Beetroot juice lowers blood pressure and improves exercise capacity in COPD patients
Written By : Niveditha Subramani
Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli
Published On 2023-12-20 08:38 GMT | Update On 2023-12-22 09:11 GMT
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Beetroots are rich in nutrients and very delicious with salads and greens with high nitrate and iron content. A 12-week course of daily beetroot juice supplement for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) lowered blood pressure and improved how far patients could walk in six minutes in research published today (Wednesday) in the European Respiratory Journal .
COPD is a serious lung condition affecting around 400 million people worldwide . COPD which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, causes breathing difficulties and severely limits people’s capacity for physical activity. It also increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The new research tested a concentrated beetroot juice supplement that is high in nitrate against a beetroot juice placebo that looked and tasted the same but had the nitrate removed.
The study was carried out by researchers at Imperial College London, UK, led by Professor Nicholas Hopkinson. He said: “There is some evidence that beetroot juice as a source of nitrate supplementation could be used by athletes to improve their performance, as well as a few short-term studies looking at blood pressure. Higher levels of nitrate in the blood can increase the availability of nitric oxide, a chemical that helps blood vessels relax. It also increases the efficiency of muscles, meaning they need less oxygen to do the same work.”
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