Rate of repeat procedures and heart attacks in angina patients with stents reduced by daily beetroot juice

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 presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference.

The researchers, based at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Queen Mary University in London, found that 16 per cent 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 per cent.

Thousands of coronary heart disease patients each year in the UK have a stent implanted to widen one of the blood vessels in their heart and ease their angina, in a procedure known as a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Around 10 per cent of patients experience restenosis, where the stented blood vessel narrows again and heart disease symptoms return, within five years of a PCI. By advising that patients drink beetroot juice, doctors could soon reduce the chance that the stent fails in this way.When the blood vessel width of patients was measured six months after stenting, the vessels of those who had beetroot juice showed around half as much narrowing in that time as those who had the placebo treatment.

By stopping restenosis, beetroot juice could stop patients from having to have another PCI procedure that may also fail or a much more invasive coronary bypass surgery.

Reference:

Dr Krishnaraj Rathod et al,BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION