Stressed Out? Try Omega-3
Researchers show Omega-3 can help reduce blood pressure during stressful times
Omega-3 is wonderful for many reasons. High in essential fatty acids, Omega-3 is known for its proven health benefits and lowering your risk for heart disease. Now researchers have proven it can also help you out during times of stress.
Stressed Out?
Who isn't? The world today is fast-paced and moving faster all the time. In trying to keep up this fast pace and keep up with all that we have to do daily, we tend to get stressed out. One side effect of all this stress is high blood pressure.
As you know, high blood pressure leads to many cardiovascular diseases and ultimately, a heart attack or stroke. There are more than 500,000 deaths in the United States every year and this is definitely something you want to avoid.
Lower Blood Pressure and Stress
Researchers at Penn State say a good way to avoid high blood pressure is to eat walnuts. Why? Walnuts are high in the essential fatty acids of Omega-3. These researchers performed a study (1) using 22 test subjects. All of the subjects were healthy adult participants with the exception of having high LDL readings - or high levels of 'bad' cholesterol.
The researchers provided special meals with snacks to the participants for a period of 18 weeks. The participants tested three special diets with snacks staying on each diet for six weeks.
One of the healthy snacks the participants ate was walnuts. The researchers discovered the walnuts reduced resting blood pressure and blood pressure during periods of stress. To simulate stress; the participants were exposed to different stressful situations. Even so, the participants who ate walnuts had less stress.
Associate professor, Sheila G. West said, 'This is the first study to show that walnuts and walnut oil reduce blood pressure during stress. This is important because we can't avoid all of the stressors in our daily lives. This study shows that a dietary change could help our bodies better respond to stress.'
How Walnuts Help
Walnuts work to lower stress because they have ALA or alpha linolenic acid. Research shows Omega-3 with ALA reduces cholesterol and inflammation. More good news is that you can get all the Omega-3 you need just by eating 1/4 cup of walnuts per day.
If you don't like nuts, you can also get the recommended amount of Omega-3 to reduce stress by adding 2 tablespoons of flax seed to your diet daily or taking a fish oil supplement.
Research proves eating walnuts naturally reduces blood pressure, lowers bad cholesterol, and reduces stress. The next time you find yourself reaching for a snack, instead of junk food; why not reach for a handful of healthy walnuts full of Omega-3 instead?
