefits?

To put it simply: eating more in moderation may be beneficial, but eating them every day, every day, may be harmful.

Lifestyle intervention is not just a simple matter of "eating a certain kind of food", it is a multi-pronged approach that includes proper diet, weight loss, and exercise.

A rational diet is not about eating a certain kind of food every day or every day, but a reasonable combination of low-fat, low-salt, high-calcium, and low-total-calorie diets to lower blood pressure and lose weight.