Olive oil and Greens Offer Protection against Hypertension

People with high blood pressure can improve the condition with a diet that includes olive oil and lettuce.

Researchers at the King's College London, claim that a diet that includes unsaturated fats along with nitrite rich vegetables improves blood pressure level. This latest finding helps explain why adherence to Mediterranean diet helps lower blood pressure.

Professor Philip Eaton, Professor of Cardiovascular Biochemistry at King's College London, said, "The findings of our study help to explain why previous research has shown that a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts can reduce the incidence of cardiovascular problems like stroke, heart failure and heart attacks."

The Mediterranean diet includes  unsaturated fats present in olive oil, nuts, avocado along with fruits and veggies that are rich in nitrites and nitrates.   On combining the two food groups the unsaturated fatty acids reacts with nitrogen compounds to form nitro fatty acids.

To check how nitro fatty acids lower blood pressure, the researchers conducted a study on mice and focused on whether an enzyme called soluble Epoxide Hydrolase that is known to control blood pressure is inhibited by fatty acids.

Genetically engineered mice that were able to resist this inhibitor were found to maintain their high blood pressure despite being given the nitro fatty acid-rich diet. However the nitro fatty acids lowered blood pressure in normal mice after being given the same diet.

The researchers said, "The protective effect of the Mediterranean diet, combining unsaturated fats and vegetables abundant in nitrite and nitrate, comes at least in part from the nitro fatty acids generated which inhibit soluble Epoxide Hydrolase to lower blood pressure."

Studies earlier have revealed that a Mediterranean diet helps lower risk of heart diseases, offers protection against diabetes, lowers risk of dementia, lowers cholesterol, reduces risk of breast cancer and chronic diseases.

The study was documented in the journal PNAS.