How Beet Juice Prevents Dementia

Drinking beet juice can enhance blood blow to the brain in aging adults according to researchers doing a new study..This has been demonstated for the first time and could hold increased potential for fighting the progression of dementia.

"There have been several very high-profile studies showing that drinking beet juice can lower blood pressure, but we wanted to show that drinking beet juice also increases perfusion, or blood flow, to the brain," said Daniel Kim-Shapiro. "There are areas in the brain that become poorly perfused as you age, and that's believed to be associated with dementia and poor cognition."

The concentrations of nitrates found in beets is high.,High nitates are in celery, cabbage and other leafy green vegetables like some lettuce and spinach. When you eat high-nitrate foods, good bacteria in your mouth turn nitrate into nitrite. Researchers have discovered that nitrites can assist in opening up the blood vessels in your body. This increases blood flow and oxygen to places that are low in oxygen.

In this new study which is the first to find a link between eating or drinking nitrate rich beet juice and the increased blood flow to the brain, researchers studied how dietary nitrates affected 14 adults age 70 and older over a period of four days.

On day one, the study participants reported to the lab after completing a health status report, fasting for 10 hours, and eating either a high- or low-nitrate breakfast. The high-nitrate breakfast included 16 ounces of beet juice. They were sent home with lunch, dinner and snacks conforming to their assigned diets.

On day two, after another 10-hour fast, the participants returned to the lab, where they ate their assigned breakfasts. One hour after breakfast, an MRI recorded the blood flow in each participant's brain. Blood tests before and after breakfast confirmed nitrite levels in the body.

For day three and four of the study, the researchers switched the diets and repeated the process for each participant.

The MRIs showed that after eating a high-nitrate diet, the seniors had increased blood flow to the white matter of the frontal lobe of their brain. This is the area of the brain which is associated with degeneration that leads to dementia and other cognitive disorders.

"I think these results are consistent and encouraging – that good diet consisting of a lot of fruits and vegetables can contribute to overall good health," said Gary MillerGary Miller, associate professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science and one of the senior scientists on this project.

reported by Susan Berg, author of

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