Daily Dose of Beet Juice Promotes Brain Health in Older Adults

Researchers for the first time have shown that drinking beet juice can increase blood flow to the brain in older adults -- a finding that could hold great potential for combating 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, director of Wake Forest University's Translational Science Center; Fostering Independence in Aging. "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 MRIs showed that after eating a high-nitrate diet, the older adults had increased blood flow to the white matter of the frontal lobes -- the areas of the brain commonly associated with degeneration that leads to dementia and other cognitive conditions.

By Alicia Roberts

Original Paper:

Tennille D. Presley, Ashley R. Morgan, Erika Bechtold, William Clodfelter, Robin W. Dove, Janine M. Jennings, Robert A. Kraft, S. Bruce King, Paul J. Laurienti, W. Jack Rejeski. Acute effect of a high nitrate diet on brain perfusion in older adults. Nitric Oxide, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.niox.2010.10.002

Source:

http://news.wfu.edu/2010/11/03/benefits-of-beet-juice/