"Hibiscus Tea vs. Plant-Based Diets for Hypertension "
The latest research pitted hibiscus against obesity,
giving hibiscus to overweight individuals, and showed reduced body weight,
but after 12 weeks on hibiscus they only lost like 3 pounds,
and really only one and a half pounds over placebo—
clearly no magic fix.
The purported cholesterol-lowering property of hibiscus tea
had looked a bit more promising.
Some older studies suggested as much as an 8% reduction
drinking two cups a day for a month,
but when all the studies are put together the results were pretty much a wash.
This may be because only about 50% of people respond at all
to drinking the equivalent of between 2 to 5 cups a day,
though those that do respond may get a respectable 12 or so percent drop in cholesterol,
but nothing like the 30% drop one can get
within weeks of eating a healthy enough plant-based diet.
High blood pressure is where hibiscus may really shine,
a disease affecting a billion people, killing millions.
Up until 2010, there wasn’t sufficient high quality research out there
to support the use of hibiscus tea to treat it,
but there are now randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled studies
where hibiscus tea is compared to artificially colored and flavored water
that looks and tastes like hibiscus tea, and the tea did significantly better.
We’re still not sure why it works,
but hibiscus does appear to boost nitric oxide production,
which could help our arteries relax and dilate better.
Regardless, an updated review acknowledged that the daily consumption of hibiscus tea
may indeed significantly lower blood pressures in people with hypertension,
but by how much?
How does this drop in blood pressure compare to other interventions?
Well, the premier clinical trial when it comes to comprehensive lifestyle modification
for blood pressure control is the Premier Clinical Trial.
Realizing that 9 out of 10 Americans are going to develop hypertension,
they randomized 800 men and women with high blood pressure into one of three groups.
One was the control group, the so-called advice only group,
where patients were just told to lose weight, cut down on salt,
increase exercise and eat healthier... here’s a brochure.
In the two behavioral intervention groups they got serious.
18 face-to-face sessions, groups meetings, food diaries,
monitored physical activity, calorie and sodium intake.
Now, one intervention group just concentrated on exercise
and the other one included exercise and diet.
They pushed the DASH diet, high in fruits, and vegetables,
and low in full-fat dairy products and meat.
And in six months achieved a 4.3 point drop in systolic blood pressure,
compared to the control, slightly better than the lifestyle intervention without the diet.
Now, a few points might not sound like a lot—
that’s like someone going from a blood pressure of 150 over 90 to a blood pressure of 146 over 90—
but on a population scale a 5 point drop in the total number
could result in a 14% fewer stroke deaths, 9% fewer fatal heart attacks, and 7% fewer deaths every year overall.
But a cup of hibiscus tea with each meal didn’t just lower blood pressure by 3, 4 or 5 points
but by 7 points, 129 down to 122.
And in fact tested head-to-head against a leading blood-pressure drug, called Captopril,
two cups of strong hibiscus tea every morning,
using a total of 5 tea bags for those 2 cups,
was as effective in lowering blood pressure
as a starting dose of 25 mg of Captopril taken twice a day.
So as good as drugs, without the drug side-effects,
and better than diet and exercise?
Well, the lifestyle interventions were pretty whimpy.
As public health experts noted, the Premier study
was only asking for 30 minutes of exercise a day,
whereas the World Health Organization is more like an hour a day minimum.
And diet-wise, the lower the animal fat intake,
and the more plant sources of protein the Premier participants were eating,
the better the diet appeared to work,
which may explain why vegetarian diets appear to work even better,
and the more plant-based the lower the prevalence of hypertension.
On the DASH diet, they were told to cut down on meat,
but were still eating meat every day,
so would qualify as the non-vegetarians here in the Adventist 2 study,
which looked at 89,000 Californians
and found that those who instead only ate meat on more like a weekly basis
had 23% lower rates of high blood pressure.
Cut out all meat except fish and the rate is 38% lower.
Cut out all meat period—the vegetarians have less than half the rate
and the vegans—cutting out all animal protein and fat—
appeared to have thrown three quarters of their risk of this major killer out the window.
One sees the same kind of step-wise drop in diabetes rates
as one’s diet gets more and more plant-based and a drop in excess body weight
such that only those eating completely plant-based diets fell into the ideal weight category.
But could that be why those eating plant-based have such great blood pressure?
Maybe it’s just because they’re so skinny on average.
I’ve shown previously how those eating plant based diets
have just a fraction of the diabetes risk even at the same weight,
even after controlling for BMI.
But what about hypertension?
The average American has what’s called prehypertension,
which means the top number of your blood pressure is between 120 and 139.
Not yet hypertension, which starts at 140,
but it means we may be well on our way.
Compare that to the blood pressure of those eating whole food plant-based diets.
Not 3 points lower, 4 points lower, or even 7 points lower, but 28 points lower.
Now, but the group here eating the standard American diet was, on average,
overweight with a BMI over 26, still better than most Americans,
but while the vegans were a trim 21 over here—that's 36 pounds lighter.
So maybe the only reason those eating meat, eggs, dairy, and processed junk
had such higher blood pressure was because they were overweight,
maybe the diet per se had nothing to do with it.
To solve that riddle we would have to find a group
still eating the standard American diet but as slim as a vegan.
To find a group that fit and trim, they had to use long-distance endurance athletes,
who ate the same crappy American diet —
but ran an average of 48 miles a week for 21 years.
They ran almost two marathons a week for 20 years.
So, if you do that, you know, anyone can be slim as a vegan—no matter what they eat.
So where did they fall on this graph?
Both the vegans and the conventional diet group were sedentary—
less than an hour of exercise a week.
The endurance runners were here.
So it appears if you run about a thousand miles every year
you can start to rival some couch potato vegans.
Doesn’t mean you can’t do both, but it may be easier to just eat plants.