Dr Michael Mosley's 'superfood' can help lower blood pressure and chance of heart attack

Dr Michael Mosley has revealed a 'superfood' which can have a huge effect on lowering a person's blood pressure and cholesterol. Speaking on his Just One Thing BBC podcast the healthy eating guru said eating flax can also reduce your chance of a heart attack or stroke by half.

Dr Mosley suggest eating ones which are also known as linseeds and encouraged sprinkling them on porridge or breakfast cereal, as reported by Gloucestershire Live. You can also add ground flax seed to a salad, or potentially baking them in bread or muffins.

Flax seeds or linseeds come from the flax plant, which is also used to make linen cloth. The seeds are rich in fatty acids, as well as antioxidants.

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Dr Mosley said eating flax has also been shown to have a beneficial effect on your skin. He said: "A small German study on women with sensitive skin found 12 weeks of consuming a 2g flaxseed oil supplement improved their skin quality.

"Not only did their sensitivity decrease but they experienced a boost in both hydration and smoothness. Why? In this case, the researchers think it could be the effect of a fatty acid called alpha linoleic acid or ALA, which is found in high quantities in flax seed."

Dr Grant Pierce from the University of Manitoba in Canada has been researching the impact of flax seed on blood pressure and cardiovascular health, as reported by Gloucestershire Live. He said: "Flax seed has three components that are good for you. It has ALA alpha laic acid which is an omega three fatty acid. The ALA is an anti inflammatory and we know that inflammation is important in most diseases including cardiovascular disease.

"Second component, of course is fibre which reduces cholesterol. We know cholesterol is important in heart disease as well. Third component is lance and malignant are antioxidants and we know oxidation is an important component of most diseases. So flax is unique because it has all three of these components."

In terms of the beneficial impact on health Dr Pierce said: "It seems to stop blockages in the arteries. It seems to stop irregular heartbeats that we don’t want. It seems to help in heart attacks and recovering from heart attacks. And most importantly, it seems to lower blood pressure in people with high blood pressure or what we call hypertension right now."