Drinking beet juice daily could prevent dementia?

Researchers found drinking beet juice can increase blood flow to the brain in older adults and suggested this humble juice may be enlisted to curb the progression of dementia.

The findings were reported online in Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry.

Daniel Kim-Shapiro, coauthor of the study, director of Wake Forest University's Translational Science Center; Fostering Independence in Aging was quoted as saying early studies have showed drinking beet juice can lower blood pressure, but the current study demonstrated the juice can increase blood flow to the brain.

Beet juice as well as celery, cabbage and other leafy green vegetables like spinach and some lettuce contain high levels of nitrates, which can be converted into nitrites by microbes in the mouth, according to a press release by Wake Forest University.  Nitrite was said to dilate blood vessels and increase blood flow.

The study followed 14 adults age 70 and older for four years.

In the study, one group of participants were assigned to drink 16 ounces of beet juice for breakfast and another group to eat breakfast with a low nitrate level. Next morning, the participants ate the same foods and drinks again. Then one hour after breakfast, an MRI scanned participants' brains to record the blood flow.

On the third and fourth days, two groups switched their diets and repeated everything that was done on the first two days.

The MRI results showed after eating a high-nitrate diet, there was an increase in blood flow to the white matter of the frontal lobes - the areas of the brain commonly linked with degeneration that leads to dementia and other cognitive conditions.

Jimmy Downs

Photo credit: wikipedia