A glass of beet juice a day may keep the cardiologist away. That’s the upshot of new research by Queen Mary University of London that found one serving of beetroot juice daily is enough to significantly reduce blood pressure in patients with hypertension.
Beetroot and some leafy vegetables contain high levels of inorganic nitrate, which they take up from the soil through their roots. In the human body, inorganic nitrate converts to nitric oxide, which relaxes and dilates blood vessels.
For the study, researchers tracked 64 hypertension patients — half of whom were taking high-blood pressure medication but were not managing to reach their target rate. The rest had been diagnosed with high blood pressure but were not yet taking medication for it,
Medical News Today reports.
The patients were randomly assigned to either drink a daily glass of beetroot juice or another juice free of nitrates for 4 weeks. Those drinking the beet juice were able to lower their blood pressure, according to the findings published in the journal Hypertension.
"This interesting study builds on previous research by this team and finds that a daily glass of beetroot juice can lower blood pressure in people with hypertension — even those whose high blood pressure was not controlled by drug treatment," said Shannon Amoils, M.D. an advisor to the British Heart Foundation, which funded the study.
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