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# Study explains why beetroot juice lowers blood pressure
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/beetroot_juice_lowers_blood_pressure_3006100930/
- Published: 2010-06-30T22:29:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T12:53:07.000Z
- Description: Queen Mary researchers gave healthy volunteers 250 ml of beetroot juice or nitrate capsules and found both lowered blood pressure within 24 hours, with larger drops in those starting higher. Whether people with hypertension would see the same effect is still unknown.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Food, Nutrition, Blood Pressure, Beetroot, #vivvo-import

Great news for those with hypertension or high blood pressure! Drinking beetroot juice helps lower blood pressure, according to a new study by researchers from Queen Mary University of London. 

Caution needs to be exercised because this blood pressure lowering effect was observed in healthy people. It still remains unknown whether people with health conditions like hypertension can lower blood pressure by drinking beetroot juice.

The study reported online in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension found blood pressure was lowered within 24 hours of taking nitrate supplements or drinking beetroot juice.

Amrita Ahluwalia, Professor of Vascular Biology at Queen Mary's William Harvey Research Institute and colleagues have early found beetroot juice lowers blood pressure, but did not know why. Their current study demonstrated that it is the nitrates in the beetroot juice that lower blood pressure.

High blood pressure is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, end-stage renal disease, and peripheral vascular disease and it is a chief contributor to adult disability. Heart disease is the biggest killer in the world.

According to a press release by Queen Mary University of London, nitrates found in beetroot juice increase the levels of the gas nitric oxide in the blood, which is known to help dilate arteries and improve blood flow.

For the study, the researchers gave inorganic nitrate capsules or 250 ml of beetroot juice to healthy people and measured the blood pressure responses. 

They found both nitrate capsules and beetroot juice lowered blood pressure and the higher the starting blood pressure, the greater the reduction.

Nearly one in four Americans live with high blood pressure, according to a report released in 2005 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are many things food consumers can do to lower their blood pressure and heart disease.

For example, taking vitamin C and arginine supplements may help lower blood pressure or heart disease as these compounds help produce the nitric oxide gas that dilates the arteries.

Garlic, DASH diet, tea, garden peas among others help lower blood pressure while obesity, salt, and fructose may promote development of high blood pressure.

By David Liu

Photo credit: kiwimedia commons