Beetroot juice boosts a healthy brain...

Drinking beetroot juice boosts healthy brains in older adults by increasing blood flow 

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 12:16 PM on 3rd November 2010

Beetroot juice increases blood flow to the frontal lobes - the areas of the brain commonly associated with degeneration that leads to dementia

Drinking beetroot juice increases blood flow to the brain, according to researchers - a finding that holds great promise for combating the progression of dementia.

Scientists from Wake Forest University in the U.S were investigating the effects of nitrates found in the dark red vegetable.

Lead reseracher Professor Daniel Kim-Shapiro, said: 'There have been several very high-profile studies showing that drinking beetroot juice can lower blood pressure, but we wanted to show that drinking beet juice also increases perfusion, or blood flow, to the brain.

'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.'

High concentrations of nitrates are found in beetroots, as well as in celery, cabbage and other leafy green vegetables like spinach and some lettuce. When you eat high-nitrate foods, good bacteria in the mouth turn nitrate into nitrite.

Research has found that nitrites can help open up the blood vessels in the body, increasing blood flow and oxygen specifically to places that are lacking oxygen. However, this was the first study to find it increased blood flow to the brain.

In the study, published in the journal of the Nitric Oxide Society, researchers looked at how dietary nitrates affected 14 adults age 70 and older over a period of four days.

They were assigned to either high-nitrate diets including beetroot juice or low-nitrate menus for the first two days. They had MRI scans each day after breakfast to record the blood flow in each subject's brain.

For the third and fourth days of the study, the researchers switched the diets and repeated the process for each subject.

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.

Co-researcher Professor Gary Miller, said: 'I think these results are consistent and encouraging – that good diet consisting of a lot of fruits and vegetables can contribute to overall good health.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1326189/Drinking-beetroot-juice-boosts-healthy-brains-older-adults-increasing-blood-flow.html#ixzz14Drehw7l