Phytochemical Alliin Protects the Heart and Blood Vessels Against Hypertension

By Kyle J. Norton

Hypertension, found in the cluster of metabolic syndrome is a medical condition associated with abnormally high blood pressure.

Blood pressure change constantly depending on the activity. Persistent hypertension over time can lead to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

It also is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps out blood.

According to the statistics provided by the American Heart Association., approximately103 million U.S. adults are living with high blood pressure, accounting to nearly half of all adults in the United States.

Conventionally, blood pressure medications have been found to prevent many deaths from heart disease and stroke over the past 30 years, however, long-term intake of such medications have caused many side effects such as damaging the kidney.

Epidemiologically, family history, aging, being male, being overweight or obese, ethnicity, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and people with chronic kidney disease are some common risk factors involved in the increased risk of hypertension.

Believe or not, excessive alcohol drinking is also one of the major causes besides obesity in elevating the syndrome onset.

Dr. Kazim Husain wrote, "Several possible mechanisms have been proposed such as an imbalance of the central nervous system, impairment of the baroreceptors, enhanced sympathetic activity, stimulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, increased cortisol levels, increased vascular reactivity due to increase in intracellular calcium levels, stimulation of the endothelium to release vasoconstrictors and loss of relaxation due to inflammation and oxidative injury of the endothelium leading to inhibition of endothelium-dependent nitric oxide production".

And, "Loss of relaxation due to inflammation and oxidative injury of the endothelium by angiotensin II leading to inhibition of endothelium-dependent nitric oxide production is the major contributors of alcohol-induced hypertension".

In fact, by making changes to lifestyle, maintaining ideal weight and diet with low salt, you could do just fine without the drugs.

Alliin (S-allyl-L-cysteine-S-oxide) is a phytochemical compound sulfoxide, a derivative of the amino acid cysteine, belongings to the class of sulfur compounds, found abundantly in fresh garlic and onion.

With an aim to find a potential compound for the treatment of hypertension, researchers examined the effect of Lichtwer garlic powder (containing 1.3% alliin equivalent to 0.6% allicin) in rats fed with a high cholesterol diet.

The study carried out with rats fed a 2% high cholesterol diet with and without garlic powder and control rats were fed a normal diet for 6 weeks daily.

Rats treated with high cholesterol diet had a significantly higher blood pressure compared to the animals receiving the control diet.

Compared to the high cholesterol and control diet group, the blood pressure of the animals receiving garlic powder was significantly lower without changing the levels of serum glucose and protein in all of the rats. 

The results strongly showed support for the use of Lichtwer garlic powder (containing 1.3% alliin equivalent to 0.6 % allicin) for the treatment of systolic blood pressure in hypercholesterolemic in an animal model.

Dr. Ali M the lead scientist said, "Our experimental results show that garlic may beneficially affect .....hypertension".

Taken altogether, alliin may be considered supplements for the prevention and treatment of hypertension, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of Alliin in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Effect of allicin from garlic powder on serum lipids and blood pressure in rats fed with a high cholesterol diet by Ali M1, Al-Qattan KK, Al-Enezi F, Khanafer RM, Mustafa T. (PubMed)
(2) Alcohol-induced hypertension: Mechanism and prevention by Kazim Husain, Rais A Ansari, and Leon Ferder. (PMC)