A New Way to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

It's wonderful how natural treatments -- think regular exercise, opitmized sleeping and an improved diet -- can resolve a myriad of health issues without the use of potentially toxic drugs.

Along with their benefits for blood pressure and cholesterol, grape seeds are also known to be a powerful antioxidant.

Antioxidant protection helps protect your body from premature aging, disease and decay. Antioxidants are needed to neutralize free radicals, which play a major role in the development of degenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, strokes and aging.

The antioxidant capacity of grape seed extract comes from proanthocyanidins. Scientific studies have shown that the antioxidant power of proanthocyanidins is 20 times stronger than vitamin C and 50 times stronger than vitamin E.

In fact I have looked at some new research that shows a specific type of grape seed extract has an ORAC value of nearly 50,000.

The ORAC Antioxidant Score

ORAC stands for oxygen radical absorbance capacity, and it measures the total antioxidant potency of foods or supplements. It's a more precise way of determining the free-radical-destroying power of a food than just focusing on individual nutrients. ORAC takes into consideration the effect of all of the plant's compounds--including many phytochemicals that aren't traditionally considered nutrients--and the impact they have when they work in concert.

The next highest ORAC food is gogi berries at 25,000, followed by dark chocolate at 11,000. Blueberries are much farther down the list at 2,500 and even popular products like noni juice are only 1,500, just below spinach at 1,700.

Extensive research additionally suggests that grape seed extract has the ability to bond with collagen, and it also promotes youthful skin, cell health, elasticity and flexibility.

Other studies show that grape seed extract proanthocyanidins help protect the body from sun damage and help improve vision. Grape seeds have been shown to improve flexibility in joints, arteries and body tissues such as the heart.

And, of course, research studies have shown that grape seed helps improve blood circulation by strengthening capillaries, arteries and veins, so the beneficial blood pressure effects shown in this study aren't particularly surprising.

Just a reminder, you don't need to take a grape seed supplement if you juice your food. If you do, don't use more than a handful of grapes and even less than that if you're struggling with insulin problems. Red grapes (naturally, the ones with seeds) are the best to use.

But be careful when purchasing grape seed extract. You only want to purchase WHOLE grape seed extract, and not ones with isolated resveratrol compounds. I am working with one of the top suppliers of grape seed extract in the world and am hoping they will have a product available later this summer.