The blood pressure lowering effect of nitrate-rich beetroot juice in older people may be due to specific changes in their oral microbiome, according to the largest study of its kind.

Researchers at the University of Exeter in England conducted the study which was published in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine. It followed previous research that had shown a high nitrate diet can reduce blood pressure—which, in turn, can reduce the risk of heart disease.

Nitrate is crucial to the body and is consumed as a natural part of a vegetable-rich diet. When older adults drank a concentrated ‘shot’ of beetroot juice twice a day for two weeks, their blood pressure decreased – an effect not seen in a younger group used for comparison.

“Encouraging older adults to consume more nitrate-

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