Natural health enthusiasts here in Syracuse may be interested to know that it appears that beetroot juice is very good for your health. Daniel Williams has written for EurekAlert, "Beetroot juice could help people live more active lives", http://bit.ly/gV7gR0.
Williams has reported that new research into the health benefits of beetroot juice has suggested it's not only athletes who can benefit from its performance enhancing properties but that the positive physiological effects of beetroot juice could help the elderly or people with heart or lung-conditions enjoy more active lives. Ever since researchers at the University of Exeter found that beetroot juice enables people to exercise for up to 16% longer stories about beetroot juice have been hot items in sports science magazines. This has lead to many types of athletes investigating its potential uses.
In the most recent study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology the researchers observed low intensity exercise and found that test subjects used less oxygen while walking which effectively reduced the effort it took to walk by 12%. This article is titled "Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O₂ cost of walking and running: a placebo controlled study", http://bit.ly/eZQYfd.
Katie Lansley, a PhD student of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter and the lead author of the study has said "As you get older, or if you have conditions which affect your cardiovascular system, the amount of oxygen you can take in to use during exercise drops considerably. This means that, for some people, even simple tasks like walking may not be manageable. What we've seen in this study is that beetroot juice can actually reduce the amount of oxygen you need to perform even low-intensity exercise. In principle, this effect could help people do things they wouldn't otherwise be able to do."
When beetroot juice is consumed it has two marked physiological effects. Firstly, drinking beetroot juice widens blood vessels which reduces blood pressure and allows more blood flow. Secondly, drinking beetroot juice affects muscle tissue by reducing the amount of oxygen needed by muscles during activity. The combined effects of beetroot juice have a significant impact on performing physical tasks, whether these tasks involve low-intensity or high-intensity effort.
As of this time the research on the positive effects of beetroot juice has only been carried out on younger people who are in good health. However, the researchers believe there is no reason why the effects of beetroot juice would not also help others. Katie Lansley has gone on to say "While we haven't yet measured the effects on the elderly or those with heart or lung conditions, there is the potential for a positive impact in these populations which we intend to go on and investigate further."
There are high levels of nitrate in beetroot juice. This latest study has shown that nitrate is the key ingredient in beetroot juice which causes the increase in performance. Professor Andy Jones, who was the senior scientist of the study has commented "In this study, we were able to use - for the first time - both normal beetroot juice and beetroot juice with the nitrate filtered out. Test subjects didn't know which one they were getting. The drinks both looked and tasted exactly the same. Each time the normal, nitrate-rich juice was used, we saw a marked improvement in performance which wasn't there with the filtered juice – so we know the nitrate is the active ingredient."
People interested in active lifestyles here in Syracuse may want to join active people elsewhere in drinking beetroot juice to improve their endurance.
Photographer: Simon Howden
Mandel News Service: http://www.mandelnews.com
