Wednesday Oct 30, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new Japanese study suggests that taking collagen hydrolysate as a dietary supplement from time to time can help lower blood pressure in people with mild hypertension or high yet normal blood pressure.

The study shows that people with mild hypertension or high normal blood pressure taking 2.9 grams of chicken collagen hydrolysate for 18 weeks had significantly lower blood pressure than those who did not take any.

The study involved 58 participants with either mild hypertension (systolic blood pressure (SBP) at 140 to 159 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at 90 to 9 mmHg) or high normal blood pressure (SBP at 130-139 mmHg or DBP at 85-89 mmHg) who were assigned to either receive chicken collagen hydrolysate or placebo for18 weeks.

In addition to lowering blood pressure, participants using collagen hydrolysate also had better arterial stiffness and less vascular damage compared with controls.

The study reveals that collagen hydrolysate can increase serum nitrogen oxide or collagen hydrolysate has modulatory effects on the blood pressure or circulation.

Collagen hydrolysate, which is available as a dietary supplement over the Internet or in local health stores, has been proved to be able to improve the health of the human skin, hair and nails.  The study used chicken collage hydrolysate, but other types of collagen hydrolysate like fish, porcine and bovine collagen hydrolysate likely have the same effect.  The common dosage is 1 to 3 grams per day. (David Liu)