In the year 475 AD, Basiliscus seized power of the Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire after a revolt forced the emperor Zeno out of the capital of Constantinople.

These days, if you want to seize power over your cardiovascular empire and take control of your blood pressure, research suggests you throw your support behind Lactobacillus.

Lactobacillus is one of the bacteria charged with keeping a proper balance between competing microbes in your gastrointestinal system, so that you can maintain good digestion, steady blood glucose levels, and a healthy immune system, and avoid body-wide inflammation.

Doctors have known for a while that if you're short on lactobacillus, you may trigger or worsen ulcerative colitis and other gastro-inflammatory problems.

But recently, research has revealed that lactobacillus also may play a role in maintaining a healthy blood pressure.

Writing in the journal Nature, researchers explain that lactobacillus can restore the proper balance of salt in your system.

When the researchers fed lab rodents a high-salt diet, it triggered high blood pressure. But when the researchers gave the animals lactobacillus, their blood pressure dropped.

So if you're fighting high blood pressure, give a regimen of lactobacillus supplements a try.

We like Culturelle, which has Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus GG, and Digestive Advantage, which are designed to survive the trip through corrosive stomach acids.

You also can get smaller lactobacillus doses from yogurt and kefir, but you'd have to eat more than several quarts a day to get the same number of Lactobacillus colonies.