Grant: Project Grant

Many different drugs are administered by physicians to effectively control high blood pressure. These drugs can effectively maintain blood pressure in a normal range which prevents the occurrence of the dangerous side effects of high blood pressure - heart attacks and strokes. Approximately 40% of adults aged 25+ years have hypertension worldwide. Because most people cannot feel it when the blood pressure is elevated, it is often called the "silent killer". Across the world, it is the leading cause of death accounting for ~50% of the 17 million deaths due to heart disease. Reducing blood pressure when it is elevated, therefore, is critically important if we are to lower heart disease. Recently it has become apparent that when we eat certain foods, they can interact with the drugs we take. For example, it is no longer advised to drink grapefruit juice when taking drugs that lower cholesterol. Our lab recently showed that ground (milled) flaxseed can strongly lower blood pressure in people with high blood pressure. These people were also on medication that lowered blood pressure. How the flaxseed lowered blood pressure is unclear but one possibility is that it may have interacted with the drugs that were given to these people to lower their blood pressure. Our preliminary data strongly suggests that this may be true. The flaxseed may have stopped the breakdown of the blood pressure lowering drugs in these patients. This would enhance the ability of these drugs to lower the blood pressure. The purpose of the present study is to clearly prove using state-of-the-art instrumentation that flaxseed ingested in the diet can interact with drugs that control blood pressure. We will obtain data from both human and animal experiments in both male and females. These data will explain the action of dietary flaxseed to lower blood pressure. It will also provide important safety data on the interaction of flaxseed in your diet with drugs that lower blood pressure.