islamabad - Your diet plays a vital role in regulating your blood pressure. Excessive salt and oily food can increase your blood pressure. Here are some amazing foods which can lower the blood pressure.
Leafy green vegetables are rich in potassium and give you better potassium to sodium ratio. This relaxes the blood vessels and decreases blood pressure. These include lettuce, kale, turnip and spinach. Avoid canned foods as they have added sodium. Go for frozen or fresh vegetables.
Berries are rich in flavonoids. A study found that consuming these flavonoid compounds helps with hypertension and can possibly reduce blood pressure. Blue berries, strawberries and raspberries are all easily available. They can be taken raw, with cereal or low fat dessert.
Potatoes are naturally rich in heart friendly minerals mentioned earlier: potassium and magnesium.
However people often ruin its affect by adding cheese, sour cream and butter for flavor. This is not healthy for a hypertensive patient. Bake and flavor potatoes with plain yogurt or salsa with little salt or light margarine.
Researchers at the Queen Mary University of London found that beetroot juice consumption brings significant improvement in blood pressure. They concluded that the reason behind this affect is nitrates present in beetroot juice. Beetroot juice can be extracted at home or it can be simply cooked, roasted, stir fried and added to stews. Bananas are a great way of adding potassium to your blood stream. It is a lot better than adding potassium supplements to your diet as it comes with other nutrients that help absorb potassium. It can be added to oatmeal cereal or taken to work as it makes a filling, quick and easy snack.
Turmeric holds cancer
related benefits
According to a new research, turmeric can help in preventing cancer.
Turmeric is the spice commonly used in desi foods. But it not only adds flavour to the food but also holds certain health related benefits. Team of researchers from Pondicherry University and University of Pittsburgh cancer institute, USA, has proved that curcumin, a bioactive ingredient found in turmeric (Curcuma longa) can prevent and cure bowel cancer (colorectal cancer). The team discovered the mechanism by which curcumin kills hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer cells and documented their findings. The team now has launched efforts to combine curcumin with other natural compounds to discover a new combination with enhanced anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant proper ties.
Meanwhile, dealing with cavities could one day be as simple as taking a supplement to keep unwanted bacteria in check, according to a research.
Acid in the mouth causes bacteria on the teeth to create more acid, and acid dissolves the teeth. Researchers at the University of Florida (UF) College of Dentistry, led by Robert Burne, PhD, and Marcelle Nascimento, PhD, wanted to know what causes high pH. The two compounds are urea, which everyone secretes in the mouth, and arginine, an amino acid. The researchers already knew that people who had few or no cavities were better at breaking down arginine than those with cavities.
Burne explains that, just as we might use a probiotic approach to the gut to promote health, a similar strategy could be effective for the mouth.
He further said that “You would implant this probiotic in a healthy child or adult who might be at risk for developing cavities. However many times you have to do that, once in a lifetime or once a week, the idea is that you could prevent a decline in oral health by populating the patient with natural beneficial organisms.”
Burne points out that growing A12 and S mutans together reduced the ability of the bacterium to develop properly or to make biofilms, also known as dental plaque. S mutans metabolizes sugar into lactic acid, and this contributes to the acidic conditions that form cavities.
Meanwhile, the researchers hope to carry out a larger study to find more instances of A12, and to test how prevalent bacteria with similar properties are in the human mouth.
While the development of an effective oral probiotic is still a long way off, A12 looks a promising candidate.