Hypertension or high blood pressure is affecting around 1.5 billion people across the globe. The crucial therapies for hypertension include medications, lifestyle modifications, and treatment for underlying illnesses. Even with an advanced therapy session, it has become common to achieve positive results in a reduction of blood pressure levels. Many patients suffering from the same opt for alternative means such as use non-prescribed drugs, herbal products, fruits, vegetables, minerals, and vitamins to compensate for the decrease in the blood pressure.
Is Lemon Juice Good For High Blood Pressure?
Several studies indicated the use of lemon juice for reducing or regulating high blood pressure. All the studies included using the juice acutely or as a complementary therapy for improving the chronic condition. The research conducted assessed the effect of the lemon juice on high blood pressure in two different scenarios – the impact of 50 ml of lemon juice in acute condition given once per day, and the effect of 50 ml of lemon juice in chronic condition given once every 14 days. The study consisted of 98 patients out of which 80 were suffering from the acute state while the remaining 18 were suffering from the chronic condition.
All the patients included in the test are above 18 years of age and did not suffer from acute illness, pregnancy, diabetes, kidney problems and heart failure.
Acute Effect
The study began with 80 patients that consisted of 28 male and 52 female with mean age of 54 years. It consisted of four groups. The average duration of high blood pressure was 75 months. The mean value of consumption of antihypertensive pills stood at 1.3. The blood pressure measurement began in the morning after the 15-minute rest period and divided the patients into elevated systolic BP and normal systolic BP.
The patients received 50 ml of lemon juice and regular water respectively. It helped in creating four groups – elevated lemon juice, elevated water, normal lemon juice, and normal water. After consumption, the patients lied down for an hour.
Chronic Effect
18 patients enrolled for the same, which consisted 12 male and six female with an average age of 55 years. They completed the 4-week study. The average of the blood pressure duration is 93 months. Mean consumption value of medicines was 1.1. The first step was recording Basal BP. The patients received 50 ml lemon juice daily for two weeks. The study documented the lemon juice BP. The third recording was two weeks after the consumption of the lemon juice. After Basal BP, researchers divided the group into two – 10 patients received lemon juice while others received nothing. After two weeks, the researchers switched the groups. They recorded the second and third blood pressure value after two weeks. The patients received 50 ml of lemon juice regularly.
The Results
Acute Effect
There was a considerable decrease in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the elevated lemon group and elevated water group. It means that there was no significant impact on using lemon juice. Both water and lemon juice displayed no effect on diastolic or systolic blood pressure in the normal group either.
Chronic Effect
The measurement of the blood pressure after two weeks after consumption of lemon juice was no different from that of the basal reading or free period.
The study did not show any positive signs about the use of lemon juice on high blood pressure. In addition, consumption of lemon juice poses a threat to the users – noncompliance with treatment and drug interference. Therefore, in a few circumstances, consuming lemon juice is harmful to patients suffering from elevated blood pressure.
Conclusion
As you can notice from the information described above, lemon juice and water did not show any significant impact on elevated blood pressure. In fact, the patients undergoing treatment or using other medicines tend to develop risks because of drug interference and noncompliance to undergoing treatment.
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