Human Experimental Study On The Supplementary Effect Of Potassium Alginate On Lowering Blood Pressure

Objective:To study the efficacy and safety of Potassium Alginate in assisting antihypertensive drugs lowering blood pressure of primary hypertension patients.Methods:According to human experiment standard for investigateing the effect of lowering blood pressure in Technical Standards for Testing & Assessment of Health Food (2003) issued by Ministry of Health of the People's Repblic of China,102 cases of primary hypertension patients were randomly divided into Potassium Alginate test group and placebo control group by the level of blood pressure. Subjects took Potassium Alginate or placebo respectively for 50 consecutive days in accordance with human recommended doses. The effectiveness of lowering blood pressure was assessed by several indicators, such as clinical symptoms, blood pressure and resting heart rate. The safety of Potassium Alginate on human health was evaluated by routine blood test, biochemistry test of blood and so on.Results:The blood pressure of patients in Potassium Alginate treatment group was reducing gradually with the prolonging of time that they took it, and their blood pressure declined significantly compared with that measured before the test and that in placebo control group(P< 0.05). The systolic pressure and diastolic pressure in Potassium Alginate group decreased [(13.89±4.89) mmHg,(10.15±4.18) mmHg] averagely after the test; and that in control group decreased [(1.95±3.91) mmHg,(0.76±3.76mmHg)] averagely, the difference had statistical significance (P<0.05). The effective rate of lowering blood pressure by Potassium Alginate was 82.35%. We observed seven main clinical symptoms of all the patients. Among those symptoms, six of them (headache, dizziness, palpitation, tinnitus, insomnia and adynamia of waist and knee) were improved significantly in Potassium Alginate group(P<0.05). The total effective rate of clinical symptoms by Potassium alginate was 76.47%. The main clinical symptom score in Potassium alginate group was significantly lower than that before the test and that in control group(P< 0.05). The resting heart rate of patients in Potassium alginate group descended significantly compared with that detected before the test, but no significant difference was observed when it compared with that in placebo control group. There were no significant abnormalities in other signs, such as body weight, routine blood, liver function, kidney function, blood glucose and blood fat in all the patients involved in this test.Conclusion:Potassium Alginate can assist effectively antihypertensive drugs decreasing the blood pressure of primary hypertension patients and alleviate the clinical symptoms of patients and it is safe as a constituent of health food in assisting the treatment of primary hypertension.