Headline: Beetroot Juice Boost: Study Shows Pre-Workout Drink Enhances Brain Function in Older Adults

Middle-aged people often complain about a lack of energy, especially when it comes to working out. This lack of energy during exercise significantly affects their performance. While some energy drinks and supplements claim to offer these, not all deliver lasting benefits. But what if you can achieve it with a simple ingredient from your kitchen? A study has shown that drinking a particular beverage before a workout can help. A 2017 study led by the researchers at Wake Forest University found that drinking beetroot juice before working out makes the brain of older adults perform more efficiently. They found that this juice mirrors the operations of a younger brain. The findings of the study are published in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. Beetroot juice for a younger brainDiet plays a crucial role in your overall health and well-being. The researchers emphasized that what one eats as they age could be critically important to the maintenance of their brain health and functional independence.“We knew, going in, that a number of studies had shown that exercise has positive effects on the brain. But what we showed in this brief training study of hypertensive older adults was that, as compared to exercise alone, adding a beet root juice supplement to exercise resulted in brain connectivity that closely resembles what you see in younger adults," W. Jack Rejeski, co-author, professor and Director of the Behavioral Medicine Laboratory in the Department of Health & Exercise Science, said in a statement. The studyThis study is the first to explore the effects of exercise along with beetroot juice on functional brain networks in the motor cortex and secondary connections between the motor cortex and the insula, which support mobility. The study had 26 participants aged 55 and older who didn’t exercise, with high blood pressure, and took no more than two medications for it. They were given a beetroot juice supplement one hour before a moderately intense, 50-minute walk on a treadmill. This supplementation was given thrice a week for six weeks. Half of the participants received the supplement containing 560 mg of nitrate; the others received a placebo supplement with very little nitrate.The findings Beetroots are an excellent source of dietary nitrate. This is converted to nitrite and then nitric oxide (NO) when consumed. NO leads to an increase in blood flow in the body, and multiple studies have shown it can improve exercise performance in people of various ages."Nitric oxide is a really powerful molecule. It goes to the areas of the body which are hypoxic, or needing oxygen, and the brain is a heavy feeder of oxygen in your body," Rejeski said. When you exercise, the part of your brain that controls movement and processes signals from your muscles, called the somatomotor cortex, becomes stronger. When this was combined with beetroot juice, it resulted in more oxygen supply to the brain. It creates an excellent environment for strengthening the somatomotor cortex. Analysis after the exercise showed that, although the study groups had similar levels of nitrate and nitrite in the blood before drinking the juice, the beetroot juice group had much higher levels of nitrate and nitrite than the placebo group after exercise.