More evidence needed to determine how diets can reduce hypertension in individuals

New research by a University of Kent pharmacist should reveal more evidence about how diets can reduce blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease in different individuals.

Dr Ruey Leng Loo has received a £400K research grant from the Medical Research Council to investigate the effects of different healthy diets that are proven to reduce blood pressure on people with hypertension, or high blood pressure, and those likely to develop the condition.

Working at the Medway School of Pharmacy, which is collaboration between the universities of Kent and Greenwich, Dr Loo will analyse urine samples using state-of-the-art, high-resolution spectroscopic equipment to carry out a process known as 'metabonomics'. This will involve studying the urine samples to analyse metabolism patterns and the relation of those patterns to diet and heart disease risk.

'In the study, we will look in detail at three variations of DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets, rich in fruits, vegetable, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and low-fat dairy products and with minimised saturated fat, total fat, cholesterol, sugar and sodium,' said Dr Loo.

'We know that overall these types of healthy diet are beneficial for blood pressure, but there is little evidence about what combinations of carbohydrate, proteins and unsaturated fat work best to reduce blood pressure and therefore minimise risk for heart disease for each individual.'

The research will make use of data from an existing study, known as the OmniHeart trial, to study urine specimens from people who have eaten the three versions of the DASH diet with varying levels of carbohydrate, protein and unsaturated fat.

'This research should take us much closer to mapping whether certain diets are better for certain individuals,' added Dr Loo, who  will be working with researchers at Imperial College London and the Johns Hopkins University in the US on the three-year study.