Home > Celery and High Blood Pressure Celery and High Blood Pressure
By Kristi Patrice Carter
Do you suffer from high blood pressure? Do you take prescription medication, exercise regularly, and modify your diet in order to lower your blood pressure? Did you know that one vegetable can help you lower your blood pressure quickly and easily? That one vegetable is celery.
Celery has been recognized as a treatment for high blood pressure for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine. Until recently, Western doctors told their patients to avoid celery as it is higher in sodium than other vegetables. As you may know, sodium can elevate blood pressure, especially if the patient’s blood pressure is already high. For this reason, celery was not recommended to be a part of a diet designed to lower high blood pressure.
However, recent studies have shown that Chinese medicine is right about the blood pressure lowering properties of celery. Celery contains a chemical called 3-butylphthalide, which has been proven to lower the blood pressure in laboratory rats by allow the smooth muscle lining of the blood vessels to relax. Once these muscles relax, the blood vessels dilate, which allows blood to flow freely throughout the body. In fact, this is how many prescription high blood pressure medications work.
Phthalide has also been shown to lower the stress hormones commonly associated with high blood pressure. These hormones are produced by your body when you feel stress and have been shown to be related to high blood pressure. Stress and anxiety have a direct and negative impact on blood pressure. By lowering these hormones, your blood pressure should drop easily.
All you have to do in order to get the benefits of celery is to eat four to five stalks of celery a day. Studies have proven that this amount of celery, if eaten consistently for a month, can lower high blood pressure by as much as fourteen percent.
If eating four to five stalks of celery a day is not appealing to you or even practical, you can also juice the celery. A single glass of celery juice in the morning can result in improved heart health.
Another alternative to eating daily large amounts of celery is taking a supplement. Supplements are an excellent alternative if you do not like the taste of celery or you live in an area where fresh produce is not commonly found. These supplements can be purchased at local nutrition stores and at various retail outlets online.
|