Beetroot Juice Just Scored a Win for Older Adults’ Blood Pressure—Here’s the Data

If you like nutrition stories with hard numbers, this one’s for you. A new placebo-controlled, double-blind cross-over trial from the University of Exeter (published online August 2025 in Free Radical Biology & Medicine) reports that concentrated, nitrate-rich beetroot juice lowered blood pressure in older adults after just two weeks—and the effect seems to work through the oral microbiome. ORCA

The quick headline

• What: Nitrate-rich beetroot juice “shots”
• Who: 75 adults in total—39 younger (18–30 years) and 36 older (67–79 years)
• Design: Double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over with three 2-week phases, each separated by a 2-week washout: nitrate-rich beet juice, nitrate-depleted placebo juice, and an antiseptic mouthwash condition
• Dose format: Concentrated “shots,” twice per day during the beetroot phases (as described in the study summary)
• Primary signal: In older adults only, brachial mean arterial pressure (MAP) fell by −4 ± 4 mmHg after the nitrate-rich beet juice phase (p = 0.003). ORCAScienceDaily

Why it matters: A 4-mmHg drop in MAP may look small, but across populations it’s meaningfully associated with lower cardiovascular risk—and this was achieved with a food-based intervention in two weeks.

A closer look at how the study ran

Participants completed three conditions in random order:

1. Nitrate-rich beetroot juice (concentrated shots),
2. Nitrate-depleted placebo beetroot juice, and
3. Antiseptic mouthwash, which is known to disrupt oral bacteria that convert dietary nitrate to nitric oxide (NO).

Each condition lasted 14 days, with 14-day washouts between them. The team measured blood pressure, plasma nitrite (a marker of NO bioavailability), and flow-mediated dilation (FMD), and also used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to profile the oral microbiome. In the older group, blood pressure fell only after the nitrate-rich juice, not after placebo or mouthwash; in the younger group, there was no blood-pressure drop. Mechanistically, lower BP tracked with higher plasma nitrite and a shift in oral bacteria—Prevotella went down, while beneficial Neisseria increased. ORCA

“Twice a day” means… how much nitrate?

The study press summary specifies two concentrated “shots” per day. Many clinical protocols from this research community use 70 mL shots of concentrated beetroot juice that deliver roughly 6–7 mmol nitrate per shot (≈400 mg), or about 12–13 mmol/day (≈800 mg/day) when taken twice daily. That exact milligram figure isn’t listed in the abstract of the new paper, but a 2024 Free Radical Biology & Medicine trial documented 2 × 70 mL/day ≈ 12.9 mmol (~800 mg) nitrate—a helpful reference point for what “concentrated shots” usually provide. ScienceDailyScienceDirect

So… did arteries get “more flexible” too?

Interestingly, in the older adults, FMD did not significantly change over two weeks, despite the blood-pressure drop. In younger adults, there was a modest difference in the change in ΔFMD% between the mouthwash and beetroot phases (p = 0.04), underscoring the role of oral bacteria in the nitrate → nitrite → nitric oxide pathway. In short: BP moved in the older group, and mechanistic markers (plasma nitrite, microbiome shifts) lined up with the effect. ORCA

Where this fits with the broader evidence

The Exeter finding is consistent with a decade of beetroot/nitrate research showing that concentrated beetroot juice can lower blood pressure, especially in people with higher baseline values. Typical “shot-based” regimens deliver ~800 mg nitrate/day and have produced BP reductions and performance benefits in multiple trials. PMC

Practical takeaways (and caveats)

• Who’s most likely to benefit? Based on this trial: older adults (late 60s–70s) with higher baseline blood pressure. Younger, normotensive adults didn’t see a BP change over two weeks. ORCA
• Form & frequency: Concentrated beetroot shots, twice daily is the format studied here. If you shop around, check labels for nitrate content per serving; products vary. (In clinical work, 2 × 70 mL/day is common.) ScienceDailyScienceDirect
• Don’t nuke your mouth bugs: Regular use of antiseptic mouthwash may blunt nitrate benefits by disrupting nitrate-reducing bacteria. ORCA
• Safety notes: Beetroot is a food, but if you’re on BP meds, have kidney issues (oxalates), or are advised to limit high-nitrate foods, speak to your clinician first.

Bottom line

In a rigorous, double-blind, cross-over human study published August 2025, two weeks of twice-daily concentrated beetroot juice lowered mean arterial pressure by ~4 mmHg in older adults, apparently by boosting nitric-oxide bioavailability via shifts in the oral microbiome. It’s a tidy, food-first strategy that’s biologically plausible—and now, even more clinically convincing. ORCAScienceDaily

Sources

• Vanhatalo A, L’Heureux JE, Black MI, et al. Free Radical Biology & Medicine, published online Aug 2025: Double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over; n=39 young, n=36 older; 3 × 2-week conditions with 2-week washouts; older adults −4 ± 4 mmHg in brachial MAP after nitrate-rich beetroot juice; microbiome shifts (↓Prevotella, ↑Neisseria). ORCA
• University of Exeter/ScienceDaily release (Aug 31, 2025): clarifies “concentrated beetroot juice ‘shot’ twice daily for two weeks” and age-specific effect. ScienceDaily
• Fejes R, et al. Free Radical Biology & Medicine (2024): example protocol using 2 × 70 mL/day providing ≈12.9 mmol (~800 mg) nitrate/day—a typical dose for concentrated shots.