NEW YORK, Mar 28 (Reuters Health) -- Italian scientists report that patients with high blood pressure reduced the amount of antihypertensive drugs they needed by switching to a diet low in saturated fat and rich in olive oil. What's more, some of the patients were able to stop their high blood pressure medication completely with the dietary changes.

"A slight reduction in saturated fat intake, along with the use of extra-virgin olive oil, markedly lowers daily antihypertensive dosage requirement," lead author of the study Dr. L. Aldo Ferrara and colleagues write in the March 27th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Study subjects who increased their intake of sunflower oil did not achieve the same beneficial results, according to the report.

In the study, Ferrara and colleagues of the Federico II University of Naples in Italy looked at 23 patients with mild to moderate hypertension (high blood pressure) who normally consumed a diet with 34% of calories from fat and 11% from saturated fat.

In the study, the subjects switched to a diet with 26% of calories from fat and 6% saturated fat. About half of the patients increased their intake of monounsaturated fat by boosting intake of extra-virgin olive oil while the other half increased their intake of polyunsaturated fat by increasing their intake of sunflower oil.

After 6 months, the subjects switched to the other diet and remained on it for another 6 months.

By the end of the study, the investigators found that patients had a lower resting blood pressure on the olive oil diet compared with the sunflower oil diet. While on the olive oil diet, patients were able to reduce their daily dose of high blood pressure medication by 48% compared with a reduction of only 4% while on the sunflower oil diet.

Furthermore, eight patients did not require any blood pressure medication at all while on the olive oil diet, Ferrara's group reports. All patients required drug therapy while on the sunflower diet.

The authors believe that olive oil was able to reduce the need for blood pressure medication because it contains polyphenols, which are antioxidant compounds that may aid in dilating arteries and thereby reducing blood pressure. Sunflower oil does not contain polyphenols, they note.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine 2000;160:837-842.

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