{"id":41787,"date":"2014-02-24T16:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T21:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/?post_type=news&p=41787"},"modified":"2014-02-24T16:05:09","modified_gmt":"2014-02-24T21:05:09","slug":"meta-analysis-links-vegetarian-diet-and-lower-blood-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/2014\/02\/24\/meta-analysis-links-vegetarian-diet-and-lower-blood-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta-Analysis Links Vegetarian Diet and Lower Blood Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new meta-analysis provides the strongest evidence yet that a vegetarian diet is strongly associated with lower blood pressure. Although various health benefits of a vegetarian diet have often been proposed, a rigorous examination of the effect on blood pressure has not been previously performed.<\/p>\n

In a paper published in\u00a0JAMA Internal Medicine<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0Japanese researchers analyzed data from seven clinical trials, including 311 participants, and 32 observational studies, including 21,604 participants. In the clinical trials the vegetarian diet was associated with a 4.8 mm Hg drop in the systolic blood pressure and a 2.2 mm Hg drop in the diastolic blood pressure. In the observational studies, the reductions were 6.9 mm Hg and 4.7 mm Hg.<\/p>\n

The authors noted that the magnitude of the blood pressure-lowering effect was about half the size of typical antihypertensive drugs and roughly equivalent to commonly recommended lifestyle modifications such as a low-salt diet or weight reduction. Based on previous research the blood pressure reductions would be expected to lead to a 7% reduction in overall mortality, a 9% reduction in coronary heart disease, and a 14% reduction in stroke.<\/p>\n

The authors speculated about possible explanations for the relationship between the vegetarian diet and blood pressure:<\/p>\n