Cruciferous Vegetables are Especially Effective at Lowering Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease. Eating more vegetables is recommended to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. A new study suggests that eating more cruciferous vegetables may be especially effective.

Cruciferous foods are a family of vegetables that includes cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, arugula, bok choy, collards, radish, turnip, watercress and others.

This controlled study compared a soup made of cruciferous vegetables to a soup made of root and squash vegetables. The cruciferous soup contained 40% broccoli, 25% cauliflower, 25% cabbage, and 10% kale, and the control soup contained 40% potato, 30% pumpkin, 20% carrot, and 10% sweet potato. None of the 18 participants–all of whom had mildly elevated blood pressure–knew which soup they were eating.

At the end of the two week study, blood pressure was reduced by a significantly greater 2.5 mmHg in the cruciferous group. That reduction could translate into a 5% reduced risk of major cardiovascular events.

That result may be especially impressive because the control group was far from a placebo. The vegetables in the control soup might also lower blood pressure. Though the cruciferous soup lowered triglycerides better than the control soup, both significantly improved total, LDL and HDL cholesterol as well as glucose levels, and both significantly lowered weight, body mass index and body fat mass.

This study suggests that eating cruciferous vegetables may be especially effective for lowering blood pressure in people with elevated blood pressure.

BMC Med 2024;22,353

 

Can Licorice Help Critically Ill COVID Patients?

This new double-blind study explored whether the herb licorice could shorten stays in the ICU for critically ill COVID patients.

Better known as a candy, licorice is actually a powerful and versatile herb. It is anti-inflammatory and antiviral, which makes it an interesting candidate for COVID.

This new double-blind study compared lemon balm extract to placebo in 100 people with moderate depression, anxiety, stress or insomnia.

Licorice modulates the release of inflammatory cytokines and prevents the virus that causes COVID from entering your cells (Phytomed Plus. 2021 Aug;1(3):100043). Previous studies have shown that licorice can improve cure rates in COVID (Chin J Virol. 2020;1:160–4).

This new double-blind study is intriguing because it included people in intensive care units who were critically ill with COVID. All of them received standard care, while half were also given a placebo, and half were also given 380mg of licorice root extract standardized to 3% glycyrrhizin twice a day for 5 days.

There was no improvement in secondary outcomes, including oxygen saturation, duration of ventilation or mortality rate. But what the researchers really wanted to find out, the primary outcome, was whether licorice could reduce the length of stay in the ICU.

And it did. The people given licorice had significantly shorter stays in the ICU. While the standard treatment plus placebo group averaged 25 days in ICU, the standard care plus licorice group averaged only 13.1 days. They also had shorter hospital stays (23.7 days versus 35.1), though that trend did not quite reach statistical significance.

J Res Pharm Pract. 2023 Oct-Dec;12(4):141–147

 

Can Simply Taking B6 Help Depression from Oral Contraception?

A 12 week, double-blind study has shown that vitamin B6 can reduce depression in college women taking oral contraceptives. While depression worsened by 11% on the Beck Depression Inventory in the placebo group, it improved by 20% on B6 (J Diet Suppl. 2023;20(4):550-562.