Vinegar may be beneficial to heart health and for diabetics.
While most people may consider vinegar simply an ingredient in salad dressing, many others believe in its medicinal, health and cleaning properties.
Medicinal History
Throughout history, vinegar has been used to treat a variety of ailments, from stomach ache and fever to general disease prevention. In tea form, it was used to control diabetic symptoms until hypoglycemic medications were invented. In addition, Hippocrates used vinegar to treat wounds and infections, and Cleopatra used the acids in vinegar to dissolve pearls and called it love potion.
Disinfectant
Even today, household cleaners often include vinegar as an ingredient. Hardwood floors call for a diluted solution of vinegar and water to preserve the oil and color in the wood. According to Carol S. Johnston and Cindy A. Gaas of the Department of Nutrition at Arizona State University, the antimicrobial qualities of vinegar are useful in food preservation but not powerful enough to treat wounds or infections. Vinegar only slightly inhibits some bacteria that cause infection and for others does virtually nothing. Johnston and Gaas say many of today's disinfectants are more effective at removing pathogens from countertops and other places where bacteria thrive.
Vinegar and the Heart
Vinegar contains acetic acid, which has been shown to help vinegar decrease blood pressure, according to Johnston and Gaas. An experiment in which rats were fed a mixture of acetic acid and vinegar led to reductions in systolic blood pressure when compared to rats that had not ingested the solution. However, it is unknown if these effects would also occur in humans.
Antiglycemic Qualities
In 1998 Japanese scientists conducted an experiment to assess the glucose responses in rats and humans who were fed vinegar. In healthy humans the glucose response was small but the insulin response curve after the subject was fed sucrose was reduced 20 percent when consumed with 60mL of a strawberry vinegar solution.
Tags: acetic acid, blood pressure, Johnston Gaas, treat wounds, treat wounds infections