Is our stroke strategy going to be updated to see if beet juice can precondition us to survive a stroke better? If it can acclimatize us to high altitude then maybe it can mimic the altitudes necessary for preconditioning without having to live there. Or maybe you'd rather go to high altitudes for Training the Brain to Survive Stroke.
This would seem to be so much easier and faster than HBOT but we'll never know since our stroke associations will fail once again in even answering simple questions like this.
When will we have a stroke protocol that has natural foods delivering nitric oxide to us to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of our blood? This sounds extremely fucking important. Do not do this on your own.
"Beeting" high altitude acclimatization with beet juice
Ever since human beings first began climbing the world’s
tallest mountains, they have struggled with a basic problem: altitude
sickness, caused by lower air pressures which affect the ability of our
bodies to take up oxygen.
Or, as actor Jason Clarke says in his role as the climbing guide Rob
Hall in the recently released movie, Everest, “Human beings simply
aren’t built to function at the cruising altitude of a 747.”
How well humans tolerate high altitudes is highly variable, but the
best way to minimize the risk of developing acute mountain sickness
(AMS) is acclimatization, or simply spending enough time up high to
allow the body to make adjustments to lower oxygen levels.
But what if you could help your body acclimatize more quickly and
thoroughly with the help of a natural substance – like beet juice? A
team of Norwegian and Swedish researchers decided to see how
nitrate-rich beet juice might affect acclimatization on a 39-day
expedition to Kathmandu and at 3700 metres in the Rolwaling Valley,
Nepal.
Nitric oxide key
One aspect of successful acclimatization is that the blood vessels
are able to deliver enough oxygen throughout the body. But normal blood
vessel function depends on the body’s ability to naturally produce a
compound called nitric oxide (NO).
In healthy people at sea level, production of adequate amounts of NO
is not a problem, but with the reduced oxygen availability at high
altitude it is a challenge, simply because natural NO production
requires oxygen.
But the body has a “back-up system” for NO production at altitude,
and it is here that beet juice can help. The secret ingredient in beet
juice is high levels of nitrate, which the body can then convert to NO.
Blood vessels work better
Previous research has shown that blood vessels tend to contract at
high altitude, so researchers decided to see if they could improve blood
vessel function at high altitude simply by having test subjects drink
beet juice. They measured blood vessel function with a standard test of
arterial endothelial function, a flow-mediated dilatation test (FMD)
that uses ultrasound.
In a study recently published in Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry,
the researchers showed that consumption of organic nitrate-rich beet
juice restored reduced blood vessel function at high altitude.
The researchers behind the study are from the K.G. Jebsen Center for
Exercise in Medicine – Cardiac Exercise Research Group (CERG) at the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the
Environmental Physiology Group at Mid-Sweden University in Östersund,
Sweden.
First-ever study
The researchers’ project is the first time anyone has studied if
consumption of a nitrate-rich juice could have positive effects on blood
vessel function at high altitude.
Both men and women were studied with ultrasound to check their blood
vessel function, before and during the high altitude expedition. As
expected, high altitude made blood vessels contract.
To test if beet juice could make the blood vessels relax again, the
test subjects were investigated after drinking two types of beet juice
with a 24-hour break between tests.
One of the juices contained high amounts of nitrate while the other
type had no nitrate in it (placebo). Neither the study participants nor
the researchers knew what type of beet juice each person drank before
blood vessel function was measured, and the juices (nitrate-rich versus
placebo) were given in a random order.
The study showed that beet juice with high amounts of nitrate made
the blood vessels relax and return to normal function, while beet juice
with no nitrate (the placebo) did not have any effect.
“Next time you plan a trip at high altitude, maybe it is worth
carrying a bottle of beet juice in your backpack,” said the study’s
corresponding author, Svein Erik Gaustad, from NTNU’s CERG. “It may be
the extra boost your body needs to deliver enough oxygen to your tired
muscles and keep you healthy when you are climbing a high mountain.”
http://gemini.no/en/2015/10/beeting-high-altitude-sickness-with-beet-juice/
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