The heart is a finicky muscle, by turns durable and capable of impressive perseverance, and unpredictable and susceptible to a lack of exercise and poor diet. One symptom of the latter behavior is high blood pressure, a cardiovascular disease risk that increases with age. In fact, by age 35, a majority of the population is affected by pre-hypertension.

Exercise and diet are two of the better ways to avoid those symptoms, and new research published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, suggests that the amino acid glutamic acid, found most prominently in vegetable protein, may be linked to lowering blood pressure.

Past research has shown that vegetable protein can have a positive effect on hypertension, but researchers believe this is the first study to show a relationship between glutamic acid intake and blood pressure. The pressure drop – 1.5 to 3.0 millimeters of mercury on the systolic side – represents a small but potentially significant number.

“It is estimated that reducing a population’s average systolic blood pressure by 2mm Hg could cut stroke death rates by 6% and reduce mortality from coronary heart disease by 4%,” said Jeremiah Stamler, MD, professor emeritus of the department of preventive medicine in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, and lead author of the study.

Perhaps even more encouraging is the fact that these results were achieved with just a 4.72% intake increase of glutamic acid as a percent of total dietary protein. Whether you’re hypertensive or not, add extra glutamic acid to your diet, and increase your intake of beans, pasts – durum wheat is a good source of vegetable protein – soy and whole grains. Sept / Oct 2009 Muscle & Fitness Hers Magazine pg. 25