Angina sufferers may benefit from beetroot juice daily 2023

An Indian-origin researcher found that angina patients who drank beetroot juice daily for six months following stent placement were less likely to have a heart attack or need another surgery.

In a 300-patient study from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), 16% of angina patients experienced a significant cardiac or circulation incident, such as a heart attack or need for additional surgery, two years after receiving a stent.

At the British Cardiovascular Society meeting in Manchester, they reported that beetroot juice daily reduced this to 7.5 percent.

Beetroot juice gave 300 people inorganic nitrate without harm.

Due to its high inorganic nitrate content, beetroot juice improves patients, researchers found. Inorganic nitrate-free beetroot juice did not benefit study participants.

Inorganic nitrate is a nutrient that naturally occurring bacteria in the mouth convert to nitrite, which enzymes in the body transform into NO, a signaling molecule. NO may be responsible for blood vessel benefits.

“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.

Rathod said patients enjoyed that their therapy was natural and had no negative effects.

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) stents are put in thousands of coronary heart disease patients to expand a heart blood artery and relieve angina.

Within five years following PCI, 10% of patients have restenosis, when the stented blood channel narrows again and heart disease symptoms reappear.

Six months after stenting, beetroot juice patients had half the blood vessel narrowing as placebo patients.

“We will now take this to the next stage of trials in the hope that doctors can soon prescribe beetroot juice to ensure stents last longer to provide even more effective symptom relief,” Rathod added.

After stent installation, the team wants to prescribe beetroot juice. This may include non-angina stent recipients such heart attack survivors.