Abstract
Previous studies have shown that allicin can lower blood pressure (BP) by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation. However, the association between habitual raw garlic intake (as allicin source) and prehypertension are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate how raw garlic consumption is associated with prehypertension in an adult population. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 22,812 adults (mean [standard deviation] age: 39.4 [10.7] years; males, 47.7%) in Tianjin, China. Raw garlic consumption was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. BP was measured at least twice by trained nurses using an automatic device. Prehypertension was defined as systolic BP of 120–139 mmHg and/or diastolic BP of 80–89 mmHg without taking antihypertensive medication. Multiple logistic regression models were used to assess the association between raw garlic consumption and prehypertension. The prevalence of prehypertension was 49.9%. After fully adjusting for potential confounders, the ORs (95% confidence intervals) of having prehypertension by increasing frequency of raw garlic consumption were 1.00 (reference) for ≤3 times/week, 0.96 (0.87, 1.06) for 4 times/week to 1 time/day, and 0.69 (0.52, 0.90) for ≥2 times/day (p for trend = 0.06). In contrast, no associations were observed between other kinds of allium vegetables consumption and prehypertension. In conclusion, our results suggested that a more frequent consumption of raw garlic was inversely associated with prehypertension. This is the first large-scale study on the association between raw garlic consumption and prehypertension in the general population.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge all the people that have made this study. This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81673166, 81372118, 81372467, and 81302422). The authors responsibilities were as follows: S.Z. and M.L. analyzed and interpreted data and wrote the paper. YW, QZ, LL, GM, ZY, HW, YX, XB, YG, HW, HS, SS, XW, MZ, QJ, and KS collected data, contributed to the discussion and edited the paper. KN and ZY designed the study, contributed to the discussion, reviewed and edited the paper. KN is the guarantor of this work and, as such, has full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
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Zhang, S., Liu, M., Wang, Y. et al. Raw garlic consumption is inversely associated with prehypertension in a large-scale adult population. J Hum Hypertens 34, 59–67 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-019-0257-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-019-0257-0