More than 122 million Americans – about half of the U.S. population ages 20 and older – have high blood pressure, referred to medically as hypertension.
More than 122 million Americans – about half of the U.S. population ages 20 and older – have high blood pressure, referred to medically as hypertension. Hypertension is a major cause of cardiovascular disease, and despite advances in treatment, even patients who take medications to control their blood pressure remain at high risk of death from diseases like heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.
The lack of new drugs to effectively control hypertension and associated cardiovascular problems has fueled a search for novel treatment strategies, and now, researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University have found a promising alternative. In new work, the Temple researchers show that cardiovascular disease risk may be reduced with a simple juice concentrate from the Japanese plum (Prunus mume) – a fruit that is widely consumed in Asian countries and that is promoted as a health food in Japan. The new findings are described online in the journal Hypertension Research.
“It is recognized that drugs alone are not enough to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in hypertension patients,” explained Satoru Eguchi, MD, PhD, FAHA, Professor in the Cardiovascular Research Center, Sol Sherry Thrombosis Research Center, and Center for Metabolic Disease Research at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and senior investigator and co-corresponding author on the new study. “To help solve this problem, we became interested in a supplement that could potentially decrease cardiovascular disease risk and began investigating the effects of bainiku-ekisu, an infused juice concentrate of the Japanese plum.”
Read more at Temple University Health System
Photo by Kin Wai Cheung on Unsplash
