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Effect of essential fatty acid blend on circadian variations of ambulatory blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension and coronary artery disease risk markers

Abstract

Flaxseed oil is an excellent source of alpha-linolenic acid ALA known for its antihypertensive action. Flaxseed oil is unstable and its dose is not achievable in our conventional diet hence blending of natural flaxseed oil with palm oil, containing high flavonoids may be a better strategy, to stabilize the blend and provide proper balance of essential fatty acids and potential antioxidant effects. Aim of this study was to access the effect of blended flaxseed oil on 24 h 7-day circadian variations of blood pressure in subjects with essential hypertension. Assessment of CHAT (circadian hyper amplitude tension) using ABPM is the best marker for cardiovascular function. We registered 50 subjects with CAD (Group 1) and 50 subjects with Essential hypertension HT (Group 2) and 52 control subjects with CAD/Hypertension. Group 1 and 2 participant was supplemented with blended flaxseed oil (BFO) (30 ml/day) for the period of 24 weeks, while control group administered available oils sunflower in identical containers, for a follow-up period of 24 weeks. Twenty four hour seven days continuous ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was done initially and after six months of BFO supplementation. There were significant changes noted in lipid profile along with Ambulatory blood pressure parameters like MESOR, ACROPHASE, Hyperbaric Indexes, and CHAT. Circadian hyper amplitude tension (CHAT) incidence decreased after BFO supplementation. Study results suggest that blended flaxseed oil administration can be a potent natural vegetarian antihypertensive supplement which helps in synchronization of cardiac rhythms, and can be used as a preventive treatment of hypertension and as effective vegetarian source of maintaining Omega 3 and omega 6 ratios of essential fatty acids in the body.

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Fig. 1: Percent decrease in 24 h, 7 days MESOR and double amplitude of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring after 6 month of BFO supplemenation.
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Acknowledgements

We thank Abdul Kalam Technological University to provide us technical support and King George’s Medical University for research and academic support.

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Correspondence to Kshitij Bhardwaj.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the KGMU Institutional Committee of Medical Ethics, Research Cell KGMU (5128/R.Cell-2016), Lucknow in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki principles of medical ethics.

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Bhardwaj, K., Verma, N., Trivedi, R. et al. Effect of essential fatty acid blend on circadian variations of ambulatory blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension and coronary artery disease risk markers. J Hum Hypertens 36, 289–298 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-021-00520-9

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