According to recent research presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference, consuming beetroot juice daily for six months after stent placement can reduce the chances of angina patients having a heart attack or needing repeat treatment. Research into the benefits of vegetable juicing was presented at the conference in Manchester and was supported by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
Researchers from St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Queen Mary University in London found that 16 per cent of angina patients had a serious cardiac or circulatory event, such as a heart attack or the need for another procedure, in the two years following stent placement. However, when patients drank beetroot juice daily, this dropped to 7.5 percent.
Every year thousands of patients with coronary heart disease in the UK have a stent placed in their heart in a procedure known as a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to widen one of the blood vessels and ease their angina.
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About 10 percent of patients experience restenosis, where the stented blood vessel narrows again, and symptoms of heart disease return, within five years after PCI. By advising patients to drink beetroot juice, doctors can reduce the chances of such stent failure sooner.
When patients’ blood vessel widths were measured six months after stenting, the vessels in those who had taken beet juice appeared to be almost half as narrower during that time as those in those who had a placebo treatment.
By preventing restenosis, beetroot juice may prevent patients from having to have another PCI procedure that may fail or to have a much more invasive coronary bypass surgery.
Dr Krishnaraj Rathod, Clinical Senior Lecturer at the William Harvey Research Institute, QMUL, who led the trial, said: “Experiments carried out in the laboratory suggested that naturally occurring inorganic nitrates in beetroot juice would have these effects, and that It is very encouraging to see such a huge improvement in the clinic for angina patients. Our patients liked that their treatment is a completely natural product with no significant side effects.
“We will now take this into the next phase of trials in the hope that doctors may soon be able to prescribe beetroot juice to ensure that the stent lasts longer to provide even more effective relief of symptoms.”
Professor James Leeper, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: “Stenting is the most important tool we have in the fight against coronary heart disease, but work still needs to be done to ensure that every patient sees a long-term ” benefit from the process.”
“Each year thousands of patients undergo the stress of a medical procedure on their heart more than once before it is successful. This small study offers hope that this can be prevented. Now extended trial to confirm preliminary The observation that beet juice can make a difference.”
The researchers were able to show that beet juice helped patients because of its naturally high levels of inorganic nitrates. Patients in the trial who were given beet juice extracted with inorganic nitrates did not experience the same beneficial effects.
Inorganic nitrate is a nutrient that is converted into nitrite by naturally occurring bacteria in the mouth, which is then converted into the signaling molecule nitric oxide (NO) by enzymes in the body. It is believed that the reason for the positive effect on the blood vessels of patients is NO.
Beet juice was shown to be a safe and reliable way to get inorganic nitrates into the body, with none of the 300 patients on trial experiencing significant side effects other than pink urine.
The team is now looking to start a larger trial soon. They are hopeful that if successful, beetroot juice could be prescribed as a treatment to be taken after stent implantation. It can then spread beyond angina patients to people who have had a stent for a different reason after a heart attack.