Beetroot juice may aid people with coronary heart disease – study

New research shows that a glass of juice a day could reduce inflammation in people with heart disease.

Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease and is the most common cause of heart attacks.

People with the condition have lower levels of nitric oxide which is important for good health. It has anti- inflammatory effects and regulates blood pressure.

According to Dr Asad Shabbir, clinical research fellow at Queen Mary University of London, inflammation protects the body from injury and infections. People with coronary heart disease have a higher risk of a heart attack due to inflammation in the arteries.

One way to get nitrates into our diet is by drinking a glass of juice from beets. The research was presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference.

Researchers looked at whether a daily juice high in nitrate would affect inflammation or not.

The volunteers were studied. Some of them received a vaccine to increase inflammation in their blood vessels, while others were given a cream to make a small blisters on their skin.

Volunteers drank 140ml of juice a day. Half of the people drank juice with nitrate in it, while the other half drank juice without nitrate.

The group that received the typhoid vaccine had higher levels of markers of nitric oxide in their blood, urine, and saliva than the group that did not.

The cells that line the inside of blood vessels were restored by the high nitrate juice. The vital part of the blood vessels is lost in inflammation.

The number of inflammatory white blood cells in fluid samples taken from blisters was lower after three days in the group that drank the nitrate-rich beetroot juice.

The increased levels of nitric oxide helped to speed up how quickly the volunteers were able to recover from inflammation, according to the researchers. Millions of people with heart disease could benefit from this.

There are plans to conduct clinical trials to see if a high nitrate diet reduces the risk of heart attacks.

Prof James Leiper, the BHF associate medical director said, "This research suggests that increasing the level of inorganic nitrate in your diet could help to reduceInflammation in your body." Inflammation plays an important role in the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases and therefore interventions that can reduce inflammation have the potential to be future treatments.

The research being presented at the conference shows that people with Takotsubo syndrome have different areas of the brain associated with emotion. Changes in brain activity were found by the University of Aberdeen.