Blood Pressure
Summary of Blood Pressure
Blood pressure refers to the pressure that blood exerts on the blood vessels as it travels through circulation. It's most commonly measured with an auscultatory approach, using a sphygmomanometer, a stethoscope, and a cuff to measure pressure at two points: systolic, which is the maximum pressure during a contraction, and diastolic, which is the minimum pressure between contractions. BP is normally measured in millimeters of mercury (a unit of pressure) above the atmospheric pressure.
Blood pressure is either measured in a single sitting or as ambulatory pressure, over 24 hours with a leave-on cuff. The latter is likely to be more accurate and aboid anomalous measurements, since blood pressure can naturally fluctuate throughout the day.
Food and supplements that affect blood pressure may do so through improving the ability of blood vessels to dilate due to nitric oxide signaling, inhibiting angiotensin, which causes vasoconstriction, modifying blood volume, protecting blood vessels, or by playing a role in the function of endothelial cells.
High blood pressure (hypertension) is a risk factor for atherosclerosis, while low blood pressure (hypotension) can be a result of a variety of illnesses and may lead to weakness and dizziness due to inadequate blood flow.
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Human Effect Matrix
The Human Effect Matrix looks at human studies (it excludes animal and in vitro studies) to tell you what supplements affect blood pressure.
| Grade | Level of Evidence [show legend] |
|---|---|
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Robust research conducted with repeated double-blind clinical trials |
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Multiple studies where at least two are double-blind and placebo controlled |
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Single double-blind study or multiple cohort studies |
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Uncontrolled or observational studies only |
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Level of Evidence
?
The amount of high quality evidence. The more
evidence, the more we can trust the results.
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Supplement |
Magnitude of effect
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The direction and size of the supplement's impact on
each outcome. Some supplements can have an increasing effect, others have a decreasing effect, and others have no effect.
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Consistency of research results
?
Scientific research does not always agree. HIGH or
VERY HIGH means that most of the scientific research agrees.
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Notes |
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Minor
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- See all 23 studies |
While not affecting everybody, there appears to be a decrease in blood pressure when assessing mildly hypertensive people; the increase in blood flow seen in healthy people is not accompanied by a decrease in blood pressure, while the xanthine (caffeine) content of chocolate products may cause a mild and transient increase in blood pressure in some subjects.
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Minor
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Very High See all 8 studies |
May decrease blood pressure in persons with high blood pressure, but does not appear to have efficacy in persons with normal blood pressure
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Notable
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High See all 12 studies |
Garlic supplementation appears to reduce blood pressure, and the magnitude is quite respectable in persons with hypertension (around 10 points systolic or 8-10%) whereas there is a smaller but present reduction in persons with normal blood pressure.
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Get access to the latest nutrition research summarized
By becoming an Examine Plus member, you'll have access to all of the latest nutrition research on over 400 supplements across over 600 different health goals, outcomes, conditions, and more.
NERD Articles
- NERD Mini: How does exercise compare to medication for lowering blood pressure?
- Under pressure: reducing salt intake to lower blood pressure
- DASHing toward lower blood pressure
- Does some cinnamon each day keep the cardiologist away?
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Frequently Asked Questions and Articles on Blood Pressure
Click here to see all 8 references.
