Researchers have discovered that daily consumption of 500ml of beetroot juice helps to lower high blood pressure significantly. Their research indicates that it’s due to the consumption of dietary nitrate found in beetroot juice as well as green leafy veggies containing these compounds – something previously attributed to antioxidant content of veggie-rich diets.
Researchers observed a blood pressure reduction among healthy participants within one hour after drinking beetroot juice, with peak results occurring three to four hours post consumption and some extent of reduction lasting up to 24 hours post consumption.
Researchers found that blood pressure reduction resulted from the formation of nitrite from juice’s dietary nitrate. Nitrate in juice is converted to nitrite by bacteria on tongue. Once swallowed, this saliva containing the nitrite either goes back into circulation as nitric oxide or back into circulation as nitrite.
Peak blood pressure reduction time corresponded with peak circulating nitrite levels; an effect which was lacking among participants who did not swallow their saliva while drinking beetroot juice and for three hours after.
Over 25% of the world population is hypertensive and it’s projected that this figure will rise to 29% by 2025. Hypertension accounts for 50% of coronary heart diseases and 75% of strokes.
Studies show that drinking beetroot juice daily helps lower blood pressure and endurance in older individuals with preserved ejection fraction heart failure.
Unable to tolerate exercise, fatigue and breathlessness with regular exertion is the signature sign of heart failure for preserved ejection fraction. This may be the result of non-cardiac factors reducing oxygen delivery to active skeletal muscles.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is an emerging medical condition which measures how efficiently the left ventricle pumps with each heart beat. Most often found among older women, this form of heart failure has quickly become the leading type of cardiovascular illness and an important contributor to its rapid spread.
Emerging evidence demonstrates that supplementation of inorganic nitrate can have positive impacts on oxygen metabolism, exercise capacity, cardiovascular health and blood pressure control.
19 individuals participated in a study designed to determine whether taking one dose of beetroot juice on multiple days or simply once is the more effective approach for improving exercise intolerance.
Blood pressure and aerobic endurance were initially assessed after participants consumed either a placebo or one dose of beetroot juice.
Beetroot juice was given daily to each participant for seven days on average and their blood pressure and endurance measured. Each dose contained approximately 6 millimoles of inorganic nitrate.
Researchers found that regularly drinking beetroot juice improved aerobic endurance by 24% after one week, in comparison with once-only ingestion which led to no change. Cycling time to exhaustion at preset pace less than participant maximum was used as the standard measure of aerobic endurance.
Another result was that resting systolic blood pressure was significantly decreased through consumption of beetroot juice in both single dose and daily dose groups by 5–10 mmHg.
