May Hibiscus Cut Your Pressure

             May Hibiscus Cut Your Pressure

If you're worried about your blood pressure, you may want to follow the British custom of regularly "drinking a cup" – tea. In a new study, drinking three cups of herbal tea containing hibiscus each day lowered blood pressure. "Most of the commercial herbal tea blends in the United States contain hibiscus," says Diane L. McKay, PhD, of Tufts University in Boston. She says that people with the highest blood pressure at the start of the six-week study benefited the most.

McKay presented the study of 65 healthy men and women with modestly elevated blood pressure at the American Heart Association (AHA) meeting here. After a period of time, drinking hibiscus tea blends lowered systolic blood pressure -- the top number in the blood pressure reading -- by an average of 7 points. That was significantly more than the 1-point drop observed in people who were given a placebo in the form of hibiscus-flavored water.

How it works? The fruit acids in hibiscus may work like a laxative. Some researchers think that other chemicals in hibiscus might be able to lower blood pressure; reduce levels of sugar and fats in the blood; decrease spasms in the stomach, intestines, and uterus; reduce swelling; and work like antibiotics to kill bacteria and worms.

Some other research shows that drinking hibiscus tea or taking hibiscus extract by mouth can lower levels of cholesterol and other blood fats in people with metabolic disorders such as diabetes. People with urinary catheters living in long-term care facilities who drink hibiscus tea have a 36% lower chance of having a urinary tract infection compared to those not drinking tea.

You may follow the British custom to have a cup of tea with Hibiscus for cutting blood pressure.