Scientists from the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences found that cinnamon may help lower blood pressure in people with stage 1 high blood pressure.
High blood pressure is a common condition in which the long-term force of the blood against your artery walls is high enough that it may eventually cause health problems, such as heart disease.
Your blood pressure is made up of two numbers: systolic and diastolic. Systolic pressure is the pressure when the ventricles pump blood out of the heart.
Diastolic pressure is the pressure between heartbeats when the heart is filling with blood.
Normal blood pressure for most adults is defined as a systolic pressure of less than 120 and a diastolic pressure of less than 80.
Stage 1 high blood pressure is a systolic pressure ranging from 130 to 139 mm Hg or a diastolic pressure ranging from 80 to 89 mm Hg.
Cinnamon is a spice that comes from the branches of trees of the Cinnamomum family.
Previous studies have found evidence of some possible health benefits of cinnamon, including Improving fungal infections, lowering blood sugar levels, preventing Alzheimer’s disease, protecting against HIV, and so on.
But how cinnamon affects blood pressure remains unclear.
In the current study, researchers aimed to test cinnamon’s effect on blood pressure and metabolic health in people with stage 1 high blood pressure.
Patients were assigned to two groups: the cinnamon group (capsule, 1500 mg/day, 90 days) and the placebo group.
On days 0 and 90, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and fasting blood sugar were recorded for each group.
The researchers found the two groups did not differ strongly regarding vascular risk factors, educational status, blood cholesterol, and blood pressure before the study.
On day 90, there was no big difference between the two groups for blood cholesterol and blood pressure.
The team found a big decrease in 24-hr systolic blood pressure and mean day systolic blood pressure in the cinnamon group, while mean night systolic blood pressure and mean night diastolic blood pressure decreased in the placebo group after 90 days.
They also found a strong decrease in the change of day value of systolic blood pressure in the cinnamon group, compared to the placebo.
On day 90, fasting blood sugar remained unchanged but a strong increase in good cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol) and a big decrease in bad cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol) levels were found in the cinnamon group compared to placebo group.
Based on the findings, the team concluded that cinnamon caused a strong decrease in ambulatory systolic blood pressure, and blood cholesterol was strongly improved.
Therefore, cinnamon might be considered as a complementary treatment in people with stage 1 high blood pressure.
The research is published in the Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine and was conducted by Fatemeh Shirzad et al.
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