Watermelon juice prevented increased post-exercise systolic and diastolic blood pressure in females. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Effect of acute watermelon juice supplementation on post-submaximal exercise heart rate recovery, blood lactate, blood pressure, blood glucose and muscle soreness in healthy non-athletic men and women.
Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2019 Oct 10:1-8. Epub 2019 Oct 10. PMID: 31597484
Kara Blohm
The objective of this study was to determine the effects of a single pre-exercise dose of watermelon juice on submaximal post-exercise heart rate (HR) recovery, blood lactate (BL), blood pressure (BP), blood glucose (BG), and muscle soreness in healthy adults. In a randomised crossover design, 27 healthy non-athletic participants (13 males/14 females) consumed 355 mL of watermelon juice, Gatorade, sugar water, or water. HR and BL were significantly higher post-exercise, and both watermelon juice and sugar water increased postprandial BG. However, there were no significant differences among the supplements in HR recovery, BL, or post-exercise muscle soreness. Watermelon juice prevented increased post-exercise systolic and diastolic BP in females, but not in males. More research is warranted to examine the effect of sex on the efficacy of watermelon consumption for controlling BP.