The effect of probiotics supplementation on blood pressure: a systemic review and meta-analysis

Fermented milk has over the last decade been intensively studied because of the putative antihypertensive effect. The aim of our study is to investigate the role of probiotics support therapy in blood pressure and, as a kind of convenient and economic drugs for prevention and auxiliary treatment of hypertension.

We performed a systemic review and meta-analysis to examine the effect of probiotics consumption on blood pressure. Databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Clinical trials, CNKI and the Cochrane library were searched. Also, the grey literature and references were searched.

Twenty-three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 2037 participants met the inclusion criteria and were included. Probiotic consumption significantly changed systolic blood pressure (SBP) by - 3.05 mmHg (95%CI: - 4.67, - 1.44; P < 0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by - 1.51 mmHg (95%CI: - 2.38, - 0.65; P = 0.001). Subgroup analysis indicated that the benefit effect of probiotics supplementation in SBP was only observed in hypertension [weight mean difference (WMD) = - 3.31 mmHg, 95%CI: - 5.71, - 0.92; P = 0.007] or type 2 diabetes (WMD = -4.85 mmHg, 95%CI: - 9.28, - 0.42; P = 0.032) patients, and the decreased DBP level by probiotics supplementation was only observed in hypertension patients (WMD = -2.02 mmHg, 95%CI: - 3.68, - 0.36; P = 0.017).This effect could only last for a short-term time of 8 or 10 weeks, but not for a long-term time.

This meta-analysis found a moderate and statistically significant reduction for either SBP or DBP with probiotics supplement compared with controls. Thus, probiotics is a potential for the dietary treatment of hypertension.