Is Oat Bran a Solution for Hypertension?
The impact of dietary fiber on heart rate
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a common cardiovascular condition that affects many adults worldwide. In 2000, it was estimated that over 970 million adults experienced hypertension and this number continues to increase significantly.
Hypertension is a serious issue as it increases one’s risk for cardiovascular and kidney disease. Although the main concern of hypertension is high blood pressure, another significant symptom is increased heart rate. The main treatment for hypertension is finding methods to reduce high blood pressure and increased heart rate by either medication or lifestyle and diet changes.
Recent research has shown that consumption of dietary fiber can lead to a decrease in blood pressure. Dietary fiber is the part of plants that are indigestible by human digestive enzymes. It can be found in foods such as oats, nuts, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. In addition to reducing blood pressure, research has shown that dietary fiber can also help reduce cholesterol levels and help gut health. However, there is not much research available on its effect on heart rate. In this study, researchers set up a clinical trial to observe the effect of dietary fiber on heart rate in individuals with hypertension.
The design of this study consisted of two experiment groups: a control group and interventional group. The control group followed a “DASH” diet which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. This diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, and whole grains. The intervention group took an additional 30 grams of an oat bran dietary fiber supplement every day. The 70 chosen participants of the study were adults between ages 18–65 diagnosed with hypertension. They had no other serious diseases and were not already consuming significant amounts of dietary fiber.
In regards to data collection, researchers collected heart rate data for a 24 hour period at a baseline (prior to control or interventional diet) and after 3 months of the trial. When collecting the heart rate data, they used an ambulatory blood pressure device that measured the participants heart rate every 20 minutes during the day time (8AM — 10PM) and every 30 minutes during the night time (10pm — 8AM). From this, they were able to determine the minimum, maximum, and average heart rate of each participant during the daytime, nighttime, and entire 24-hour period. In between this three month period, the researchers had regular follow up appointments with the participants to discuss their diet, determine their compliance with taking the supplements, and record any side effects they experienced.
After collecting the data, the researchers performed a statistical analysis comparing the heart rates at baseline to the 3 month follow up. They found that in the interventional group, there was a significant decrease in 24 hour maximum and average heart rate and in maximum, minimum, and average daytime heart rate. There was insignificant decrease observed in the minimum, maximum, and average nighttime heart rates. There was no significant change observed in any of the parameters of the control group. The researchers also noted that there were no side effects from the participants that took the oat bran dietary fiber. This data analysis indicates that dietary fiber from oat bran could potentially be a useful tool to lower heart rate in patients with hypertension.
This data analysis indicates that dietary fiber from oat bran could potentially be a useful tool to lower heart rate in patients with hypertension.
Although this study showed significant results, it has several limitations so further study is needed. One of the limitations is that the study only lasted for three months so any long term primary or side effects of oat bran dietary fiber is unknown. Additionally, this study did not observe how different dosages of dietary fiber impact heart rates which would be important to test in a future research trial.
Despite these limitations, this study takes an early step in discovering methods to reduce heart rate in hypertension patients and provides hopeful results to be studied more in the future.
