Herbal Tea May Lower Blood Pressure

Sylvia Booth Hubbard



Drinking herbal tea containing hibiscus may lower blood pressure in those who are prehypertensive or have mild hypertension. Researchers at Tufts University in Boston found that drinking the tea over a six weeks period significantly lowered blood pressure.


In the small, randomized trial of 65 men and women, those who drank the hibiscus tea had an average reduction of 7.2 mm Hg in systolic pressure compared with a 1.3 mm Hg drop with placebo. Hibiscus tea also reduced diastolic and mean arterial pressure.


The study’s participants were ages 30 to 70 and were prehypertensive or mildly hypertensive (systolic ranging from 120 to 150 and diastolic 95 or lower) and were not taking blood pressure medications. They were given three cups of herbal tea daily or a tea containing artificial hibiscus.


The results were most dramatic among participants whose systolic pressure was greater than 129. Their systolic pressure dropped 13.2 mm, twice as much as the average, and over ten times the reduction for those drinking the placebo tea.


Although the overall decline was relatively small researchers noted that only a 3 mm decline in systolic pressure reduced deaths from stroke by eight percent and deaths from coronary artery disease by five percent.