Football teams are claiming it improves their athletic
performance, and according to new research from Kansas State University, it
also benefits heart failure patients. The special ingredient: beetroot.
Recently, the Auburn University football team revealed its
pregame ritual of taking beetroot concentrate, or beet juice, before each game.
The juice may have contributed to the team's recent winning season — and one
exercise physiologist who has been studying the supplement for several years
says that may be the case.
"Our research, published in the journal Physiology
in 2013, has shown that the nitrate found in beetroot concentrate increases
blood flow to skeletal muscles during exercise," said David Poole,
professor of exercise kinesiology and anatomy and physiology at Kansas State
University. The journal Physiology is widely regarded as the world's
premiere physiology journal.
The researchers' latest study, "Microvascular oxygen
pressures in muscles comprised of different fiber types: Impact of dietary nitrate
supplementation," was published in the Journal of Nitric Oxide, Biology
and Chemistry. This work provides the basis for how beetroot juice may
benefit football players by preferentially increasing blood flow to fast-twitch
muscle fibers — the ones used for explosive running. This work was performed by
Poole; Scott Ferguson, doctoral student in anatomy and physiology; and Timothy
Musch, professor of exercise kinesiology and anatomy and physiology, all at
Kansas State University.
In addition to improving athletic performance, the research
also found that beetroot juice can improve the quality of life for heart
failure patients.
"Remember, for every one football player in the United
States, there are many thousands of heart failure patients that would benefit
from this therapy," Poole said. "It's a big deal because even if you
can only increase oxygen delivery by 10 percent, that can be the difference
between a patient being wheelchair-bound versus getting up and walking around
and interacting with his or her family."
The benefits of beetroot come from the nitrate found within
it. The amount of nitrate in one 70-milliliter bottle of beetroot juice is
about the same amount found in 100 grams of spinach.
"When consumed, nitrate is reduced in the mouth by
bacteria into nitrite," Ferguson said. "The nitrite is swallowed
again and then reduced to nitric oxide, which is a potent vasodilator. The
nitric oxide dilates the blood vessels, similar to turning on a water faucet,
and allows blood to go where it needs to go."
The beetroot juice consumption resulted in a 38 percent
higher blood flow to the skeletal muscles during exercise and was preferential
to the less-oxygenated, fast-twitch muscles.
"Heart failure is a disease where oxygen delivery to
particular tissues, especially working skeletal muscles, is impaired,
decreasing the capacity to move the arms or legs and be physically
active," Poole said. "The best therapy for these patients is getting
up and moving around. However, that is often difficult. Increasing the oxygen
delivery to these muscles through beetroot can provide a therapeutic avenue to
improve the quality of life for these patients."
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