Root vegetable, and potential lifesaver?
Drinking 500ml of beetroot juice a day can significantly reduce
blood pressure, UK research suggests.
The key beneficial ingredient appears to be nitrate, which is
also found in green, leafy vegetables.
The researchers found that in healthy volunteers
blood pressure was reduced within an hour of drinking the juice.
The study, by Barts and the London School of
Medicine and the Peninsula Medical School, could suggest a low-cost
way to treat hypertension.
Drinking beetroot juice, or consuming other
nitrate-rich vegetables, might be a simple way to maintain a healthy
cardiovascular system
Professor Amrita Ahluwalia
Barts and The London School of Medicine
Previously the protective effects of vegetable-rich diets have
been attributed to their antioxidant vitamin content.
While it took less than an hour to note a reduction
in blood pressure in the beetroot juice tests, it was more pronounced
after three to four hours and a degree of reduction continued
to be observed for up to 24 hours, the report published on the
online journal Hypertension said.
Saliva breakdown
The researchers showed that nitrate in the juice
is converted in saliva, by bacteria on the tongue, into nitrite.
This nitrite-containing saliva is swallowed,
and in the acidic environment of the stomach is either converted
into nitric oxide or re-enters the circulation as nitrite.
The peak time of reduction in blood pressure
correlated with the appearance and peak levels of nitrite in the
circulation.
No such drop in blood pressure was recorded in
a second group of volunteers, who did not swallow their saliva
while drinking beetroot juice, or for three hours afterwards.
More than 25% of the world's adult population
are hypertensive, and it has been estimated that this figure will
increase to 29% by 2025.
Hypertension causes around 50% of coronary heart
disease, and approximately 75% of strokes.
In total, cardiovascular disease kills over 110,000
people in England every year.
Researcher Professor Amrita Ahluwalia said: "Our
research suggests that drinking beetroot juice, or consuming other
nitrate-rich vegetables, might be a simple way to maintain a healthy
cardiovascular system, and might also be an additional approach
that one could take in the modern day battle against rising blood
pressure."
Professor Graham McGregor, of the British Hypertension
Society, described the research as "interesting".
He said: "This shows that beetroot juice
lowers blood pressure in the short term in volunteers with normal
blood pressure.
"What we need now is research to see whether
it has an effect on people with high blood pressure over a much
longer period of time."
Professor McGregor said there was a growing body
of work showing that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables had a
beneficial impact on hypertension.
But he said previous research had suggested that
potassium may be the key mineral.
Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation,
said: "Whilst beetroot juice was used in this study, it is
unlikely that people will be able to - or wish to - consume it
in the quantities used in the research.
"Although we know that eating a diet rich
in fruit and vegetables as part of a well balanced diet is beneficial
to heart health, we do not know yet whether there are certain
fruits or vegetables that are more helpful than others and so
for now, people should continue to choose a wide variety in achieving
their five a day. "
Extract from Bob Longmore's article in the Australian
Pharmacist published Sept 2008, vol 27, No 9, pages768-770 under
the title Beetroot for better health.
In a right pickle – the case for beetroot.
By Bob Longmore
Few would think of beetroot as a herbal medicine
but present evidence suggests that the root is a rich source of
therapeutic benefits.
Perhaps the most exciting feature of beetroot
may be its role as cancer preventative or at least supplement
to healthy resistance to cancer.
Recent research findings bear witness to this
faith put in the use of beetroot juice by cancer patients. Beetroot
extract exhibited in vitro inhibition of Epstein-Barr virus early
antigen induction.
I am a strong supporter of the ‘food as
medicine’ philosophy and find the recent findings on the
value of beetroot almost a life changing experience! While we
may not see beetroot and its active constituents on the Pharmacy
shelves in the guise of a formulated complementary medicine, I
am sure that readers should take the findings to heart and act
accordingly. Let fresh and cooked beetroot become an important
addition to the diet.
27/05/2013
Drinking a glass of beet juice may have an immediate
impact on lowering blood pressure, according to a new study.
The study shows that within hours of drinking
it, beet juice lowered systolic blood pressure (the top number
in a blood pressure reading) by an average of 4-5 points among
a small group of healthy men.
Researchers say that drop may seem small, but
on a public health level a reduction like that would equate to
a 10% reduction in deaths due to heart disease.
“It’s promising that we can see an
effect from a single dose,” says researcher Leah Coles,
PhD, a research fellow at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute
in Melbourne, Australia. “That effect might be even greater
over the long term if they are drinking it day upon day.”
Beetroot Benefits
Previous studies have shown that beet juice,
also known as beetroot juice, can lower blood pressure in a laboratory
setting. But researchers say this is the first study to look at
the effects of adding beet juice to a heathy person’s diet
without making any other diet or lifestyle changes.
The results appear in Nutrition Journal.
In the study, 15 men and 15 women drank either
17.6 ounces of a beet juice beverage consisting of about three-fourths
beet juice and one-fourth apple juice, or a placebo juice. They
were then monitored for 24 hours. The same procedure was repeated
two weeks later, with those who drank the placebo on the first
round receiving beetroot juice on the second.
Among both men and women, the results showed
a trend to lower systolic blood pressure six hours after drinking
the beet juice.
But when researchers limited their analysis to
men only, they found a significant reduction of about 4.7 points
among those who drank the beetroot juice.
Previous studies have also suggested that beetroot’s
blood-pressure-lowering effects may not be as strong in women.
In this case, Coles says it may be partially
explained by the fact that the women in the study tended to be
older, and many were on prescription medications, such as oral
contraceptives.
Please note the opinions expressed on this web
site are not to be relied upon. You should always have your health
monitored by a health professional.
