2020-09-01
Chief R&D Officer / Sheng-Yu Wu Ph.D
Hypertension is a common risk factor for many major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease. It is also the first in the global burden of disease ranking. According to Taiwan’s survey of National Nutrition and Health Status Change in 2015 to 2018, the prevalence of hypertension among people over 18 years of age is 25.06%, and an average of 1 in 4 people suffer from high blood pressure. One of the factors of hypertension may be the over-activated renin-angiotensin system (RAS). Therefore, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor(ACEI), ACEI to reduce the production of angiotensin II, and to achieve the purpose of vasodilation and lower blood pressure, is a common drug used to against hypertension in clinical currently. However, there are many side effects come with persisting in taking ACEI. Which including cough, rash, angioedema, increased uric acid, increased potassium, abnormal liver function, allergic reactions, and renal failure.Nowadays, numbers of research have found that the protein in milk contains many peptide structures similar to ACEI, and a variety of probiotics (such as L. acidophilus, L. casei, L. brevis, L. helveticus) can be used in dairy products. For the biological transformation of fermentation processes, breaking down milk proteins into effective peptides produces a similar effect of ACEI to lower blood pressure. This type of research has been confirmed in multiple animal and clinical trials. As a result of these peptides are natural and non-chemically synthesized, so they have fewer side effects. This kind of effective peptide that can ferment milk with probiotics against hypertension has considerable potential as a functional food.
Reference: Maturitas , (2018) 103–109.F.B. Ahtesh, L. Stojanovska, V. Apostolopoulos. Anti-hypertensive peptides released from milk proteins by probiotics.