The effect of improving dietary habits derived from Persian Medicine on blood pressure in adults with pre-hypertension: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Abstract

Introduction: Blood pressure is one of the most common diseases in industrialized countries and it is one of the important causes of atherosclerosis and can cause various problems. Pre-hypertension is defined as systolic blood pressure from 120—139 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure from 80—89 mmHg. Numerous studies have shown that if this blood pressure continues, it increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of improving eating habits, derived from Persian medicine, on blood pressure in adult patients with pre-hypertension. Material and Methods: The target population was people with pre-hypertension who were registered in the comprehensive health system. Patients were randomly divided into intervention and control groups after getting acquainted with the study, obtaining informed consent, and having inclusion and exclusion criteria. After measuring blood pressure and anthropometric characteristics, the questionnaire of dietary habits based on Persian medicine was completed by the intervention group and its score was calculated. After training the intervention group of Persian-based dietary habits, their blood pressure and the anthropometric characteristics were measured again after one month. After collecting data, the data were analyzed by SPSS version 20 and a significance level of 0.05 was considered. Results: A total of 84 patients were enrolled in the study, out of which 50 were male (59.5%) and 34 were female (40.5%). The mean age of patients was 44.38 ± 6.462 years (31—55). The mean changes in systolic (10.357 ± 7.59 vs. 3.92 ± 6.71) and diastolic blood pressure (3.0.3 ± 6.01 vs. -0.07 ± 5.98) in the intervention and the control groups were statistically significant when a comparison was carried out between their values at the beginning and the end of the study. The results showed no significant difference between the mean changes, in weight, waist size, body mass index, and fat mass index in the intervention and the control groups, at the beginning and end of the study, despite a further decrease in the intervention group. Conclusion: Since lifestyle modification is one of the effective interventions in lowering blood pressure in people with hypertension, inclusion of a diet modification program derived from Persian medicine can be helpful in regulating blood pressure. Since Persian medicine is also a preventive medicine, observing the essential set principles, especially eating and drinking, can be useful in preventing chronic diseases such as hypertension. Thus, further studies are needed in the future with a larger sample size.