An Update on Nutrients and Blood Pressure

Abstract

Adverse blood pressure (BP) is a major independent risk factor for epidemic cardiovascular diseases affecting almost one-quarter of the adult population worldwide. Dietary intake is a major determinant in the development and progression of high BP. Lifestyle modifications, including recommended dietary guidelines, are advocated by the American Society of Hypertension, the International Society of Hypertension, the Japanese Society of Hypertension, and many other organisations for treating all hypertensive people, prior to initiating drug therapy and as an adjunct to medication in persons already on drug therapy. Lifestyle modification can also reduce high BP and prevent development of hypertension. This review synthesizes results from the International Study of Macro/ Micronutrients and Blood Pressure (INTERMAP), a cross-sectional epidemiological study of 4,680 men and women aged 40-59 years from Japan, the People's Republic of China, the United Kingdom, and the United States, published over the past few years on cross cultural BP differences. INTER-MAP has previously reported that intakes of vegetable protein, glutamic acid, total and insoluble fibre, total polyunsaturated fatty acid and linoleic acid, total n-3 fatty acid and linolenic acid, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and non-heme iron were inversely related to BP. Direct associations of sugars (fructose, glucose, and sucrose) and sugar-sweetened beverages (especially combined with high sodium intake), cholesterol, glycine, alanine, and oleic acid from animal sources with BP were also reported by the INTERMAP Study. J Atheroscler Thromb, 2016; 23: 276-289.

Low levels of linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid and high levels of arachidonic acid in plasma phospholipids are associated with hypertension

“…However, higher SFA and lower PUFA consumption have been associated with higher BP (9). A summary of the International Study of Macro/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure (INTERMAP) reported that total PUFA, linoleic acid (LA), total n-3 FA, and α-linolenic acid (ALA), were inversely associated with BP (10). Data from meta-analyses (11,12) and clinical trials (13,14) have indicated that n-3 PUFA supplementation dose-dependently reduces BP in hypertensive patients, but not in normotensive individuals.…”

Influence of Demographic and Lifestyle Variables on Plasma Magnesium Concentrations and Their Associations with Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Mediterranean Population

“…Among those observational studies, much research has been undertaken on whether there exists a relationship between magnesium contribution through dietary food and different cardiovascular risk factors, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases [38]. Thus, some studies have reported inverse associations between dietary magnesium intake and body mass index (BMI) or obesity [39,40], blood pressure [40,41], total cholesterol/LDL-cholesterol concentrations [42], and fasting glucose or type-2 diabetes [41,43,44], but the overall consistency for some of these factors is still low. Regarding the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, some studies have reported that high magnesium intake is associated with a lower risk of stroke, heart failure and total cardiovascular events [45,46], but less agreement has been observed for other cardiovascular events [38,47].…”

Importance of Flaxseed and its Components in the Management of Hypertension

“…It has been also shown that total levels of α-linolenic acid is inversely associated with BP. 46 Berry and Hirsch 47 have reported that a 1% increase in serum α-linolenic acid is associated with a decrease in 5 mm Hg in systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressures.…”