Prevention of Hypertension: A critical review of the Health benefits of Salt, Garlic, Fish Oil, Chocolate and Vitamin D

Background: Hypertension could be defined as a blood pressure measurement of 140/90 mmHg or above obtained by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. It is a global pandemic affecting about a billion people and causing 9.4 million deaths worldwide with its associated complications. Hypertension has no clear symptoms and therefore is also called the silent killer. With these debilitating effects, prevention of hypertension has become necessary. Aim: The purpose of this literature review was to discuss how salt, garlic, fish oil, dark chocolate and vitamin D could prevent hypertension. Method: An extensive review of literature was initiated by accessing the following search engines: Cochrane library, Medline and CINAHL. Articles gathered ranged from year 2005 to 2014. Thirty-eight (38) articles were obtained for the discussion. Conclusion: Reduced salt, garlic, fish oil, chocolate and vitamin D could prevent hypertension from happening. This study observes that these foods have the ability to effect changes in the vascular smooth muscle cells that could aid in the prevention of hypertension. INTRODUCTION Hypertension could be defined as a blood pressure measurement of 140/90 mmHg or above obtained at the clinic and by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring [1]. It is the blood pressure level where advantages of treatment far more outweigh the disadvantages and thus the use of medication is inevitable [2]. There are 3 stages of describing hypertension according to [1]: stage 1 (140/90mmHg and above); stage 2 (160/100 and above) and severe (180/110 and above). Hypertension is also called the silent killer as it has no clinical manifestations in its early stages [3]. It can only be detected by checking the blood pressure using sphygmomanometer [2]. There are 2 types: essential (primary) and non-essential hypertension [4]. Studies reveal that about 90-95% of diagnosed hypertension are essential hypertension while the remaining 5-10% are non-essential hypertension [5]. Where the essential hypertension has no cause thus idiopathic, nonessential hypertension might have underlying causes such as renal diseases, hyperthyroidism, phaeochromocytoma, Cushion’s syndrome and many more [5]. The prevalence of hypertension is also highly documented. Beevers et al. [6] reports that about one billion people worldwide are affected by the disease, a figure corroborated by latter studies by the WHO [3]. But Shouk et al. [4] predicts that the number could rise to approximately 1.6 billion adults by the year 2025. According to WHO [3], the disease is a global epidemic affecting both the developed and developing nations. But it is reported to be highest in the low and middle income countries of the world. Hypertension also causes about 9.4 million deaths worldwide of which 45% and 51% are due to heart disease and stroke respectively [3]. In the UK, about 30% of the population is suggested to be having a raised blood pressure, the NHS choices [7] reports. The treatment of hypertension with the use of medications alone cost about a billion pounds in the year 2006 alone [8]. Hypertension when left untreated could lead to target organ damage (TOD) which causes complications such as cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular accident (stroke), kidney failure, death and many more [2]. Lifestyle modification has been identified as one of the effective ways of preventing this disease [3, 7]. Such lifestyles could cut across diet, exercise, minimal alcohol intake, smoking cessation, weight reduction etc. With the high numbers in its prevalence, it is prudent that much effort be put into preventing its occurrence as the adage goes, ‘prevention is better than cure. ’ The author chose to do this extended review on hypertension prevention because there seem to be ISSN: 0974-5343 IJMST (2017), 7(7):38-46 International Journal of Medical Sciences and Technology (2017), Volume 7, Issue 7, Page(s): 38-46 39 several medical complications arising from hypertension even though there seem to be much awareness. Hypertension has caused the sudden death of supposedly healthy young people who had died overnight only for a post mortem to reveal cerebral haemorrhage or infarction, a complication of the disease. Such occurrences had led to several presentations by the author on the disease to raise awareness in his church. Hypertension prevention is a broad theme which encompasses lifestyle modifications such as diet, exercise, smoking cessation, reduction in alcohol intake, weight loss, stress management as well as pharmacological interventions [2]. All of the above interventions are heralded to be effective in preventing or reducing high blood pressure and more effective when they are used in combination. But for the purpose of this literature review, an in depth study would be taken to analyse how certain foods could affect the blood pressure when they are included or reduced in