Beet Juice & Blueberries For Reducing High Blood Pressure

Two new studies have shown that drinking beet juice (known as beetroot juice in Great Britain) or eating blueberries can help reduce blood pressure. One of these studies comes from researchers in London who report that drinking a daily dose of beetroot juice lowered blood pressure in people with hypertension. The beverage also reduced arterial stiffness among the participants. The investigators credit the nitrate in the juice with the changes. They randomly divided 68 people with high blood pressure into two groups and assigned one group to drink 250 mL (just over a cup) of beetroot juice daily and the other group to drink a similar tasting beverage that contained no nitrate. The study lasted for four weeks.  The blueberry study comes from Florida State University where researchers randomly divided 40 postmenopausal women with high blood pressure into two groups. Those in one group were assigned to eat 22 grams of freeze-dried blueberry powder (equivalent to a cup of blueberries) every day for eight weeks. The women in the other group were given a placebo that looked and tasted like the blueberry powder. Results showed a 5.1 percent decrease in systolic blood pressure (the top number) and a 6.3 percent decrease in diastolic pressure in the blueberry group. Here, levels of nitric oxide, known to be involved in relaxing and widening blood vessels, increased significantly in the blueberry eaters. No blood pressure changes occurred among the women in the placebo group.