How Green Tea Can Help You Lower High Blood Pressure
If you're looking for a natural way to lower your blood pressure then this article will explain the benefits of simply drinking tea.
There are three types of tea: green, oolong and black. All of these come from the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant. The tea leaves are steamed, which prevents the epigallocatechin gallate compound (I don't want to type that again so I'll call it EGCG) from being oxidized, while black and oolong tea leaves are made from dried or fermented leaves, which causes a loss of EGCG.
Green tea has a lot more of what is called polyphenols, especially EGCG, than black tea or oolong tea. What are polyphenols? They are powerful antioxidants, which remove free radicals from the body. Free radicals in the body's cells are bad news. They are very unstable and tend to react negatively with important molecules like DNA, causing damage to the cells. They produce destruction that may lead to problems like heart disease and cancer. The antioxidants in tea are also known to help blood vessels relax, so that blood can flow through them more easily. As a result, it can help lower blood pressure and reduce the stress on the heart.
Be careful when you buy your tea. If you buy it in a supermarket - even in a very large one - the chances are that you'll only find the lowest quality. Instead, you should try to buy your tea from Chinese markets or food stores, or order it over the internet, as then you'll be able to choose from the full range of green teas.
So what different green teas are there? Well, the most common in Western countries is low-grade Gunpowder - that's the stuff you'll usually find in the supermarket. It is used because it is cheap, and stays fresher for longer than other green teas.
The most popular green tea in China is Dragon Well, or Lung Ching. It's bright green and quite expensive. Many consider it to be the best.
In Japan, tea drinkers prefer Sencha, which is a sweeter. It's cheaper than Dragon Well, more the kind of tea you could drink every day. Sencha is also more easily available in the West than Chinese green teas tend to be, and there is a slightly cheaper version called Bancha.
The sweetest kind of green tea is Macha, the tea used in the Japanese tea ceremonies. It's very expensive and very pleasant.
Another of the green tea benefits worth considering is that it's been linked to aiding weight loss, which is an important factor when trying to lower high blood pressure.
So how much green tea should you drink a day? Try to drink three to five cups per day (more if your bladder can stand it!). Don't add sugar, if you want some sweetness try a little honey. You shouldn't really add milk, but if you must, try a little skimmed or semi-skimmed.
Oh, and by the way, if you smoke cigarettes, a study by the University of Kansas decided that EGCG may explain why the rate of heart disease among Japanese men is quite low, even though approximately seventy-five percent are smokers.
There are three types of tea: green, oolong and black. All of these come from the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant. The tea leaves are steamed, which prevents the epigallocatechin gallate compound (I don't want to type that again so I'll call it EGCG) from being oxidized, while black and oolong tea leaves are made from dried or fermented leaves, which causes a loss of EGCG.
Green tea has a lot more of what is called polyphenols, especially EGCG, than black tea or oolong tea. What are polyphenols? They are powerful antioxidants, which remove free radicals from the body. Free radicals in the body's cells are bad news. They are very unstable and tend to react negatively with important molecules like DNA, causing damage to the cells. They produce destruction that may lead to problems like heart disease and cancer. The antioxidants in tea are also known to help blood vessels relax, so that blood can flow through them more easily. As a result, it can help lower blood pressure and reduce the stress on the heart.
Be careful when you buy your tea. If you buy it in a supermarket - even in a very large one - the chances are that you'll only find the lowest quality. Instead, you should try to buy your tea from Chinese markets or food stores, or order it over the internet, as then you'll be able to choose from the full range of green teas.
So what different green teas are there? Well, the most common in Western countries is low-grade Gunpowder - that's the stuff you'll usually find in the supermarket. It is used because it is cheap, and stays fresher for longer than other green teas.
In Japan, tea drinkers prefer Sencha, which is a sweeter. It's cheaper than Dragon Well, more the kind of tea you could drink every day. Sencha is also more easily available in the West than Chinese green teas tend to be, and there is a slightly cheaper version called Bancha.
The sweetest kind of green tea is Macha, the tea used in the Japanese tea ceremonies. It's very expensive and very pleasant.
Another of the green tea benefits worth considering is that it's been linked to aiding weight loss, which is an important factor when trying to lower high blood pressure.
So how much green tea should you drink a day? Try to drink three to five cups per day (more if your bladder can stand it!). Don't add sugar, if you want some sweetness try a little honey. You shouldn't really add milk, but if you must, try a little skimmed or semi-skimmed.
Oh, and by the way, if you smoke cigarettes, a study by the University of Kansas decided that EGCG may explain why the rate of heart disease among Japanese men is quite low, even though approximately seventy-five percent are smokers.
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