Almost one billion people worldwide suffer from high blood pressure, or hypertension, defined as having a systolic and diastolic blood pressure above 140/90mmhg. An estimated 33.5% of US adults have hypertension–it is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease, which accounts for 35% of annual deaths in the US. A new study suggests that supplementation with vitamin C may reduce blood pressure.
This meta-analysis was conducted by researchers from the John Hopkins Medical Institution. They pooled data from 29 clinical trials, with the median dose of Vitamin C calculated to be 500 milligrams per day, and a median trial duration of eight weeks.
The results showed that Vitamin C supplementation was associated with a significant reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the all cases, with even greater reductions in people who actually suffer from hypertension. When the data was filtered through to include only people with hypertension, there were average systolic and diastolic blood pressure reductions of 4.85 and 1.67 mmHg, respectively.
Because this is the first meta-analysis on this issue, additional trials are recommended for validation. These longer, more extensive trials may be difficult and costly, but it’s difficult to put a price on the hope that something as simple and easy as vitamin C supplementation may reduce the risk of hypertension.
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