Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Beetroot Juice Helps High Blood Pressure


A novel study has been performed in the UK that may explain the beneficial effects of certain foods on the cardiovascular system. The study involves beet juice for lowering blood pressure.

In the study, people who drank 500ml of beet juice daily experienced significantly lower blood pressure within one hour of ingestion. The lowest blood pressure was seen 2.5 hours after drinking beet juice, and it stayed that way for twenty four hours.

We already know that foods rich with inorganic nitrates benefit the heart. People who are placed on fruit and vegetable diets show improvement in cardiovascular health, but the mechanism isn't completely understood. Previous research has tied the benefits to the antioxidant effect of fruits and vegetables, yet studies cannot reproduce this with antioxidant supplements. Antioxidant supplements have even been shown be harmful in recent large studies.

Researchers, Dr. Andrew Webb and colleagues, from Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, UK may have discovered how this works.

Nitric oxide (NO) has been exhaustively researched as it relates to vascular health. Viagra works on this very premise. Viagra regulates the blood vessels by making them relax. It increases the availability of nitric oxide, enhancing penile blood flow. Another example is Nitroglycerin, used to treat angina. Nitroglycerin relaxes blood vessels, improving blood flow and lowering blood pressure. Several pharmaceuticals rely on this premise for disease management.

Dr Amrita Ahluwalia, (Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry), has noted recent studies. Nitric oxide may not just produce waste as previously thought, so it was decided to test this theory further. Higher levels of circulating nitrites and nitrates were measureable after consuming beet juice.

A very interesting piece of the study includes the way saliva acts to concentrate nitrates. Participants in the study who spit out their saliva did not experience lower blood pressures. Apparently, bacteria on the back of the tongue provide a nifty service by converting nitrate to nitrite. The process seems to go on for hours. This effect was measured by having some of the group spit out their saliva for a period of three hours. The effect of lower blood pressure was not seen.

We've come to a likely conclusion - consuming nitrate rich foods may very well play a role in blood pressure management through the chemical reduction of nitrite to nitrous oxide.

Though the study was done with people who had normal blood pressure, the authors feel the results should be even more impressive in the presence of hypertension.

Their proposal includes incorporating beetroot juice as an adjunct for controlling high blood pressure - sans spitting. It makes sense to me!

Ref: http://www.theheart.org/article/842909.do
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4 comments:

  1. This is a fascinating study, Kathleen. I've long known that fresh beet juice is beneficial in treating hypertension, but have always been fuzzy on the nuts and bolts of it. Nitrate rich foods, yes. And, beets have a high amount of inorganic iron, now generally chastised by the medical community, as a scourge. But, iron is an oxygen carrier, which, to me, has always meant that this had much to do with beets' blood pressure lowering capabilities. I dunno. Am still trying to figure all this out.

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  2. Hi Jack,
    Thanks for your comment. It is true that Iron is essential to carry oxygen. However, Iron is stored in the body and for those who cannot process it properly, too much iron can become damaging to the organs. The condition is known as hemochromatosis. It can damage the heart, liver and kidneys. It is actually a metabolism disorder, usually inherited and affects mostly men between age 30 and 50. The worry from the medical community is that just a very small amount of excess iron can cause damage.

    There is a good explanation at this link:

    http://www.vitamins-nutrition.org/vitamins/iron-overdose.html

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  3. One thing that must also be considered is where you get the iron. If you supplement the iron it may not be at the dosage or even beneficial at all depending on how it is processed. It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell what products are what they say they are, and that is why I think you should find good user reviews for iron products if you are going to supplement. You could always start at sites like Nutritional Tree or Epinions.

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