Premature births: Why pregnant women must take folic acid

Green pea is enjoyed as part of many
dishes by many people.Nature is full of materials that are yet to be fully tapped for the treatment many diseases. One of such materials is pea, that experts say has a protein which is able to lower blood pressure and improve kidney health, reports Sade Oguntola.

Nature is full of simple solutions to many of the health ailments afflicting the world right now. One of such is the healthy compounds found in peas. Peas has long been recognised as nutritional health diet because of its proteinous content, dietary fiber, vitamins and low-fat content.

A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the legume Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas.

Although it is botanically a fruit, it is treated as a vegetable in cooking. The name is also used to describe other edible seeds, such as the pigeon pea and the cowpea.

Many people easily associate pea in its green form with fried rice, meat pies and salads served at parties. In Japan, China, Taiwan and some Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand and Malaysia, the peas are roasted and salted, and eaten as snacks. In the UK, dried yellow split peas are used to make peas pudding or porridge, a traditional dish.

Researchers at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, are suggesting that the next generation of high blood pressure medications may actually come from peas. They reported that proteins found in a common green pea shows promise as a natural food additive or new dietary supplement that controls or even prevents high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease (CKD), at least in rats.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a major risk factor for CKD, a condition that has been affecting an increasing number of people. Chronic kidney disease is the permanent loss of kidney function and it may be the result of physical injury or a disease that damages the kidneys, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. When the kidneys are damaged, they do not remove wastes and extra water from the blood as well as they should.

CKD is a silent condition that in its early stages hardly gives any symptoms. It is one of the deadliest complications of hypertension, which often develops so slowly that many people don’t realize they’re sick until the disease is advanced and they are rushed to the hospital for life-saving dialysis.

Kidney failure is only a part of the picture and even a small loss of kidney function can double a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Meanwhile, many of these people will experience heart attacks or strokes before they become aware of their kidney disease. So identifying and treating CKD early can help prevent heart problems as well as postpone kidney failure.

Dr. Kolapo Akinroye, Nigerian Heart Foundation, Lagos, in a reaction to the study said that he was not aware that eating peas could help to prevent hypertension or its complications. He pointed out that this was a study in animals that still required to be proved beyond all doubts in humans. Dr. Akinroye explained that if such a common food item could be tried in a large population of people and found to really protect against the unset of hypertension and kidney problems, then it would really be exciting.

Professor Gboyega Ketiku, a human nutritionist at the Department of Biochemistry, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, said that from all indications, eating green peas may not reduce blood pressure or protect from kidney failure. He declared that science has found that eating peas just like cowpea can help ensure a good blood cholesterol level, stressing, “there is no cause and direct relationship between eating peas and blood pressure or kidney problems. This may not be true.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Adesoji Fasanmade, a consultant physician at the University College Hospital, (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, said many drugs were initially discovered as a result of tests to ascertain the active substances in many food items and that the case may be same with the pea. He declared that many herbs have active substances that need to be fully understood and their benefits tapped into.

In the study Dr Rotimi Aluko and his colleagues purified a mixture of small protein, called pea protein hydrolysate, from the yellow garden pea and fed small daily doses of the protein mixture to laboratory rats with the severe form of kidney disease.

After an eight-week-long follow-up, the researchers found that the protein-fed rats with kidney disease had their blood pressure dropped by 20 per cent compared to diseased rats who consumed normal diet.

Dr. Aluko, a food chemist at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, stated “what we seem to have here is a sort of natural approaches to treating this disease, as opposed to the normal pharmacological approach. We’re talking about an edible product, not a drug, which can help to reduce blood pressure and, at the same time, reduce the severely negative impact of kidney disease.”

According to him, the protein from pea could potentially delay or prevent the onset of kidney damage. Also, in people who already have kidney disease, the protein may help them maintain normal blood pressure levels so they can live longer.

The scientists are currently not sure of how the protein in pea helps ensure normal blood pressure, but proposed that the pea extract may boost production of cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1), a protein that boosts kidney function.

A majority of chronic kidney disease patients actually die from complications that arise from the high blood pressure associated with kidney malfunction.

However, Dr. Aluko said eating yellow peas in their natural state will not produce the desired health benefits as the purified protein extract. To have the potential health benefits, peas must be activated by treatment with special enzymes.

He declared at the March meeting of the American Chemical Society’s 237th national conference in Salt Lake City in US that this pea-based therapy may be available for people to buy within the next two to three years after it would have been tried out in humans.

While we are yet awaiting the pea protein extract for blood pressure, individuals may focus on techniques that will help endure normal blood sugar and pressure levels. These include:
• Exercise: A regular, effective exercise programme can go a long way toward reducing insulin levels and blood pressure.
• Avoid foods that raise insulin levels, such as sugar-type foods such as rice, pasta, breads and potatoes. Inclusions of such spices like garlic are helpful.
• Even mild stress can raise your blood pressure. Prayer and meditation are all useful techniques for managing your emotions.
•Optimise your vitamin D levels. It has recently become clear that normalizing your vitamin D levels can have a powerful effect on normalizing your blood pressure.