Mix of rice bran oil, sesame lowers blood pressure

 A blend of sesame and rice bran oil reduces blood pressure almost as well as a common anti-hypertensive drug, a new study has found.

Close to 100 Delhites who cooked with the new oil blend saw a significant drop in blood pressure and improved cholesterol levels. Those who used a combination of medication and rice bran oil saw the maximum drop in their blood pressure level. Clinically significant lowering of blood pressure was observed among those who used only the new yet-to-be-marketed oil blend. It is made by a Gujarat-based company that plans to release the healthy blend commercially.

“The oils have almost similar effect as the standard anti-hypertensive drug did,” Devarajan Sankar, a scientist at the department of cardiovascular disease in Fukuoka University Chikushi Hospital in Japan who led the study, told Deccan Herald after presenting the findings at an American Heart Association meeting in Washington.

Sankar with colleagues Ranbir Singh at Indian Council of Medical Research and Biprabuddha Chatterjee who heads the research and development team of the manufacturing firm, found cooking with a combination of these oils in a variety of ways worked nearly as well as a commonly prescribed high blood pressure medication, and that the use of the oil blend with medication yielded even more impressive results.

The 60-day study, conducted in Dr Bhim Rao Ambekar Speciality Hospital, Noida and Hindu Rao Hospital, New Delhi, involved 300 people who had mild to moderately high blood pressure.