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One-week beetroot juice regimen improves BP, endurance in older patients with HFpEF
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One week of daily dosing with beetroot juice improved systolic BP and submaximal aerobic endurance in older patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction, according to new findings.
Researchers investigated whether a regimen of beetroot juice, an inorganic nitrate, would improve exercise intolerance caused by reduction of oxygen delivery to active skeletal muscles. Previous research in older patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) had shown improvement in exercise capacity with a single dose of beetroot juice, but neutral or negative effects with administration of an organic nitrate, they wrote in JACC Heart Failure.
The researchers randomly assigned 20 patients with HFpEF (mean age, 69 years) to a single 6.1-mmol nitrate dose of beetroot juice or placebo beetroot juice without nitrates. All patients were then crossed over to a weeklong regimen of one daily dose of inorganic nitrate beetroot juice.
The primary outcome was submaximal aerobic endurance, defined as cycling time to exhaustion at 75% of maximal power output.
The researchers reported that there were no adverse events associated with consumption of beetroot juice and that submaximal aerobic endurance increased by 24% after 1 week of daily beetroot juice dosing (single placebo dose, 363 seconds; 1-week beetroot juice regimen, 449 seconds; P = .02).
However, compared with a single dose of placebo, a single dose of beetroot juice had no effect on submaximal aerobic endurance (P = .47), they wrote.
Compared with a single dose of placebo, a single dose of beetroot juice was associated with reduction in resting systolic BP (127 mm Hg vs. 134 mm Hg; P = .008) and a trend toward reduction in systolic BP after exercise (P = .06), the researchers found. Compared with a single dose of placebo, a 1-week regimen of beetroot juice was associated with reduction in resting (120 mm Hg vs. 134 mm Hg; P < .001) and post-exercise (P = .03) systolic BP, they wrote. There was no effect on diastolic BP.
“The mechanism for this effect [on endurance] is likely due to targeted delivery of [nitric oxide], which decreases systemic vascular resistance,” they wrote. – by Erik Swain
Disclosure: One researcher reports consulting for AbbVie, Actavis, Corvia Medical, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Regeneron and Relypsa; receiving grants from Novartis; and owing stock in Gilead Sciences and Relypsa.
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