Olive Leaf Extract benefits blood pressure
September
03,
2008
Olive Leaf Extract may help reduce blood pressure levels, according to an interesting human study from Israel. Twenty pairs of identical twins with elevated blood pressure were split and one from each pair was given either 500mg or 1000mg of Olive Leaf Extract daily and the other given inactive placebo. Within an eight week period the twin from each pair that received the 1000mg Olive Leaf Extract experienced reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 11 and 5 mmHg, respectively. Cholesterol levels were also reduced by the Olive Leaf Extract. By using identical twin pairs the researchers sought to eliminate some of the uncertainties caused by genetic variations between individual people.
The researchers indicated that a compound called Oleuropein may be responsible for some of the benefits observed, noting that it, and other polyphenolic compounds in olive plants, can act as antioxidants and scavenge free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS). “These antioxidative properties may not only contribute to the antihypertensive action, but were also suggested to be responsible for the hypercholesterolemic effect, referring to decreases of LDL and VLDL cholesterol,” they stated. The study is published in the journal Phytotherapy Research, Volume 22, Pages 1239-1242.