The Benefits of Beetroot |
When healthy volunteers drank the juice their blood pressure dropped within the hour.
What was causing this effect? Nitrates. These nitrates are also present in other green, leafy vegetables that you are encouraged to eat in your nutrient rich diets.
Professor Amrita Ahluwalia of the William Harvey Research Institute at Barts and the London School of Medicine was leading the research, along with Professor Ben Benjamin of the Peninsula Medical School.
How does the nitrate reduce high blood pressure?When the beetroot is chewed, saliva mixes with it along with bacteria from off the tongue. It is then converted into nitrite. Then we have another chemical reaction when it reaches the stomach. Because the stomach has an acidic environment, another chemical reaction occurs, the nitrite in the saliva turns to nitric oxide or will re-enter the circulation again as nitrite.
Observation showed that the peak time of reduced blood pressure correlated with the peak levels of nitrite in the circulation of those who swallowed their saliva and that was significant because the volunteers who were asked not to swallow during, or for a further 3 hours after chewing the beetroot, did not experience such results.
The peak drop in blood pressure happened 3 - 4 hours after chewing and swallowing but it went on dropping gradually for up to 24 hours. The leading 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."
We can wait around for future research to see whether or not these results favour with high blood pressure sufferers or we can try this experiment at home. Be cautious if you are in danger of hypercalemia. If not, and you can stomach drinking 500mls of beetroot juice every day, or start a diet packed with beetroot, then go for it! Let me know the results so I can publish it here on highbloodpresssureinfo.org. That day will be the best news for high blood pressure sufferers and bad news for Big Pharma!
Gem
As well as the benefits of beetroot I also have listed other food that will benefit you... Hope the Benefits of Beetroot will help drop your pressure. Now to Home Page...
