This is an article from Forbes outlining the effect beet juice has on blood pressure....... It can also help give great vascularity:
Drinking just one cup of beetroot juice can help lower your blood pressure according to researchers in the UK. The study, funded by The British Heart Foundation, and published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, found that participants with high blood pressure experienced a decrease of about 10 mm Hg following a daily dose of the juice.
The effect of the beetroot juice was most distinct three to six hours after it was consumed, but was still evident 24 hours later. The magic ingredient responsible for the impact on blood pressure is nitrate, with beetroots naturally containing high levels of this compound, and it performs its alchemy by increasing the levels of the gas nitric oxide in the circulation. The gas is said to relax and widen the blood vessels and thereby aid blood flow.
The daily dose of 250ml of beetroot juice (that***8217;s about eight ounces) used in the study contained 0.2g of dietary nitrate ***8211; the same amount you***8217;re likely to find in a large bowl of lettuce leaves, or in two beetroots. In the body, nitrate is first converted to a chemical called nitrite and then to nitric oxide. ***8220;We were surprised by how little nitrate was needed to see such a large effect,***8221; said Amrita Ahluwalia, Ph.D, lead author of the study and a professor of vascular pharmacology at The Barts and The London Medical School in London.
About 1 in 3 adults in the United States has high blood pressure which is recorded as two numbers ***8211; the first one refers to systolic pressure and the second to diastolic pressure. ***8220;Systolic***8221; indicates blood pressure when the heart beats while pumping blood, while ***8220;diastolic***8221; points to blood pressure when the heart is at rest between beats. A high blood pressure reading is one that exceeds 140/90 milimeters of mercury (mm Hg).
The recent study included eight women and seven men who had a systolic blood pressure between 140 to 159 mm Hg, did not have any other medical complications and who were not taking blood pressure medication. Over the course of the study, the group which drank the beetroot juice cut their systolic pressure by about 10 mm Hg, compared to the group which were given water with a small amount of nitrate.
If you do opt to incorporate beetroots into your daily diet, know that it***8217;s not just your blood pressure that can benefit from a glassful of the red juice. Previous studies have found that beetroot can increase stamina. A 2011 study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that drinking the juice enabled competitive-level cyclists to cut down the time it takes to ride certain distance. On average, riders were 2.8 percent quicker over a 4km distance and 2.7 percent faster over a 16.1km when they drank beetroot juice prior to competing in time trial. The results of the study demonstrated that the juice made the cyclists***8217; muscles and cardio-vascular system run more efficiently since they had a higher power output for the same level of effort.
