Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hypertens. May 23, 2015; 5(2): 53-62
Published online May 23, 2015. doi: 10.5494/wjh.v5.i2.53
Antihypertensive effects of foods
Kehima Hieda, Yoichi Sunagawa, Yasufumi Katanasaka, Koji Hasegawa, Tatsuya Morimoto
Kehima Hieda, Yoichi Sunagawa, Yasufumi Katanasaka, Tatsuya Morimoto, Division of Molecular Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan
Yoichi Sunagawa, Yasufumi Katanasaka, Tatsuya Morimoto, Shizuoka General Hospital, Shizuoka 420-8527, Japan
Yoichi Sunagawa, Yasufumi Katanasaka, Koji Hasegawa, Division of Translational Research, Clinical Research Institute, Kyoto Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Kyoto 612-8555, Japan
Author contributions: Hieda K and Sunagawa Y contributed equally to this work; all authors contributed to this work.
Conflict-of-interest: There is no conflict of interest in this study.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Tatsuya Morimoto, MD, PhD, Division of Molecular Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka, 52-1 Yada, Suruga-ku, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan. morimoto@u-shizuoka-ken.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-54-2645763 Fax: +81-54-2645764
Received: December 17, 2014
Peer-review started: December 18, 2014
First decision: January 20, 2015
Revised: February 4, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 2, 2015
Published online: May 23, 2015
Abstract

Hypertension is one of the major risk factors for arteriosclerosis, which leads to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Several clinical trials revealed that control of the blood pressure is useful to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with these diseases. However, the protective efficacy against these complications still remains at less than 50% even if the high blood pressure is treated by current medical drugs. Healthy diets are expected to not only prevent but also treat lifestyle-related diseases. Improvement of the dietary life, including low-salt diets, appropriate alcohol consumption, and calorie restriction, is important for the prevention of hypertension. In addition, green tea, which has been drunk on a daily basis in Japan and China since ancient times, possesses an antihypertensive effect, and it was revealed that its components with this effect are catechins. Many studies have been performed on the antihypertensive effects of foods. Therefore, functional foods and their ingredients, reported to possess antihypertensive effects in animal experiments and human clinical trials, are summarized in this review. Blood pressure might be controlled by improvement of the daily eating habits based on evidence regarding these functional foods, and a healthy longevity can be expected.

Keywords: Foods, Hypertension, Antihypertensive effect, Cardiovascular disease, Renin

Core tip: Management of the blood pressure leads to decreases in morbidity and mortality associated with arteriosclerosis-related diseases. It is well known that the improvement of eating habits, including a low-salt diet, appropriate alcohol drinking, and calorie restriction, has marked effects for the prevention of hypertension. In this review, we have summarized functional foods and their components whose antihypertensive effects have already been reported in animal experiments and human clinical trials. The evidence indicates that hypertension could be effectively controlled by daily functional food intake and healthy longevity could be achieved.