My Daily Nourishment

Here’s an easy and cheap way to lower blood pressure:

One of the best ways to live a long and healthy life is to keep
your blood pressure within normal levels. It turns out that one
way to do that is to go to church every week, reports Reuters of
research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta, Ga.

The study: In this large, multiethnic study of nearly 14,500
American men and women age 20 years and older who were part of
the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the
participants’ blood pressure was taken at home and in mobile
examination centers.

They were also asked how frequently they attended church or
religious services.

The answers:
40% attended once a week or more.
28% worshiped less than once a week.
33% said they never participated in services.

The results: Lead researchers, Dr. R. Frank Gillum and Dr.
Deborah D. Ingram, found that those who attended religious
services at least once a week had lower blood pressure and a
lower prevalence of high blood pressure, compared with people
who never attended.

Specifically, the once-a-week churchgoers had systolic (the top
number) readings that were 1.46 mm Hg lower than those who never
attended, while those who attended more than once a week had
systolic levels 3.03 mm Hg lower than those who never attended,
reports Reuters.

The study findings were published in the journal Psychosomatic
Medicine, 2006.
–From the Editors at Netscape

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