Single dose of beetroot juice can lower blood pressure

Drinking a glass of beetroot juice can lower your blood pressure within hours, a new study has claimed.

Researchers from Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, found that within six hours of drinking beetroot juice lowered systolic blood pressure by an average of four to five points among a small group of healthy men.

Researchers say that drop may seem small, but on a public health level a reduction like that would equate to a 10 per cent reduction in deaths due to heart disease, website WebMD reported.

“It’s promising that we can see an effect from a single dose. That effect might be even greater over the long term if they are drinking it day upon day,” said researcher Leah Coles. Researchers said this is the first study to look at the effects of adding beetroot juice to a healthy person’s diet without making any other diet or lifestyle changes.

In the study, 15 men and 15 women drank either 500 ml of a beetroot juice beverage consisting of about three-fourths beet juice and one-fourth apple juice, or a placebo juice. They were then monitored for 24 hours. The same procedure was repeated two weeks later, with those who drank the placebo on the first round receiving beetroot juice on the second.

Among both men and women, the results showed a trend to lower systolic blood pressure six hours after drinking the beetroot juice.

When researchers limited their analysis to men only, they found a significant reduction of about 4.7 points among those who drank the beetroot juice. Previous studies have also suggested that beetroot’s blood-pressure-lowering effects may not be as strong in women.