A small Australian study, published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine last month, has found that three cups of black tea a day may significantly lower blood pressure, reducing heart disease risk by as much as 10%.

The research, led by Dr. Jonathan Hodgson of the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia, involved 95 men and women who were randomized to receive either three cups of black tea a day or a placebo that matched the tea in flavour and caffeine content.

Eating 3 kiwifruit a day may lead to small reductions in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure according to a study presented at the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Florida this month.

The study, led by Mette Svendsen of the Oslo University Hospital in Norway, involved 118 middle aged men and women who were randomly assigned to consume either three kiwifruit or one apple per day for eight weeks in addition to their regular diet.

Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic have found that weight loss surgery in obese individuals dramatically improves several cardiovascular risk factors, reducing the 10-year risk of coronary heart disease by an estimated 40%.

The study, which was published online last month in the American Journal of Cardiology, involved the analysis of 52 studies comprising more than 16,000 patients who had undergone bariatric surgery between 1950 and 2010.

While it is well known that high blood pressure increases the risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes, scientific evidence also suggests that excessively low blood pressure can be almost as harmful as high blood pressure.

A new study, presented at the American Society of Hypertension meeting in San Francisco this month, looked at how the risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack varied with blood pressure in a group of 10,001 coronary heart disease patients.

Foods rich in cocoa, such as chocolate, may lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of coronary heart disease according to a study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine in 2006.

The study, conducted by Dutch researchers, used data from the Zutphen study to assess whether cocoa could reduce blood pressure and improve cardiovascular health. In total, 470 elderly men aged between 65 and 84 were used in the 15 year study which began in 1985.

Recent scientific evidence has shown that a person’s emotional state can have a significant effect on their likelihood of developing coronary heart disease.

Emotions such as anger, hostility, stress, and happiness all play a role in either reducing or increasing heart disease risk. Researchers believe that in individuals that have none of the traditional risk factors associated with heart disease, emotions may be responsible for as many as 50% of heart attacks.