Benefits Abound In Beetroot
Muscular Development|July 2021
Beetroot juice and dietary nitrates have the potential to increase the efficiency of exercise, improve performance and prolong exercise tolerance
By Victor R. Prisk, MD
Benefits Abound In Beetroot

In the world of bodybuilding, the word NO has taken on a new meaning. NO isn’t the negative response you hear from your wife on Friday night, but instead is an abbreviation for an intrinsic signaling molecule found throughout the body called nitric oxide. NO is a molecule that plays an essential role in many physiological processes, and discovery of its functions won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998.

NO is a very important regulator of vasodilation, meaning that it acts to increase blood flow by opening up blood vessels. Thus, NO allows for a greater delivery of oxygen and nutrients to exercising muscle and has performance-enhancing effects. NO is critical to many physiological processes and is essential for maintaining the integrity of the cardiovascular, immune and nervous systems. Decreased production or lack of availability of NO is a hallmark of cardiovascular disease, and a lack of NO can increase the severity of acute coronary events (angina and heart attacks).

Arginine is a natural source for NO production and is utilized for this purpose in many pre-workout supplements. To produce NO from arginine, an enzyme called NO synthase is required along with co-factors and a complex 5-electron oxidation process. This seems to be too complex of a reaction for production of such an important molecule that is critical to so many systemic processes.

This story is from the July 2021 edition of Muscular Development.

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This story is from the July 2021 edition of Muscular Development.

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