7. Okra water can help lower your blood pressure
High blood pressure is known as the ‘silent’ killer and is becoming a prevalent condition across society. Your blood pressure is the measure of the force your blood applies to the blood vessels as it pumps through the heart and around the body. High blood pressure means that excessive pressure is being put on the blood vessels. This makes the heart work harder than necessary which can lead to hardened arteries which cannot function well, a stroke, kidney disease, and eventual heart failure. Very often, people are not aware that they have a problem with blood pressure until it is at a severe level.
High blood pressure is called hypertension. Several factors can cause it. In some instances, it is hereditary, while in others, it begins with poor lifestyle choices (such as excessive drinking and smoking as well as obesity), bad diet and a lack of exercise. Another well-known cause of hypertension is too much salt in the diet.
When there is too much salt in the diet, it disrupts the balance between potassium and sodium in the body, which hurts the kidneys. Overeating salt raises the sodium level in the body. When the sodium level and potassium level are not compatible, it makes the job of the kidneys to filter excess fluid from the blood and send it to the bladder. This can lead to excessive fluid in the kidneys which raise the blood pressure.
While patients with hypertension should decrease their salt intake, and it is also advisable that they increase their potassium intake to achieve the necessary balance between the two in the body. There is a good deal of potassium in okra, which is why okra water is a helpful addition to the daily diet.