Beetroot juice supplement lowers blood pressure in COPD patients: study

Nutrition

By Tracy Swartz

Popular beetroot juice supplements lower blood pressure and improve fitness in people with serious lung conditions, a new study has found.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) sufferers who consumed a daily beetroot juice supplement for 12 weeks reduced their blood pressure and increased the distance they could walk in 6 minutes, SWNS reports.

“COPD cannot be cured so there is a pressing need to help patients live as well as they can with the condition and to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease,” said Apostolos Bossios, head of the European Respiratory Society’s airway disease assembly.

COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, affects around 400 million people worldwide.

The inflammatory lung disease causes breathing difficulties, severely limits people’s capacity for physical activity, and increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The findings of the latest study, conducted by researchers at Imperial College London, were published Tuesday in the European Respiratory Journal.

Researchers tested a concentrated beetroot juice supplement high in nitrate against a beetroot juice placebo that looked and tasted the same but had the nitrate removed.

“Higher levels of nitrate in the blood can increase the availability of nitric oxide, a chemical that helps blood vessels relax,” said Prof. Nicholas Hopkinson, who led the study.

“It also increases the efficiency of muscles, meaning they need less oxygen to do the same work,” he explained.

Beetroot juice grew in popularity after Leicester City soccer players credited it with helping them recover quicker and avoid injury during their stunning run for the Premier League title in 2016.

In the Imperial College study, 81 COPD patients treated at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London were randomly given the nitrate-rich beetroot supplement or the placebo.

Researchers found that those who took the nitrate-rich supplement experienced a notable reduction in their systolic blood pressure compared to those who consumed the placebo — and they walked 98 feet farther on average in 6 minutes.

“At the end of the study, we found that the blood pressure of people taking the nitrate-rich beetroot juice drink was lower and their blood vessels became less stiff,” Hopkinson said.

“This is one of the longest-duration studies in this area so far,” he added. “The results are very promising, but will need to be confirmed in larger, longer-term studies.”