This popular herb can help you live longer, prevent heart disease, lower cholestrol

Heart problems and cholesterol are two health conditions that are often connected to each other. These diseases can be prevented or at least improved by eating a healthy diet.

Having increased quantity of bad cholesterol implies that there is lot of fatty substance in the blood. If not tackled timely, this issue might cause blockage in blood vessels, leading risks related to heart attack and strokes.

Causes of high cholesterol include sedentary lifestyle, fatty food consumption, smoking, drinking and being overweight. The disease might happen genetically too. The good news is that many studies have shown that one herb is potent in improving health of patients suffering from above issues.

READ | What is high cholesterol? Know signs, symptoms to look out for

According to researchers, coriander seeds can work wonders to reduce cholesterol levels and heart disease risk.

A paper published in Current Cardiology Reviews by a team from India’s Sri Ramachandra University stated that coriander seeds can lower the low-density lipoproteins (LDL), which are also called as ‘bad’ cholesterol’ and fats termed as triglycerides.

As per the study, “The seeds of coriander have a remarkable hypolipidemic action. The levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides decreased significantly in the tissues of the animals of the experimental group which received coriander seeds.”

“The level of LDL and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol decreased while that of high density-lipoprotein (‘good’) cholesterol increased in the experimental group compared to the control group”, it said.

Another study that was published in the Journal of Environmental Biology in 2008 performed the analysis by feeding coriander seeds to rats.

“In the present study, coriander seeds incorporated into diet and the effect of the administration of coriander seeds on the metabolism of lipids was studied in rats, fed with high fat diet and added cholesterol,” the study said.

“The seeds had a significant hypolipidemic action. In the experimental group of rats (tissue) the level of total cholesterol and triglycerides increased significantly,” it added.

Another report published in Journal of Ethnopharmacology mentioned that the seeds of coriander or the fruit of coriander could reduce blood pressure.

The paper read that coriander fruit exhibits gut stimulatory, inhibitory and hypotensive effects mediating possibly through cholinergic, Ca(2+) antagonist and the combination of these mechanisms respectively.

“Diuretic activity adds value to its use in hypertension,” it said.