Blood Pressure and Beetroot

According to a 2012 study, drinking beetroot juice lowers the blood pressure in healthy people. Two randomized, placebo-controlled studies were done with people without blood pressure problems. Randomized means the participants were assigned by chance, and placebo-controlled means there was a comparison group that didn't take beetroot juice. Blood pressure was measured for 24 hours after consumption in all participants. Eighteen participants received either beetroot juice in varying concentrations (0, 100, 250 and 500 g); another 14 people received bread fortified with beetroot, bread with white beet, and control bread. The results showed that beetroot juice significantly lowered both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The breads enriched with beetroot or white beet also lowered blood pressure noticeably, though to a lesser extent.

In another study, blood pressure in healthy people was reduced by about 10 mmHg three hours after taking 500 ml of beetroot juice at the same time, plasma nitrite levels increased.

It's actually the nitric oxide (NO) in beetroot that can do so much good. It has a very positive effect on many processes in the body: NO increases the oxygen content in the blood, causes blood vessels to widen and thereby improves oxygen delivery to tissues. NO regulates the clumping of blood platelets (thrombocytes), reducing the risk of atherosclerosis. And NO supports the immune system.

But the nitrite found in beetroot is also important. As early as the 1970s, F. Murad discovered that organic nitrates can act as vasodilators. Another pharmacologist, R. F. Furchgott, found a factor in the inner lining of blood vessels that causes the muscle tension in the vessel wall to relax. At the end of the 1980s that factor was identified independently by Furchgott and L. J. Ignarro: it was NO. In 1998 these three researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize for their findings that NO can play a key role in treating cardiovascular-diseases and their consequences.

Soon after already in 1999 the FDA in the USA approved the gas INOmax. It's a mixture of different nitric oxides used to lower blood pressure in newborns with pulmonary hypertension (when the lungs fail). NO is also used today to support heart surgery.

Organic Beetroot Juice R³benherz

The Austrian organic juice maker fitrabbit offers a concentrated organic beetroot juice. The nitrate content is about five times that of regular beetroot juice. The manufacturer recommends 100 ml per day, which is equivalent to half a liter of the regular juice. Packaged in a convenient 3-liter box, it keeps for months without refrigeration.
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This article comes from BloodPressureDB – the leading app since 2011 that helps hundreds of thousands monitor their blood pressure every day. Our content is based on carefully researched, evidence-based data and is continuously updated (as of 03/2024).

Author Sabine Croci is a qualified medical assistant with many years of experience in internal medicine and cardiology practices as well as in outpatient care, and has led BloodPressureDB's specialist editorial team since 2015. Thanks to her extensive additional qualifications as a paramedic, first responder and in various therapy and emergency areas, she provides solid, practical and reliably reviewed information.

Blood Pressure and Beetroot

Organic Beetroot Juice R³benherz

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