High blood pressure? Eating grapes may help

After 18 weeks, rats in study had better heart function, researchers

say
 
CHICAGO - Grapes helped lower blood pressure and improve heart

function in lab rats fed an otherwise salty diet, U.S. researchers

said on Wednesday.

The findings, published in the Journal of Gerontology: Biological

Sciences, may help people with high blood pressure, they said.

"These findings support our theory that something within the grapes

themselves has a direct impact on cardiovascular risk, beyond the

simple blood pressure-lowering impact that we already know can come

from a diet rich in fruits and vegetables," Mitchell Seymour of the

Cardioprotection Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan

said in a statement.

In a study sponsored in part by California grape producers, Seymour

and colleagues examined the effects of ordinary grapes on rats that

develop high blood pressure when fed a salty diet.

Some of the rats ate a diet containing a powder from red, green and

purple table grapes and a high-salt diet. Others were fed the grape

powder and a low-salt diet. The powder, which contained the same

nutrients in fresh grapes, allowed the scientists to measure the

rats' intake carefully.

After 18 weeks, the rats that ate the grape-enriched diet had lower

blood pressure, better heart function, reduced inflammation

throughout their bodies, and fewer signs of heart muscle damage than

rats that ate a salty diet but no grapes.

"The inevitable downhill sequence to hypertension and heart failure

was changed by the addition of grape powder to a high-salt diet,"

Dr. Steven Bolling of the University of Michigan, who heads up the

lab, said in a statement.

Bolling said he thinks flavonoids, beneficial chemicals found in

grapes, green tea, cocoa and tomatoes, could be having an effect on

blood pressure. Flavonoids have been shown in other studies to have

heart-health benefits.

Food producers are keen to show the health benefits of their

products. Studies sponsored by chocolate makers, almond and walnut

producers have shown various heart benefits, including reducing

inflammation in blood vessels and lowering the risk of heart attacks

and stroke.