High blood pressure is a common disease that, according to American Health Association affects over 74 million Americans age 20 or older. Keeping your blood pressure within normal values prevents some serious complications such as stroke, angina or heart attacks. Green tea is a supplement with variety of health benefits. While studies mostly focused on improving heart conditions, diabetes, and possibly cancer, insufficient research indicates that green tea may benefit individuals suffering from high blood pressure.
Health Benefits
Green tea, also known as Camellia sinensis, has anti-oxidant properties and helps improve your overall health, including heart function and lower cholesterol levels. Green tea also supports healthy glucose control, helps improve osteoporosis, has anti-aging qualities and possibly anti-cancer properties.
According to Drugs.com several clinical studies evaluated the benefits of green tea for high blood pressure, and the studies yielded mixed results. Some research trials found that green tea extracts may lowered blood pressure, while other studies showed no effect.
A positive study, published by I Kurita in the February 2010 issue of "Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry" concluded that Benifuuki tea, a type of Japanese green tea had a significant impact in lowering blood pressure. The authors believe that green tea extract helped to derease blood pressure because of its high content of epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl)gallate, a key active ingredient in green tea.
Safety
Green tea has an excellent safety profile. Excepting allergic reactions, that may occur in susceptible individuals and can be serious, mild symptoms such as heartburn and diarrhea have been reported. Due to its high content of caffeine, green tea should not be consumed in the evening; otherwise it may cause irritability, headaches and sleep problems.
Drug & Nutrient Interactions
According to Drugs.com, green tea may interact with blood thinners such as warfarin, and with the absorption of some nutrients like folic acid and iron. There are no known interactions between green tea and conventional drugs used to lower blood pressure or for treating other cardiovascular conditions.
Considerations
Consult a physician to find out if you can benefit from green tea pills. Keep in mind that green tea supplements have not been evaluated by FDA and different brands of supplements may have different efficacy.
While drinking green tea and using supplements based on this herb can improve your overall health, the effectiveness of this supplement for high blood pressure is still controversial and does not replace in anyway conventional therapy for hypertension.
