Add This Fruit Juice To A Glass Of Water To Naturally Lower Blood Pressure
The typical American diet is crazy high in sodium, with people exceeding the recommended sodium limits by more than 1,000 milligrams a day, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. You probably can feel the effects of a high-sodium meal. Your body begins to retain water, and the excess water in your bloodstream puts more pressure on your arteries. Over time, a high-sodium diet can cause high blood pressure.
Drinking more water helps your kidneys flush out the excess sodium in your body. While drinking more water might not reduce your blood pressure, a 2023 study in Frontiers in Public Health found that people who drank at least six cups of plain water a day had a lower risk of developing high blood pressure.
Plain water can taste rather boring, but some types of flavor enhancers give you added sugar or artificial sweeteners. Lime juice is a natural flavor enhancer that has nutrients to lower your blood pressure naturally.
How lime juice might help lower blood pressure
The juice from a single lime will add 11 calories to your water and 15% of your vitamin C needs. Lime juice also has 51 milligrams of potassium and 3.5 milligrams of magnesium. While that's not a lot, those electrolytes can help keep your fluid levels balanced from a high-sodium diet. Adding more potassium to your diet can help your body get rid of excess sodium and help your blood vessels relax. Magnesium alone might not lower your blood pressure, but it works well with potassium to reduce hypertension.
If you have high blood pressure, you might know a little something about the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) that's responsible for narrowing your blood vessels. People with high blood pressure may take medications that are ACE inhibitors. A 2015 article in Comparative Clinical Pathology found that lime juice can reduce ACE activity while also showing antioxidant properties.
Other health benefits of lime and other citrus fruits
Squeezing a lime into a few glasses of water a day will not only help your hydration but also improve your health in other ways. Citrus fruits are high in polymethoxylated flavones, which are a class of flavonoids that have many benefits for your body, according to a 2022 article in Antioxidants. Adding more citrus fruits such as lime to your diet may reduce your risk of oral and throat cancer by 50%, and supplements extracted from bitter orange and olive leaves can lower your bad cholesterol. Orange juice has a flavonoid called hesperidin that was found to reduce blood pressure in people with mild hypertension.
Drinking citrus juice every day might also help prevent diabetes by reducing fasting blood sugar and insulin. A healthy gut plays a role in a healthy body, and orange juice made from different types of oranges can have a beneficial effect on the diversity of bacteria in your gut. Triathletes know the importance of vitamin C as an antioxidant; and, according to the same article in Antioxidants, a blend of citrus juice and aronia berries helped to reduce inflammation and improve cardiovascular health.