Could Daily Beetroot Juice Improve Endurance in Older Adults?

A daily glass of beetroot juice can significantly improve exercise endurance and blood pressure in older patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF), according to a recent study.

Previous research has suggested that dietary inorganic nitrate supplememntation could benefit blood pressure control, vascular health, and oxygen metabolism, but its effects in low doses on exercise tolerance in patients with HFPEF has not been examined.
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For their research, investigators followed 20 HFPEF patients enrolled in a crossover study comparing single doses of beetroot juice (6.1 mmol nitrate) to placebo. Exercise tolerance was measured using cycling time to exhaustion.

In a second phase of the study, participants consumed 1 week of daily doses. Endurance and blood pressure were measured again at the end of the 7 days.

Overall, daily dosing of beetroot juice improved aerobic endurance by 24%, compared to no improvement with a single dose of beetroot juice. Juice consumption was also associated with a significant decrease in resting systolic blood pressure by 5 mmHg and 10mmHg in the single dose and daily dose groups, respectively.

“Our study suggests that targeted chronic delivery of nitrate through dietary consumption of oral inorganic nitrate could improve submaximal exercise tolerance,” they concluded.

“More, larger clinical trials are needed to determine whether dietary inorganic nitrate can truly help improve quality of life in patients with HFPEF.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Eggebeen J, Kim-Shapiro DB, Haykowsky M, et al. One week of daily dosing with beetroot juice improves submaximal endurance and blood pressure in older patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction. JACC Heart Failure. 2016 February [epup ahead of print]. doi:10.1016/j.jchf.2015.12.013.