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The blood pressure-lowering effect of nitrate-rich beetroot juice in older people may be due to specific changes in their oral microbiome, according to the largest study of its kind. Nitrate is crucial to the body and is consumed as a natural part of a vegetable-rich diet. When the older adults drank a concentrated beetroot juice shot twice a day for two weeks, their blood pressure decreased—an effect not seen in the younger group. The new study provides evidence that this outcome was likely caused by the suppression of potentially harmful bacteria in the mouth. An imbalance between beneficial and harmful...

Drinking beetroot juice every day for six months after having a stent fitted reduced the chance of angina patients having a heart attack or needing a repeat procedure, according to new research. The researchers found that 16 percent of angina patients had a serious heart or circulatory incident, like a heart attack or need for another procedure, in the two years after having a stent fitted. However, when patients had beetroot juice daily, this dropped to 7.5 percent. Thousands of coronary heart disease patients each year in the UK have a stent implanted, in a procedure known as a percutaneous...

A new study has found that consuming dietary nitrate—the active molecule in beetroot juice—significantly increased muscle force while exercising. While it is known that dietary nitrate enhances exercise, both boosting endurance and enhancing high-intensity exercise, researchers still have much to learn about why this effect occurs, and how our bodies convert dietary nitrate that we ingest into the nitric oxide that can be used by our cells. To help close this gap traced the distribution of ingested nitrate in the saliva, blood, muscle and urine of ten healthy volunteers, who were then asked to perform maximal leg exercise. The team...

Drinking beetroot juice boosts stamina and could help people exercise for up to 16% longer, a UK study suggests. A University of Exeter team found nitrate contained in the vegetable leads to a reduction in oxygen uptake - making exercise less tiring. The small Journal of Applied Physiology study suggests the effect is greater than that which can be achieved by regular training. Beetroot juice has previously been shown to reduce blood pressure.