Rhodiola extract—boosts energy and reduces stress to defeat high blood pressure

Rhodiola extract gently stimulates adrenal hormone production. It is a remedy for hypertension, sleep difficulties, poor appetite, irritability, headaches and fatigue from intense physical or intellectual strain. It also boosts immunity, improves concentration and stress resistance, and increases physical performance and uplifts mood.

Rhodiola is from a plant that is native to the mountainous regions of Europe, Asia and the Arctic, and has been used for centuries in Russia, Scandinavia and other eastern European countries. More than 180 pharmacological, phytochemical and clinical studies have been published since 1960, but it isn’t as well known in the West as it deserves because much of the research has been published in Slavic and Scandinavian languages. (And, of course, because no pharmaceutical company would have a financial incentive to promote it.)

However, The Rhodiola Revolution (Brown, Gerbarq, Graham, Rodale Books) published a few years ago, contains an excellent overview of how this herb can help transform your life by reducing stress and stimulating neurotransmitters that positively affect the central nervous system.

Today it is popular with Russian athletes and cosmonauts as a physical energy booster. It also has a reputation for decreasing depression, enhancing work performance, eliminating fatigue, preventing high altitude sickness and protecting the heart. Russian researchers have categorized it as an adaptogen (along with ginseng) because of its ability to increase resistance to a variety of chemical, biological and physical stressors.

How does rhodiola work?

Rhodiola provides a number of health benefits by:

• Stimulating the neurotransmitters norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, and nicotinic cholinergic effects in the central nervous system.⁶,⁷ These studies suggest rhodiola’s ability to boost energy and decrease mental fatigue, which contributes to stress, a major contributor to hypertension.
• Inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme (a chemical that causes arteries to constrict)
• Helping to protect the nervous system from oxidative damage by free radicals

A study at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that rhodiola extract inhibits angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) in rabbits. This enzyme causes blood vessels to narrow, which causes blood pressure to go up.⁸

In a double blind cross-over study, the effects of rhodiola were observed in a group of 56 young, healthy physicians who worked the night shift. The doctors were tested for mental fatigue and given tests that reflected various perceptive and cognitive functions, such as short-term memory and concentration. These parameters were tested before and after night duty during three periods of two weeks each when the doctors were given either one placebo tablet or rhodiola supplement a day, which was followed by a washout period.

The doctors who took the rhodiola supplement during the first two-week period showed a significant improvement in these tests. These results suggest that rhodiola can reduce general fatigue under certain stressful conditions.⁹

Grape skin extract can protect your veins and arteries

Grape skin extract has been attributed with the ability to help protect the circulatory system. Grape skin contains flavonoids (polyphenols, proanthocyanidins and resveratrol)—powerful phytochemicals with potent cardioprotective benefits.¹⁰

Heart disease is related to increased inflammation and grape skin extract is an excellent anti-inflammatory.¹⁰,¹² It also appears to help lower cholesterol levels¹¹ and protect against heart damage from ischemia (an inadequate supply of blood flow due to blockage of an artery).

How does grape skin extract work?

Grape skin extract provides a number of health benefits by:

• Reducing susceptibility to vascular damage¹²
• Decreasing activity of angiotensin, a hormone that causes blood vessel constriction that leads to an elevation in blood pressure¹⁰
• Increasing production of the vasodilator hormone nitric oxide¹⁰,¹²
• Inhibiting platelet function¹⁷ and inflammatory responses¹²
• Most researchers agree that grape skin extract helps reduce blood pressure because of a combination of its vasodilator effects.¹³

Scientific studies

Although there are no clinical, human studies showing the effect that grape skin extract has on reducing blood pressure in humans, in laboratory animals it reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure, probably via its vasodilator effects.¹³

Another animal study expanded on this by giving fructose-fed animals grape seed extract, which prevented hypertension and free radical damage. Ordinarily, without the addition of grape seed extract to their diet, the animals most likely would have experienced several symptoms that accompany insulin resistance, including hypertension.¹⁴

Rosemary extract—protects your brain and blood flow with antiplatelet activity

Rosemary has been used for thousands of years as a savory spice, food preservative, and in cosmetics and hair products. It has also been used commercially as an antimicrobial food preservative for the past several decades. There is not much direct scientific evidence to show that rosemary lowers blood pressure but a lot showing other, often related, health effects.

We know for certain that it has a lot to offer as a nutritional supplement, especially in the prevention of some types of cancer, allergies and the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Plus rosemary extract is used widely as a folk remedy in Morocco for hypertension and diabetes.¹⁵

Therefore we recommend it in a comprehensive natural approach to high blood pressure.

How does rosemary extract work?

Rosemary extract offers a number of health benefits by:

• Preventing blood platelets from sticking together
• Inhibiting the oxidation of LDL (bad cholesterol)
• Inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme
• Providing powerful antioxidant protection
• Protecting brain cells from the normal effects of aging
• Possibly slowing down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease
• Inhibiting growth of cancer cells
• Helping reduce allergy symptoms, especially to dust mites
• Increasing potency of vitamin E

Scientific studies

A recent study at the College of Pharmacy, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea, investigated the antiplatelet activity of rosemary extract on laboratory animals and found that it has the potential for being developed as a remedy for preventing blood platelets from sticking together.¹⁶

It has also been shown to inhibit the oxidation of LDL (bad cholesterol).¹⁷

Another study at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that rosemary extract has the highest rate of inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) when compared to lemon balm and oregano.¹⁸

Salvia miltiorrhiza—thins the blood and improves cardiovascular health

Salvia miltiorrhiza, also called danshen, has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for hundreds of years to treat a variety of ailments. It is especially revered for its ability to improve blood circulation and protect against cardiovascular disease.

Salvia miltiorrhiza is a perennial that produces small, grayish leaves in the spring, blue, red, or purple flowers in summer and brownish nut-like fruits in the fall. Because salvia belongs to the sage family of plants, its aromatic leaves are often dried and used to season meats and sauces. Its leaves and twigs are also used to make tea. Salvia miltiorrhiza, however, should not be confused with the common herb sage.

Salvia grows abundantly in the wild throughout Asia, and on farms in China and Japan. Its distinctive, bright red roots are dug up in the fall or early winter, and then dried in the sun for medicinal use.

It has the ability to thin the blood, reduce blood clotting, improve circulation, and reduce blood pressure in animals, but this has not been demonstrated in high-quality human trials. Although our preference is to recommend nutraceuticals that have been demonstrated to be effective in human trials, we still believe that salvia miltiorrhiza is a valuable addition to the other nutraceuticals in this article for managing healthy blood pressure. And you’ll see why in just a moment.

How does salvia work?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, salvia has been used to treat hypertension, and prevent and treat heart conditions and strokes. Results from animal and human studies support these uses and have found that salvia:

• Improves blood circulation by limiting the stickiness of platelets and decreasing the production of fibrin—threads of protein that trap blood cells to form clots—and thromboxane ¹⁹,²⁰
• Relaxes blood vessels by increasing production of nitric oxide²¹
• Protects the inner linings of arteries from damage from atherosclerosis²²
• Reduces blood pressure by inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)²³

Scientific studies

Although there are no high-quality human studies on salvia miltiorrhiza, researchers at the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, New Jersey Medical School in Newark, recently found that it induces vasodilation and reduces blood pressure by stimulating production of nitric oxide, an important chemical that helps arteries dilate so that blood flow is unrestricted. Hypertension is typically associated with reduced nitric oxide levels, and in this study hypertensive laboratory animals that were treated with salvia experienced an increase in nitric oxide.²⁴

In other animal studies salvia has appeared to interfere with the development of liver fibrosis—the formation of scar-like fibers that occur from chronic hepatitis, alcoholism or over-exposure to toxins and drugs. In the case of liver fibrosis, because the non-functioning fibers crowd out active liver tissue, liver function decreases gradually as the amount of fibrous tissue increases.²⁵

If your goal is to achieve and maintain healthy blood pressure, it’s a good idea to include salvia miltiorrhiza as a dietary supplement because sometimes when a person has high blood pressure it affects the portal vein, which supplies the liver with blood from the intestine. Portal hypertension can lead to the growth of auxiliary vessels that connect to the general circulation, bypassing the liver. When this occurs, substances that are normally removed by the liver pass into the general circulation. A build up of these toxic substances can result in a host of symptoms including impaired judgment, personality and behavior changes, mood changes, confusion, loss of consciousness, and coma. And you certainly don’t want that to happen.

Caution: Possible drug interaction when taken with Warfarin.²⁶ Individuals who have hemophilia or other blood clotting disorders should avoid taking salvia.²⁷

Taurine—relaxes the heart and prevents arrhythmias

Taurine is a non-essential sulfur-containing amino acid that is found in high levels in the heart and skeletal muscles, as well as in the central nervous system. Taurine is a main ingredient in bile and assists in the digestion of fats and the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

Recently, scientists have discovered that taurine helps reduce and prevent symptoms associated with epilepsy, hypertension, congestive heart failure and diabetes. Subjectively, taurine is known to have a calming effect.

How does taurine work?

Taurine provides a number of health benefits by:

• Facilitating the passage of sodium, potassium and possibly calcium and magnesium ions into and out of cells
• Facilitating the relaxation of the heart muscle during diastole
• Assisting with proper calcium balance and metabolism in the heart muscle
• Reducing hypertension, platelet stickiness, improving cardiac contractility, and helping to prevent arrhythmias.

Scientific studies

The beneficial effects of taurine have been demonstrated in studies involving human subjects with hypertension. Taurine supplementation of 6 grams/day for as little as 7 days resulted in significant decreases in blood pressure in these patients. This was verified in two other studies, one of them with only 3 grams of taurine. It is interesting to note that taurine does not cause a reduction in blood pressure in humans with normal blood pressure.²⁸

A double blind, placebo-controlled study done in 1987 showed that taurine reduced blood pressure in 19 young patients with borderline hypertension.

Systolic blood pressure (the top number) decreased by 9 points in the 10 patients treated with taurine, compared with a 2.7 decrease in the 9 patients given a placebo.

Diastolic pressure (the bottom number) decreased by 4 points in the taurine-treated patients compared with 1.2 points in the placebo-treated patients.²⁹

Additionally, there have been dozens of studies showing the positive effect that taurine has on laboratory animals with salt- and fructose-induced hypertension.³⁰,³¹

Conclusion

You don’t have to be like Susan, Mark or Steven. They are well on their way to becoming hypertension statistics. Because it isn’t accompanied by symptoms, it’s a health concern that’s easy to ignore. But it’s also easy to control; naturally and without high priced, side-effect laden pharmaceuticals.

Take the time now to check your blood pressure. If it is elevated, take the steps outlined in this article to get healthy BEFORE your doctor insists on treating your hypertension with drugs.

Because hypertension has no outward symptoms, by the time you realize that you have it you might also have other dangerous health problems, including cardiovascular disease.

So play it smart. You don’t have to become a statistic. Stack the odds in your favor by changing your lifestyle as much as you are able to, and by taking safe and effective nutritional supplements to control your blood pressure so you can live a long, healthy life. 

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References

Articles of Interest from Smart Publications Health & Wellness Update

• Cinnamon Extract Supports Healthy Blood Sugar Levels and Blood Pressure!
• Salvia Miltiorrhiza Helps Reduce Blood Pressure
• Give Your Heart The Healthy Herbs and Nutrient Fuel It Needs!