Is this enough for your hospital to start serving beet juice? How much? Who is going to do the translational work to make this into a stroke protocol and then disseminate this to all the hospitals around the world?
Or maybe you just want to do Breath of Fire Kundalini breathing to get your nitric oxide. Your doctor will know absolutely nothing about either one so why the hell are you paying them?
Research often works with one scientist building off anothers work.
It
has been with a groundbreaking 2003 study about how the chemical
nitrite is converted into nitric oxide in the human body to regulate
blood flow and blood pressure. The study was conducted by Wake Forest
University physics professor Daniel Kim-Shapiro, PhD, director of the
Translational Science Center, in collaboration with lead investigator
Mark Gladwin, MD, chief of the division of Pulmonary, Allergy and
Critical Care Medicine and director of the Vascular Medicine Institute
at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
In time, the work of Gladwin and Kim-Shapiro gave Cheryl Bushnell, MD, director of Wake Forest Baptist Health's Comprehensive Stroke Center, an idea.
Benefits of High Nitrate Diet
The
work of Gladwin and Kim-Shapiro, as well as others, grew after 2003;
for example, studies showed that nitric oxide derived from nitrite could
improve outcomes in heart attack and pulmonary hypertension.
Bushnell
was particularly interested in a 2010 follow-up study by Kim-Shapiro's
multidisciplinary team from Wake Forest University and a Wake Forest
School of Medicine team that included Jonathan Burdette (Radiology) and
Gary Miller (Health and Exercise Science). That study showed that a high
nitrate diet resulted in increased blood flow in parts of the brain for
healthy elderly people.
Some study participants had been given
beet juice, a high nitrate product
that is converted in the mouth to
nitrite and eventually to nitric oxide in places in the body where it is
needed. The nitric oxide is a vasodilator, meaning it expands blood
vessels,
and largely targets areas in the body that are low in oxygen.
"
We
showed that there's increased cerebral blood flow in areas associated
with cognitive decline in older adults after they drank beet juice,''
Kim-Shapiro says.
Building off that idea, Bushnell is leading a
new clinical trial that offers stroke patients the potential benefits of
beet juice in their recovery.
After a stroke, which kills brain
cells, a certain amount of new cells form in the brain. Bushnell says
she is hopeful that drinking beet juice will "actually enhance patients'
recovery'' because of the way nitric oxide promotes cell growth.
Beet juice taking off?
In
recent years, beet juice has gained traction for its restorative
qualities. Scientists around the world have been studying the efficacy
of beet juice in everything from reducing blood pressure levels to
improving athletic performance. At the Summer Olympics last year in
London, numerous athletes were seen drinking beet juice to promote
increased blood flow.
Kim-Shapiro says beet juice seems to
increase respiratory efficiency at the cellular level, which could
increase exercise efficiency. Studies are ongoing.
The clinical
trial for stroke that Bushnell is leading will involve 80 patients and
should be completed in two years. After that, Bushnell says, the goal
would be to pursue a multi-center trial.
Bushnell says she has
not lacked for interest in people willing to try a small portion of beet
juice daily for 30 days after suffering a stroke.
"So far, people want to do something that would potentially help them recover,'' she says. "The enthusiasm is there.''
Marketing Beet Juice
Although
it could be years before beet juice is approved by the Food and Drug
Administration as a product to enhance recovery from the effects of
stroke, Wake Forest University has worked with a company in Florida to
make bottled beet juice.
The drink has been in the works for more
than three years thanks to the efforts of Wake Forest Innovations, the
division that helps to commercialize and market the work of scientists
and researchers. Bottles of the sweet-tasting juice, a formula developed
to counter the natural bitterness of beet juice, are already available
for use by Kim-Shapiro's research team. The juice is expected to be
available to consumers this year.
Kim-Shapiro says people essentially see beet juice as a new type of energy drink.
Last
year, he says, he gave some beet juice samples to his students in
advance of exams to gauge their reaction and see if it would give them
an energy boost.
They were so enthusiastic, he says, that some would come up to him and ask, "Can I have another bottle? I have another final."
