Dietary supplementation with inorganic nitrates was shown to be a feasible way to reduce blood pressure, according to a clinical trial recently published in the Journal of Nutrition.
 
In a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized setting, 47 participants who were between the ages of 50 and 70, who had elevated blood pressure, were randomly assigned to one of three groups for a period of 60 days. They took daily either a high-nitrate beetroot juice and folic acid (N+F), a high-nitrate beetroot juice or placebo (N+P), or a nitrate-depleted beetroot juice and placebo (P+P). Measurements of blood pressure were taken, as were measurements of compliance in plasma and saliva samples at baseline, 30 days, and 60 days into the trial.
 
After 60 days, systolic blood pressure dropped in the N+P group by an average of 10.8 points. It dropped by an average of 6.1 points and 0.3 points in the N+F and N+P groups, respectively.
 
Similarly the group taking high-nitrate beetroot juice and placebo saw the greatest decrease in diastolic blood pressure, averaging 5.4 points, compared to drops averaging 1.8 and 1.6 points in the N+F and P+P groups, respectively.
 
“Dietary interventions could play an important role in this regard,” the authors of the study said of the burgeoning hypertension epidemic in Tanzania. “Firstly, dietary interventions may help by reducing the strain on resource-limited healthcare systems, where the availability and affordability of medication are often restrictive. Secondly, individuals may be more receptive to consuming bioactive foods or nutritional supplements, rather than antihypertensive medications, owing to the reduced risk of side effects and negative cultural perceptions of Western medicine.”
 
Dietary nitrate has piqued scientific interest in recent years due to its potentially antihypertensive qualities. Likewise, preliminary research suggests that folate may hold antihypertensive properties via a separate mechanism, which is why researchers investigated whether the two compounds may hold additive benefits to hypertension. The results of the trial suggest that dietary inorganic nitrates were able to significantly lower blood pressure within the population of the study with or without the coadministration of folic acid.
 
“A key question to address going forward is whether similar benefits can be achieved through consumption of whole foods such as nitrate-rich salads which can be grown locally and produced at a low cost, rather than having to rely upon commercial nutritional supplements such as the highly concentrated beetroot juice used in this study,” the authors concluded. “The present study provides preliminary evidence that dietary inorganic nitrate supplementation, alone or in combination with folic acid, represents a potential nutritional strategy to help combat the burgeoning hypertension epidemic in Tanzania and other Sub-Saharan African countries.”