Open Sesame

Here’s a tasty tidbit for people with elevated blood pressure: Try cooking with sesame oil. In a study in India, researchers asked 356 volunteers with moderate to severe high blood pressure to use sesame oil in place of all other cooking oils for 60 days. At the end of that time, their blood pressure had dropped an average of 20 percent, and they were able to cut their drug doses by about one-third. Researchers think specific antioxidants in sesame oil, known as sesamin, episesamin, and sesamol, may be responsible. And it may not be just high-pressure types who can benefit. Early results from another study suggest sesame oil can lower blood pressure in people with only mildly elevated levels, says Devarajan Sankar, a biochemistry researcher who led the study. That’s good news, especially now that the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute just lowered the level for what’s considered a normal range. As many as 45 million Americans who once thought their blood pressure was normal may need to think again, according to the new guidelines. Check out the institute’s website to see where you fit in: www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp.

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