Angina patients who had beetroot juice daily, the risk of heart attack dropped to 7.5 percent.
Beetroot juice was found to decrease the risk of angina (chest pain) patients having a heart attack, said researchers (1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Daily beetroot juice reduces rate of repeat procedures and heart attacks in angina patients with stents
Go to source). In a study of 300 patients, researchers from St Bartholomew's Hospital and Queen Mary University in London //(QMUL) found that 16 percent of angina patients had a serious heart or circulatory incident, like a heart attack or need for another procedure, in the two years after having a stent fitted.
‘Among chest pain (angina) patients, beetroot juice can be prescribed as a treatment to be taken after stent implantation. #beetrootjuice #hearthealth’
The researchers were able to show that beetroot juice helps patients, thanks to its natural high level of inorganic nitrate. Patients in the trial that had beetroot juice with inorganic nitrate removed did not get the same beneficial effects.
The Benefits of Beetroot Juice for Heart Health
Inorganic nitrate is a nutrient that gets converted to nitrite by naturally found bacteria in the mouth, which is then turned into the signalling molecule nitric oxide (NO) by enzymes in the body. It is thought that NO is the cause of the positive effects on patients' blood vessels.Beetroot juice was shown to be a safe and reliable way to get inorganic nitrate into the body, with no significant side effects experienced by any of the 300 patients.
"Experiments in the lab suggested that the inorganic nitrate, which is found naturally in beetroot juice, would have these effects, and it is very encouraging to see it create such a big improvement in the clinic for angina patients," said Dr. Krishnaraj Rathod, Clinical Senior Lecturer at the William Harvey Research Institute, QMUL.
"Our patients liked that their treatment was a completely natural product that has no significant side effects," Rathod said.
Thousands of coronary heart disease patients have a stent implanted to widen one of the blood vessels in their heart and ease their angina, in a procedure known as a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
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When the blood vessel width of patients was measured six months after stenting, the vessels of those who had beetroot juice showed around half as much narrowing in that time as those who had the placebo treatment.
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Reference:
- Daily beetroot juice reduces rate of repeat procedures and heart attacks in angina patients with stents - (https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2023/june/beetroot-juice-reduces-serious-incidents-angina-stents)