If you enjoy a spicy curry or bowl of chilli you might be helping your heart as well as having a tasty meal. Recently published research from China shows that long term consumption of capsaicin, which is substance in peppers that makes them hot, can reduce blood pressure - at least in hypertensive rats.

Their study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, suggests that capsaicin works by activating a special receptor which causes increased production of nitric oxide in the blood vessels that is believed to protect against inflammation and other vascular problems.

The experiment with rats is encouraging but now it needs to be confirmed by analysing any epidemiological association between eating chilli peppers and blood pressure.

Further information is available on the UK Independent Newspaper website.

Garlic has been renowned for its medicinal properties for centuries, if not millennia. Naturopaths have known for a long time that it can help control high blood pressure (hypertension).

Researchers at the University of Adelaide have recently completed a clinical trial that supports that knowledge.

Karin Ried from University of Adelaide's Discipline of General Practice has conducted a 12-week trial with 50 people that shows garlic could be used as an adjunct to conventional drugs for hypertension.

"There is a large proportion of people out there who are on medication and some people are on four different types but they still have high blood pressure, it is uncontrolled," Dr Ried said.

"When we gave them this garlic supplement we were able on average to reduce their blood pressure under the hypertension threshold - so garlic might be a good complementary treatment option to control hypertension."

In fact, the researchers found that on average, hypertensive patients showed a lowering of systolic blood pressure by 10.2mmHg compared to a control group taking a placebo.

The study also showed that, in keeping with standard naturopathic advice, the aged garlic supplement was significantly more effective than fresh or powdered garlic.

The study was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald and the article is available on its website

The government has just announced a proposal for a new law to regulate health supplements. This is not the highly restrictive Australian system we fought so hard against under the Labour government but there are some unwelcome similarities.

On the plus side, under the new proposal importers and manufacturers would have to register their products before sale. Registration would be a simple online process. The advantage of this system is that it provides a link between a product and the person responsible for importing or making it. This measure should control problems such as import of products containing prescription medicines or substances derived from endangered species.

Unfortunately, the proposal also requires product ingredients to be selected from a pre-determined list of permitted items. This "white list" approach was opposed by the Greens when they objected to the Australian system but now they are embracing it.

The problem with a white list is just like the Australian system, there will be a committee of officials who will decide what you can and cannot have in your supplements.

Where is the evidence that we need a white list? New Zealand has managed without one for a quarter of a century. No-one has died as a result. If there have been cases of adverse reaction to any ingredient they have been very mild. Certainly not severe enough to have made it into media reports. The white list requirement is a piece of theory with no evidence to support it in practice.

You can read the complete proposal on the Ministry of Health Website

According to a report published online by The Lancet on 18 June 2010, there are 10 major risk factors for all kinds of stroke. Between them, these factors account for 90% of stroke risk. Top of the list is high blood pressure.

The study included 6,000 people from 22 countries and concludes that the 10 factors significantly associated with stroke risk are high blood pressure, smoking, physical activity, waist-to-hip ratio (abdominal obesity), diet, blood lipid (fat) levels, diabetes, alcohol intake, stress and depression, and heart disorders.

Of that list, the first 5 are responsible for a full 80% of all stroke risk, according to the researchers.

It's important that most of the risk factors associated with stroke are modifiable," said Dr. Martin J. O'Donnell, an associate professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada, who helped lead the study. "If they are controlled, it could have a considerable impact on the incidence of stroke."

Controlling blood pressure is important, he said, because it plays a major role in both forms of stroke: ischemic, the most common form (caused by blockage of a brain blood vessel), and hemorrhagic or bleeding stroke, in which a blood vessel in the brain bursts.

In contrast, levels of blood lipids such as cholesterol were important in the risk of ischemic stroke, but not hemorrhagic stroke.

"The most important thing about hypertension is its controllability," O'Donnell said. "Blood pressure is easily measured, and there are lots of treatments."

Lifestyle measures to control blood pressure include reduction of salt intake and increasing physical activity, he said.

He added that the other risk factors -- smoking, abdominal obesity, diet and physical activity -- in the top five contributors to stroke risk were modifiable as well.

High intake of fish and fruits, for example, were associated with a lower risk of stroke, according to the study.

On 8th May 2010 the New Zealand Herald featured a report in the NZ Medical Journal which estimates reducing salt in manufactured foods could result in 2745 fewer heart attacks and 2064 fewer strokes and save 930 lives a year by 2018.

Experts believe lowering salt levels across the population could be more effective - and easier - than anti-smoking campaigns in reducing New Zealand's high incidence of strokes and cardiovascular disease.

Many New Zealanders are thought to consume nearly twice the safe daily limit of just over a teaspoon of salt, or 2300mg of sodium.

Consider the enormous, measurable, benefit that could be achieved by regulating salt in manufactured food at just about zero cost. Then compare that with the new health food regulations the Ministry of Health wants you to pay $4m for with no measurable benefit at all.

The entire Herald article can be viewed on their website

For a long time natural health practitioners have held that Vitamin C has a role in cancer prevention and treatment. This idea has been routinely dismissed by medical orthodoxy.

Now researchers at Otago University have completed a study that puts the benefits of Vitamin C on a firm scientific footing. The study, led by Associate Professor Margreet Vissers, of the university's Free Radical Research Group, found that high-grade tumours had around 40 per cent less vitamin C than matched, adjacent, normal tissue.

Professor Vissers said the study suggested it would be beneficial for people with cancer cells to have more vitamin C. It could help restrict the rate of tumour growth, increase responsiveness to chemotherapy and might prevent formation of solid tumours.

You can read the full story on the New Zealand Herald Website.