A Cup of Beetroot Juice a Day Lowers Blood Pressure

Drinking a cup of beetroot juice (about 8 ounces) can help lower blood pressure, a small study from the U.K. suggests.

Researchers found that consuming a cup of beetroot juice per day reduced blood pressure by 10mm Hg. The lowering of blood pressure is attributed to the nitrates in beetroot juice. The body converts nitrate to nitrite and then to nitric oxide, a gas that widens the blood vessels and helps in blood flow. The beetroot juice in the study had 0.2 g of dietary nitrate.

"Our hope is that increasing one's intake of vegetables with a high dietary nitrate content, such as green leafy vegetables or beetroot, might be a lifestyle approach that one could easily employ to improve cardiovascular health," said Amrita Ahluwalia, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a professor of vascular pharmacology at The Barts and The London Medical School in London.

About one in three adults in the U.S. has high blood pressure, a condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, kidney failure, stroke and many such diseases. According to National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, a person may be suffering from high blood pressure and not know about it for years because the disease usually has no signs or symptoms.

A new Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) report recently said that some 36 million adults in the U.S. aren't aware that they are suffering from high blood pressure.

The present study found that introducing a cup of beetroot juice a day might help lower blood pressure. However, this was a preliminary investigation and researchers say that more studies are required to understand the benefits of beetroot juice.

"We were surprised by how little nitrate was needed to see such a large effect. This study shows that compared to individuals with healthy blood pressure much less nitrate is needed to produce the kinds of decreases in blood pressure that might provide clinical benefits in people who need to lower their blood pressure. However, we are still uncertain as to whether this effect is maintained in the long term," Ahluwalia said in a news release.

The study included  eight women and seven men. The study participants had a systolic blood pressure between 140 to 159 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and weren't suffering from any other health complications. Participants were divided into two groups, with one receiving 250 ml (8.4 oz) of beetroot juice or plain water.

Study results showed that participants who got beetroot juice had lower blood pressure readings than those who were in the placebo group.

The study is published in the journal Hypertension.