Research paper
Dietary nitrate provides sustained blood pressure lowering in hypertensive patients: a randomized, phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Study answer
What this study found
Daily dietary nitrate lowered blood pressure and vascular risk markers over 4 weeks, with no tachyphylaxis and good tolerability. Clinic systolic blood pressure fell by 7.7 mm Hg (95% CI, 3.5-11.8; P<0.001) and diastolic by 2.4 mm Hg (95% CI, 0.0-4.9; P=0.050); 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure fell by 7.7/5.2 mm Hg (both P<0.001) and home blood pressure by 8.1/3.8 mm Hg (both significant). Endothelial function improved by about 20% (P<0.001), pulse wave velocity decreased by 0.59 m/s versus baseline and by 0.58 m/s versus placebo, and augmentation index decreased by 5.2% versus baseline and…
- Study & population
- Randomized, phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in adults with hypertension and uncontrolled ambulatory blood pressure, without manifest cardiovascular disease, conducted in the United Kingdom.
- Intervention
- Participants drank 250 mL beetroot juice orally once daily for 4 weeks.
- Key limitation
- Follow-up was short at 4 weeks, so durability and long-term cardiovascular outcomes were not assessed.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
UNLABELLED Single dose administration of dietary inorganic nitrate acutely reduces blood pressure (BP) in normotensive healthy volunteers, via bioconversion to the vasodilator nitric oxide. We assessed whether dietary nitrate might provide sustained …