OptiBeet™
Powerful Beetroot Powder Extract With L-Citrulline To Enhance Endurance & Workout Stamina

Potential Benefits of Beetroot Powder and L-citrulline

• Supports cardiovascular health
• May help to improve performance and endurance when exercising
• Naturally rich in nitrate, minerals, vitamins, and numerous nutrients
• These bioactive compounds very likely play roles in the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the muscles during exercise
• Nitrates from beet can be are converted to NOS independently of the NOS enzyme
• L-citrulline supports healthy levels of L-arginine, helps against fatigue, and supports blood flow

Beetroot Powder

The beet (Beta vulgaris) is a common edible plant. Both its taproot and vegetative greens have many culinary uses, with both parts of the plant being a rich source of nutrients.

Beetroot is especially rich in fiber; the minerals manganese, potassium, magnesium, iron, phosphorous, and zinc; and is rich in Vitamins A, C, and members of the B group, such as Thiamine (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Niacin (B3), Pantothenic acid (B5), Vitamin B6 (5%), and Folate (B9). In addition to nitrate it is also a rich source of phenolics and flavonoids.

The taproots are a rich source of glutamine and betacyanin, with the latter pigment that gives the root its purple color. Consumption of the fiber rich root may help to increase the levels of antioxidant enzymes in healthy individuals and to support healthier amounts of white blood cells. 

The plant has been used in traditional treatments for the digestive system since at least the middle ages, a time when it was also used to sweeten the breath.

The consumption of beetroot powder, usually in the form of a drink, has been on the increase in recent years. This is largely because the nutrients in beet juice are thought to play roles in the support of exercise performance and cardiovascular health.

Exercise 

As drinking beetroot juice helps to increase nitrate (NO^3-)

and nitrite (NO^2-) levels in the plasma, it may help to support increased exercise potential in healthy individuals [1]. This is because increased dietary nitrate is thought to support a lowering of oxygen demand during submaximal exercise work.

Nitric oxide has also been linked with a lowering of VO2 max with no adverse effect upon exercise performance, thus lowering the quantity of oxygen required to be extracted from the muscles during athletic performances, which may lead to improved endurance [2, 3, 4]. 

In trained athletes partaking in team sports, the addition of beetroot juice to the diet was reported to result in significantly enhanced levels (~50% extra) of plasma nitrate [5]. This is very likely to support enhanced performance during intermittent exercise [5]. 

A small trial using eleven athletes suggested that a single consumption of beetroot juice beforehand was enough to support improved running performances and endurance over a 5 km distance [3, 6]. Likewise, similar trials involving cycling also suggest that consumption of beetroot juice before a time-trial bike ride may help to enhance exercise power output [7].

Cardiovascular Health

Beet juice may support cardiovascular health through an effect on blood pressure. Supplementation with juice or beetroot bread may help to enhance healthier blood pressure levels, especially during high intensity exercises. It is possible that it does this through increasing the amount of endothelium-independent vasodilation [3, 8]. 

L-citrulline

L-citrulline may be the perfect supporting ingredient for consumption alongside beetroot juice. This is because this amino acid is able to increase the natural levels of L-arginine in the body. Thus it helps to support health of the cardiovascular system and sports performance, especially with regards to muscle fatigue.

It may also help to support against the fatigue associated when lifting weights. It is thought to do so through enhancing the levels of anaerobic performance and by providing relief to sore muscles [9].

It has also been associated with supporting fatigue in healthy men and women partaking in treadmill exercise programs [10]. The same research suggested that it might have an impact on the levels of blood glucose through the support of insulin secretion and clearance.

As well as its possible effect on insulin support during exercising, it has also been suggested to have a role in the regulation of growth hormone and IGF-1 during exercise [11].

In addition to its role in supporting the body from fatigue during exercise, some other things that L-citrulline may help with include the support of sexual health [12], blood sugar levels [13], blood flow [13], training volume [9], and nitric oxide levels [14, 15].

Further Reading

Reddit: Getting nitrates from beetroot powder

{https://www.reddit.com/r/Supplements/comments/53gppf/getting_nitrates_from_beetroot_powder_uk/} 

Quora: Can beet juice be mixed with other vegetables or fruit for better results {https://www.quora.com/Should-beet-juice-be-mixed-with-other-vegetables-or-fruit }

WebMD: The medical truth about beet { http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/truth-about-beetroot-juice } 

Drugs .com: Beetroot uses, dosing, pharmacology (antioxidant and cardiovascular data in mice and rats), and its toxicology: https://www.drugs.com/npp/beetroot.html}

KSU: News on the potential health benefits for athletes and heart failure patients of beets {http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/oct14/beetroot102314.html} 

Citations, Abstracts, Reviews, and References

[1] Larsen et al. Effects of dietary nitrate on oxygen cost during exercise. Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2007 Sep;191(1):59-66.

[2] Larsen et al. Dietary nitrate reduces maximal oxygen consumption while maintaining work performance in maximal exercise. Free Radic Biol Med. 2010 Jan 15;48(2):342-7. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2009.11.006. 

[3] Lansley et al. Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of walking and running: a placebo-controlled study. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2011 Mar;110(3):591-600. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01070.2010. 

[4] Bescós et al. Acute administration of inorganic nitrate reduces VO(2peak) in endurance athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Oct;43(10):1979-86. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e318217d439.

[5] Wylie et al. Dietary nitrate supplementation improves team sport-specific intense intermittent exercise performance. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Jul;113(7):1673-84. doi: 10.1007/s00421-013-2589-8.

[6] Murphy et al. Whole beetroot consumption acutely improves running performance. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012 Apr;112(4):548-52. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2011.

[7] Lansley et al. Acute dietary nitrate supplementation improves cycling time trial performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Jun;43(6):1125-31. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31821597b4.

[8] Hobbs et al. Acute ingestion of beetroot bread increases endothelium-independent vasodilation and lowers diastolic blood pressure in healthy men: a randomized controlled trial. J Nutr. 2013 Sep;143(9):1399-405. doi: 10.3945/jn.113.175778 

[9] Pérez-Guisado and Jakeman.Citrulline malate enhances athletic anaerobic performance and relieves muscle soreness. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2010 May;24(5):1215-22. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181cb28e0.

[10] Hickmer et al. L-citrulline reduces time to exhaustion and insulin response to a graded exercise test. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2006 Apr;38(4):660-6. 

[11] Sureda et al. L-citrulline-malate influence over branched chain amino acid utilization during exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010 Sep;110(2):341-51. doi: 10.1007/s00421-010-1509-4

[12] Mulhall et al. Validation of the erection hardness score. J Sex Med. 2007 Nov;4(6):1626-34

[13] Ochiai et al. Short-term effects of L-citrulline supplementation on arterial stiffness in middle-aged men. Int J Cardiol. 2012 Mar 8;155(2):257-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2010.10.004.

[14] Sureda et al. L-citrulline-malate influence over branched chain amino acid utilization during exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010 Sep;110(2):341-51. doi: 10.1007/s00421-010-1509-4. 

[15] Clifford et al. The potential benefits of red beetroot supplementation in health and disease. Nutrients. 2015 Apr 14;7(4):2801-22. doi: 10.3390/nu7042801.