NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — One half of a cup of soy nuts each day may work as well as anti-hypertension medication to lower blood pressure, a new study in postmenopausal women demonstrates.And women with moderately elevated blood pressure — a condition known as pre-hypertension — also showed reductions in their blood pressure after eight weeks of eating soy nuts, Dr. Francine K. Welty of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and her colleagues found.

“We know that people in the pre-hypertension group are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease,” Welty told Reuters Health in an interview. “This would provide a dietary treatment that could safely lower blood pressures in that pre-hypertensive range.” She pointed out that while studies are still underway to determine if people with pre-hypertension should take drugs to lower their blood pressure.

Welty and her team recruited 60 postmenopausal women, 12 of whom had hypertension, to begin the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet, which involves cutting fat, cholesterol, sodium and calories.

Each study participant spent eight weeks on the TLC diet alone and eight weeks on the TLC diet plus a half-cup of dry-roasted, unsalted soy nuts daily. While eating the soy nuts, the women subtracted the equivalent amount of protein from other sources so their protein consumption remained constant.

The researchers chose soy nuts, Welty noted, because they are among the least processed sources of soy available, and are more convenient and portable than either soy milk or tofu.

Hypertensive women in the soy nut-group had a drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number of the blood pressure reading) of 9.9 percent, and a drop in diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) of 6.8 percent.

Among those with pre-hypertension (systolic blood pressures between 120 mmHg and 139 mmHg), the soy nuts decreased systolic blood pressure by 5.5 percent and diastolic blood pressure by 2.7 percent.

For women with normal blood pressure, the nuts also lowered systolic blood pressure by 4.5 percent and diastolic pressure by 3.0 percent.

Women also showed an 11-percent reduction in their low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad” cholesterol.

Two similar studies-one using soy milk, the other with soy cookies-also found that soy reduces blood pressure, Welty noted. In the current study, she added, people ate three or four portions of soy nuts throughout the day, rather than eating their entire half-cup allotment in a single setting. This likely kept a steady level of the beneficial component of soy in the body, according to Welty.

Based on the current study and past research, the researchers said she would recommend people include soy nuts and soy milk in their diet to help lower their blood pressure.

“If the findings are repeated in a larger group, they may have important implications for reducing cardiovascular risk in postmenopausal women on a population basis,” she and her colleagues conclude.