A new study found that regular consumption of probiotics, or the "good" bacteria found in yogurt, milk and cheese, may help control blood pressure.
Probiotics are well known to benefit gut health, the immune system, and possibly even brain health.
"We believe probiotics might help lower blood pressure other than improving total cholesterol, reducing blood glucose and insulin resistance and regulating the hormone system," explained Jing Sun, senior lecturer from Griffith Health Institute and School of Medicine at Griffith University in Australia.
During the study, researchers analysed results of nine high-quality studies examining blood pressure and probiotic consumption in 543 adults with normal and elevated blood pressure.
Jing Sun, Ph.D., said that the small collection of studies they looked at suggested that regular consumption of probiotics could be part of a healthy lifestyle to help reduce high blood pressure, as well as maintain healthy blood pressure levels.
She further explained that probiotics might help lower blood pressure by having other positive effects on health, like improving total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol; reducing blood glucose and insulin resistance; and by helping to regulate the hormone system that regulates blood pressure and fluid balance.
The American Heart Association considers normal blood pressure to be a systolic reading of less than 120 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and a diastolic reading of less than 80 mm Hg. High blood pressure starts at 140/90 mm Hg and increases a person's risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disorders and other health problems.
Lori Hoolihan, a researcher at the Dairy Council of California in Irvine who was not involved in the analysis, called probiotics a "functional food."
"Randomized clinical trials are the gold standard in research and they had a strict criteria for choosing the studies and they actually looked at human trials which are stronger than animal trials," she said.
"They used real foods that had probiotics at realistic levels, they didn't use supplements or wacky chemical concoctions that no one has heard of. They used foods on the market so you and I could go into the market and pick (them) up," she added.
