Auburn University: ‘Bama Secret Weapon

The Auburn University football team is claiming beet root improves their athletic performance. It’s not pregame hype, a study from Kanas State University supports the claim and they say it also benefits heart failure patients.

“Our research, published in the journal Physiology in 2013, has shown that the nitrate found in beetroot concentrate increases blood flow to skeletal muscles during exercise,” said David Poole, professor of exercise kinesiology and anatomy and physiology at Kansas State University. He and Scott Ferguson, doctoral student in anatomy and physiology, latest research “Microvascular oxygen pressures in muscles comprised of different fiber types: Impact of dietary nitrate supplementation,” was published in the Journal of Nitric Oxide, Biology and Chemistry this month. This work provides the basis for how beetroot juice may benefit football players by preferentially increasing blood flow to fast-twitch muscle fibers – the ones used for explosive running. In addition to improving athletic performance, the research also found that beetroot juice can improve the quality of life for heart failure patients.

“Remember, for every football player in the United States, there are many thousands of heart failure patients that would benefit from this therapy,” Poole said, “It’s a big deal because even if you can only increase oxygen delivery by 10%, that can be the difference between a patient being wheelchair-bound versus getting up and walking around and interacting with his or her family.”

The benefits of beetroot come from the nitrate found within it. The amount of nitrate in one 70ml bottle of beetroot juice is about the same amount found in 100 grams of spinach. “When consumed, nitrate is reduced in the mouth by bacteria in nitrite,” Ferguson said. “The nitrite is swallowed again and then reduced to nitric oxide, which is a potent vasodilator. The nitric oxide dilates the blood vessels similar to turning on a water faucet, and allows blood to go where it needs to go.”

Wisdom Wednesday: Inflammation – Part 3

Protein is the most complex fuel used by the body. It is much more difficult to break down than fat or carbohydrate. Initial protein requirements for the body each day are used for growth and repair of tissue. However, additional protein can not be stored like fat or carbohydrate.

Once growth and repair requirements are met, all additional protein is converted to fat for storage or to carbohydrate to be burned as fuel. In either case, the nitrogen is removed and circulates in the blood as “blood urea nitrogen” or “BUN”.

BUN is a waste product and must be removed from the body. The chemical pathway eventually produces nitric oxide (NO) and is ably titled the Nitric Oxide Pathway. NO is pro-inflammatory to the digestive tract, kidneys and lungs. This is a common problem in young men taking large amounts of protein for body building. The excess protein increases BUN and NO levels in the blood stream creating inflammation.

In the office, we use vegetable protein as an oral challenge to evaluate the digestive tract, urinary tract, and lungs. The most common problem is insufficient HCl (hydrochloric acid) in the stomach to combine with pepsinogen and break down the protein to amino acids.

Poor conversion of ammonia to urea in the kidneys is also quite common. People with recurrent UTIs (urinary tract infections), chronic cystitis, or even kidney stones will have impairment in this pathway. Often the simple addition of arginase, an enzyme needed for the conversion of ammonia to urea will solve the problem.

Biotin, the supplement women often take to make their nails stronger is also involved in the NO pathway. All the biotin you will ever need should be produced by the healthy bacteria in your digestive tract. Impairment of the NO pathway can result from an imbalance in the gut flora, especially if there is a history of antibiotic use.

General gut inflammation can also be assessed using the NO pathway. Patients suffering from IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s Disease, and other bowel inflammatory conditions can dramatically reduce that inflammation using L-glutamine, another chemical in the NO pathway.

THE BOTTOM LINE:
If you suffer from digestive problems, chronic urinary tract issues, or even lung problems the answer may be related to NO inflammation. If your hair and nails are not healthy or you need to take biotin to keep them strong, your gut flora is disturbed and needs some support. If you are yet unwilling to seek the help of a qualified nutritionist, just try adding 1000mg of L-glutamine as a supplement, twice per day, on an empty stomach. If that helps reduce your inflammation, your digestive tract needs to be supported.