More and more Americans are being diagnosed with high blood pressure, and it seems at even younger ages than ever before.
Whether that is due to more stress-filled minds or lives, declining quality of diet, declining physical activity, a combination or something else altogether is up for debate.
What is not up for debate is the fact that we need solutions.
And it sure would be great if we could find some solutions in our kitchen cabinets rather than our medicine cabinets.
Can Coconut Water Alleviate High Blood Pressure?
You’ve seen the images, perhaps in your mind’s eye. The stereotypes of people living the good life on tropical islands, carefree, with their stresses tossed to the gentle ocean breezes. High blood pressure seems to be the farthest thing from one’s mind there.
Is there something in the air? Perhaps the gorgeous weather or the gentle sounds of the waves washing up on the beach?
Or has it been in the coconuts this whole time?
Is There Scientific Evidence?
In a 2005 issue of The West Indian Medical Journal, researchers from the University of the West Indies published some eye-opening findings.
They set out to test whether consumption of two tropical drinks, coconut water and mauby (a tree-bark beverage produced on many Caribbean islands) would show reduction of blood pressure in hypertensive test subjects. To do so, they divided 28 subjects into four groups:
- One control group what was given bottled water
- One group that received coconut water
- One group that received mauby
- One group that received a combination of coconut water and mauby
They measured the subjects blood pressure for two weeks before being given the drinks and for two weeks while being given the drinks.
The results were outstanding. Following is the percentage of subjects who experienced “significant” decreases in mean systolic blood pressure:
- Mauby group: 40 percent
- Combination group: 43 percent
- Coconut water group: 71 percent!
Following is the percentage of subjects who experienced “significant” decreases in mean diastolic blood pressure:
- Mauby group: 40 percent
- Combination group: 57 percent
- Coconut water group: 29 percent
Conclusion
These results are extremely promising and very exciting. While they did not show (yet) that coconut water was able to completely eradicate high blood pressure, the study itself was short (only two weeks) and the number of participants was small (28).
So what does this mean? What it does show is that coconut water has great potential to help solve high blood pressure. And if you are able to get your hands on some mauby, perhaps that as well.
In any case, it appears that coconut water could be a part of a plan to help deal with high blood pressure. Now, can it solve it outright in the future if we figure out the proper dosage over the proper period of time?
My guess is not altogether, but who knows?
What we do know is that it has shown a clear potential to help. So, if you are not allergic, you might want to talk to your doctor about incorporating it into your treatment plan.
ALWAYS talk to your doctor first before making any changes to, or starting, any treatment programs. The information presented here is, as always, presented for informational purposes only. Any application of these ideas should be discussed with your licensed health care professional.
See below for more details and here’s to your health!
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