My Dad's Story & His Blood Pressure

Banana's can help lower blood pressure!!! It's true they can. My dad had extremely high blood pressure back in the day and it was enough that it put him in the hospital a couple of times. We even thought once that it was over for him. You talk about my Mom being scared. They put him on a few medicines and worked with others switching them out and nothing seemed to work. Either it made him feel funny, fuzzy, dizzy or it didn't lower the blood pressure. My mother being upset about the whole ordeal looked into every resource she could until she found a few things that might work. So she put forth the effort and the stern voice and made my dad listen enough to try to do the right thing.

Anyway, she looked up all there was about Blood Pressure that she could find. My Dad became her target to better health. Anything she could get her hands on she tried on him.

Finally, she came across a recipe for a banana shake that changed my Dad's life. He had to drink them everyday but it paid off. I am not saying that it replaces medicine but instead of the three he was on that was not working, he was able to reduce it down to just one and have it under control.

But like all men that do not listen he won't keep it up. So a few years later he had another bad episode and back up in the hospital again. So after quite a few dollars later and some people telling him things he already knew he started back up on a good diet again and did everything he was supposed to do. Didn't last long enough though. So here we go again. Please keep listening to the doctor. This by no means is to replace the doctor. This is only a helpful knowledgeable tool to know that can help you keeping up the good work in a natural way that tastes good.

Two bananas a day can help control high blood pressure, offering a cheap alternative to expensive drugs, according to scientists.

The finding supports earlier research that potassium-rich food such as bananas could play a role in controlling blood pressure.

A 1997 study suggested people would have to eat five bananas a day to have half the effect of a blood pressure-controlling pill.

Now researchers in India have reported that blood pressure fell by 10% in people who ate two bananas daily for a week.

Billion-dollar industry

The study involved human volunteers at the Kasturba medical college in Manipal in southern India.

It followed successful experiments in rats that showed that ripe and unripe bananas have compounds that can lower blood pressure.

Current drugs to lower hypertension, or high blood pressure, are called ACE-inhibitors. They are expensive and may produce side-effects such as dizziness.

They inhibit the action of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) which is responsible for forming a substance angiotensin-2 that constricts blood vessels and raises the pressure inside them.

The pharmaceutical trade in ACE-inhibitors is worth billions of dollars every year.

The Indian scientists report that natural compounds in bananas act in a manner similar to anti-hypertensive drugs in the Indian medical journal Current Science.

The Manipal team studied six popular banana varieties and found that all had ACE-inhibiting properties, though the ripened bananas had a stronger action than unripe ones.

(Thanks to BBC News)

Earlier studies

The 1997 study was carried out at Johns Hopkins University in the US.

Its findings focused on the role played by potassium, a mineral known as an electrolyte. Potassium works with sodium to help regulate fluid balance.

The study suggested that a daily intake of 2,300 mg of potassium - about five bananas - may lower blood pressure by about half as much as drugs can.

Last August, the American Heart Association advised that people with high blood pressure should eat a diet high in minerals and low in fat.

Researchers on its nutrition committee put a group of 459 people with mild hypertension on three different types of diet over an eight-week period.

The first diet was a control; the second was high in fruit and vegetable and the third was low in fat and high in fruit and vegetables. All three diets were low in salt.

The researchers found that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables alone can reduce diastolic pressure by 1.1mm of mercury.

Fruit and vegetables with a high level of naturally occurring electrolytes - which also include magnesium and calcium - include bananas, raisins, potatoes and dates.

(Thanks to BBC News)

A thick banana-flavored milk shake with a tropical touch, this will certainly appeal to children and adults alike. Ideal at breakfast time as it is filling, nourishing and quick, it can also be enjoyed as a delectable dessert.

Recipe provided by:
Readers Digest | Fresh Fruit & Desserts
ingredients

* ½ ripe mango
* 1 small ripe banana, sliced
* 150 ml (5 fl oz) semi-skimmed milk
* 120 ml (4 fl oz) orange juice
* 2 tsp lime juice
* 1 tsp caster sugar
* 2 heape1/2 tbsp vanilla frozen yogurt
* sprigs of fresh lemon balm to decorate (optional)

preparation method

1. Peel the skin from the mango and cut the flesh away from the stone. Chop the flesh roughly. Put into a blender with the banana.
2. Add the milk, orange juice, lime juice, sugar and frozen yogurt and blend on maximum speed for about 30 seconds or until mixed and frothy.
3. Pour into glasses and serve immediately, decorated with sprigs of lemon balm, if you like.

Copyright
Copyright by The Readers Digest Association, Inc. 2003

A typical pint of whole milk contains 3.5% saturated fat, much of which is removed to make semi-skimmed milk (1.7% butterfat) and skimmed (0.1%) and other low-fat dairy products. Though current supply and demand are balanced, the rising trend for low-fat milk could lead to a lot of wasted milk.

The Morning Banana Diet regime is simple: A banana (or as many as you want) and room temperature water for breakfast; eat anything you like for lunch and dinner (by 8 p.m.). A three o'clock snack is okay, but no desserts after meals, and you have to go to bed before midnight. Sumiko Watanabe, a pharmacist in Osaka designed this stress-free diet to help increase the metabolism of her husband Hitoshi Watanabe, who had been rather overweight. In due course, Mr. Watanabe lost 37 pounds and introduced the diet on mixi, one of Japan's largest social networking services. Morning Banana Diet books published since March have sold over 730,000 copies, and some have been translated and published in South Korea and Taiwan. The diet became even more popular after a TV program featured a singer who had lost 15 pounds in just six weeks. It was literally the day after that program aired that the shortage of bananas first became evident. "Bananas suddenly flew off the shelves, there was a 70%-80% increase in weekly sales compared to the same period last year," says Takeshi Ozaki, a spokesperson of Life Corporation that runs 201 supermarkets throughout Japan.

Constipation:
High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers:
One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn:
Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness:
Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites:
Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves:
Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work?
Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and chips. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers:
The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control:
Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD):
Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking:
Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress:
Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes:
According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine," eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Banana's are herbs! Although referred to as banana trees, they are not trees at all but a perennial herb. Its trunk is not a true one, but many leaves tightly wrapped around a single stem which emerges at the top as the fruit-bearing flower stalk.