Are Chicken Legs the Cure to Hypertension?

news you may not know

Great Legs...

Have you ever seen a chicken with high blood pressure? Probably not. Although, they do tend to run around in a frenzy, and there was that whole Chicken Little fiasco. But, those issues aside, it appears chickens may soon be on the forefront of human's battle against high blood pressure.

Researchers in Japan recently discovered the collagen from the legs of chickens helps lower blood pressure. Collagen is the protein of the connective tissue and is the main component of cartilage and ligaments.

The scientists treated hypertensive mice (who knew the life of a mouse was so hard?) with extracts of the collagen. The mice treated with the chicken leg collagen had significantly lower blood pressure, after eight hours, than mice who received a placebo.

Even better, the positive effect of the chicken legs ran on for many weeks. The mice that received the collagen still had lower blood pressure four weeks later. Of course, the mice that received the placebo were by then stressed to the max.

Now, a word of caution. Yes, this sounds promising. But the scientists urge you not to begin to chew on chicken legs in hopes of finding a natural remedy for your high blood pressure. But, then again...

To read more about the study, see this from Reuters. To learn about other ways to control high blood pressure, see this from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.