Beetroot juice nitrate levels in dialysis patients and healthy people
What it found
A single 70 mL dose of nitrate-rich beetroot juice raised blood nitrate and nitrite levels in both dialysis patients and healthy volunteers.
It did not change blood pressure or potassium levels in either group.
What they found
Studies in people
Nitrate and nitrite rise
After the active beetroot juice, blood nitrate and nitrite levels increased significantly in both dialysis patients and healthy volunteers. The placebo juice caused no significant changes.
Higher levels in patients
Dialysis patients had significantly higher peak blood nitrate levels and total exposure to nitrate than healthy volunteers. Nitrite levels did not differ significantly between the groups.
Blood pressure unchanged
A single dose of active beetroot juice did not affect blood pressure in either group. The authors note that blood pressure lowering is usually seen only after repeated nitrate intake.
Potassium unchanged
Blood potassium levels decreased during dialysis and then rose again between sessions, but the rise was similar whether participants drank active or placebo juice.
Tolerability
Both juices were well tolerated. One healthy volunteer had a serious adverse event of partial vein thrombosis after a difficult blood draw, which was assessed as related to the needle stick, not the juice.
What the authors conclude
“In our kinetic analysis of dietary supplementation with nitrate, using concentrated BJ, we observe that acute single intake was safe and well tolerated, with significantly higher plasma concentrations of nitrate in HD patients as compared with HV.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that a single intake of nitrate-rich beetroot juice was safe and well tolerated, and that it led to significantly higher plasma nitrate concentrations in hemodialysis patients compared with healthy volunteers.
- They state that long-term dietary nitrate supplementation efficacy studies are warranted to investigate the clinical benefits in subjects with reduced nitric oxide bioactivity, such as patients with chronic kidney disease, including hemodialysis patients.
How it was done
Dialysis removes nitrate and nitrite from the body, which may reduce nitric oxide bioactivity and increase cardiovascular risk. The authors wanted to see how a nitrate-rich drink affects blood levels of these substances in dialysis patients, to help plan future studies.
Eight adult hemodialysis patients and seven healthy volunteers took a single 70 mL dose of beetroot juice with 400 mg nitrate, and on another occasion a placebo juice with no nitrate, in random order separated by at least seven days. Blood samples were taken before and up to 44 hours after drinking the juice.
What it can’t tell you
- This study looked at a single dose of beetroot juice, so it cannot show what happens with repeated intake over time.
- The study did not test whether beetroot juice improves heart health or reduces cardiovascular risk in dialysis patients.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by Swedish Research Council (VR); Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation; Novo Nordisk Foundation (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- R.T.K. declares that he is an employee of Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi™), which had no role in funding, study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. J.O.L. and E.W. are co-inventors on patent applications related to the therapeutic use of inorganic nitrate and nitrite. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. All other authors have declared no competing interests.
- Authors work at
- Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), Sweden; Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
The paper
- Title
- Plasma Nitrate and Nitrite Kinetics after Single Intake of Beetroot Juice in Adult Patients on Chronic Hemodialysis and in Healthy Volunteers: A Randomized, Single-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Study
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Heredia-Martinez A, Rosa-Diez G, Ferraris JR, et al (2022). Plasma Nitrate and Nitrite Kinetics after Single Intake of Beetroot Juice in Adult Patients on Chronic Hemodialysis and in Healthy Volunteers: A Randomized, Single-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Study. Nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu14122480Free full textPubMed 35745210DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error