Hypercet became the advertising flavor of the moment during my most recent Google research on blood pressure. Impressed at the persistence of Adwords ad I decided to click over. A quick review of www.hypercet.com revealed this was a typical webaceutical – a proprietary blend with little beyond a basic ingredient list.
The product description text is classic FDA-Safe web-speak, first describing how the supplement is designed to “Support and maintain healthy, normal blood pressure already in the normal range.” This is then followed by an over-simplified clinical description of high blood pressure, and if the reader mistakenly links the two concepts together, well that is just the consumer’s fault. After all, at the end of the page the standard FDA disclaimer telling visitors this isn’t to treat any disease.
Interestingly and unlike most of these kinds of products, Hypercet is a powder, not a pill. You take it by the spoonful.
Hypercet ingredients and questionable claims
Lets see what makes up Hypercet’s “proprietary” formulae:
- Calcium (from Glycinate) 100mg
- Hypercet Claim: Calcium helps muscles, including your heart muscle, do their work of contracting and relaxing. Calcium also appears to help your nervous system regulate the level of pressure in your arteries.
- Research and Comment: Well, a single Regular Strength Tums contains twice as much elemental calcium. With the adult requirement for calcium at 1000mg (1200mg if you’re over 50), the amount in Hypercet in meaningless. Oh, and there is no clinical study showing that calcium supplementation reduces elevated blood pressure.
- Magnesium (from Glycinate) 100mg
- Hypercet Claim: is essential to good health
- Research and Comment: Yes. And a magnesium deficiency can increase blood pressure. But you need over 400mg a day – so again, Hypercet falls short. A serving of almonds has almost as much magnesium.
- Malic Acid 87mg
- Hypercet Claim: Malic acid is an important part of the Krebs cycle, a series of chemical reactions carried out in the living cell, and is used by the body to increase ATP, an enzyme that supports muscle health, reduces muscle stress, and assists to improve energy levels in the body.
- Research and Comment: I love it when a supplement company quotes something out of Biology 101 and then notes a key ingredient in the described biological function happens to be in their product. Malic acid is found in tart fruits (apples, pears, tomatoes, bananas and cherries) and many of the “super-tart” candies. The human body makes quite a bit of malic acid on its own and does not require any to be consumed. No research indicates any affect on high blood pressure from malic acid.
- Citric Acid 87mg
- Hypercet Claim: Citric acid is essential to the Krebs cycle, Citric acid, together with malic acid, are involved with complex chemical actions, resulting in the production of carbon dioxide, and its removal from the cells. Citric acid is also used as a natural preservative to maintain freshness of many products, and serves this role, as well, in the Hypercet BPF.
- Research and Comment: See above. Citric acid is common in citrus fruits. It is also a pure chemical and is never described as a “natural” preservative. There is no known study that indicates that citric acid has any affect on blood pressure.
- Glycine 72mg
- Hypercet Claim: Glycine is plays an important role in supporting healthy blood in your body. It is involved in the manufacture of nitrogen to process many other amino acids, and useful in the processing of hemoglobin, glutathione, DNA, and RNA. It helps with brain function, and is important for a healthy prostate gland.
- Research and Comment: Glycine in a non-essential amino acid – in other words, your body naturally produces all you need. A few studies have previously shown some positive results in rats indicating glycine could play a roll in blood pressure treatment. However, a well-designed study in 2008 demonstrated that dietary glycine as a single amino acid may in fact increase blood pressure.
- Undocumented ‘Filler’ 3554mg
- Research and Comment: gotta fill that spoon up with something! Lemonade mix?
Claims from www.hypercet.com/ingredients.php retrieved 5 Oct 2009.
Poor Customer Service While Making Customers Poorer
While it may be legal for Health Buy to market this supplement, it certainly does not appear to be anything that could affect blood pressure – unless all the negative reports and customer service complaints are true. Of course, that would send your blood pressure in the wrong direction.
The site features a large “Money Back Guarantee” graphic and headline. And asterisk. Health Buy is certainly hoping you stop at “We believe in offering the very best value, quality and selection to our customers” and don’t actually read the disclaimer on the site:
Your complete satisfaction is our ultimate goal. You may return any item shipped by HealthBuy.com or GSCM fulfillment, keeping the following in mind:
- You should return the item to us within 90 days of your purchase date.
- There is a $10.00 restocking fee for each unopened item ($5 if item was less than $20).
- We do not accept items back that have been opened or used. Opened Items are Non Refundable.
- Shipping and Handling Fees are Non Refundable.
What kind of money-back guarantee is this? Not much of a guarantee, but then again, not much of a blood pressure remedy either.
Reference Notes:
L-Serine lowers while glycine increases blood pressure in chronic L-NAME-treated and spontaneously hypertensive rats (PMID: 19062365 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]).
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
You are incorrect in saying citric acid does not lower blood pressure. I can assure you that it does – for me. I noticed a big drop in BP after eating a trail mix with citric acid in it. It took some trial and error but I finally figured out it was the citric acid that was doing it. I purchased some and use it whenever my BP gets over 140/80. It works very quickly