Your Health

“Beeting” yourself to Increase good health

W. Gifford-Jones MD & Diana Gifford-Jones

June 16, 2021

BY W. GIFFORD- JONES MD & DIANA GIFFORD-JONES

Would you like to improve your physical endurance? An exercise routine is the answer. Being physically and mentally active leads to a longer life. But diet can help too. You can start “beeting” yourself to improved health simply by adding beets to your menu. You should also know that nitrates in beets treat more than one medical problem.

Atherosclerosis, thickening of the inside lining of arteries, decreases the flow of oxygenated blood to coronary arteries. This results in anginal pain or heart attack.

For years researchers have known that nitroglycerine eases angina. They had no idea why it dilated coronary arteries and increased blood flow to the heart.

Then, three U.S researchers received the Nobel Prize for proving it was nitric oxide (N0) that caused arteries to dilate. Early in life, the inner lining of arteries processes large amounts of NO. As we age, the amount of NO decreases. This is often with disastrous consequences.

In 2009, a research team at the University of Exeter in England reported a surprising discovery. They showed that athletes who drank beet juice for six days improved their physical endurance by 16% while cycling. Equally amazing, beet juice was even more effective than physical training!

The active ingredient in beets is nitrate. This becomes converted into nitrite and finally to nitric oxide, which is continuously synthesized in the endothelium (the inside lining of arteries). Lay this exceedingly thin layer of endothelial cells on a flat surface and they would occupy an entire soccer field!

Nitric oxide has been labelled the “miracle molecule” as it helps so many diverse medical problems. For instance, since it dilates coronary arteries it can help to decrease the pain of angina and lower blood pressure.

Experiments show that NO also adds lubrication to the circulatory system. NO travels to all organs and in the process can prevent blood platelets (part of the clotting process) from sticking together causing a heart attack. It also decreases chronic inflammation, another factor associated with coronary attack.

Other research shows that NO lowers blood cholesterol, triglycerides, increases good cholesterol and lowers bad cholesterol. It also prevents bone destruction by osteoclasts.

Today, millions of North Americans suffer from asthma due to inflamed, constricted, mucous clogged airways. Part of the problem is pollution and allergies. Experts at Hammersmith Hospital in London, England, report that NO helps to maintain a biochemical balance in the air passages, decreasing inflamed airways.

Another major problem worldwide is the epidemic of Type 2 diabetes. This disease causes insulin resistance, making it hard for glucose to enter cells. High blood sugar gradually destroys the circulatory system triggering a series of problems, the big one atherosclerosis. Decreasing the amount of blood to organs results in blindness, kidney failure, leg amputations and heart attack. NO helps to control these problems.

What can you do to increase NO? Losing weight and exercising boost NO levels. But people with unhealthy endothelial cells may have diminished nitric oxide bioactivity as compared to those in good health.

So why not improve the diet with foods rich in nitrate? Adding more beets is good advice. Other foods with a high content of NO include leafy green vegetables such as spinach, wild radish, kale and Swiss chard.

You don’t like any of these vegetables? Try dark chocolate and wine. Both increase NO. But remember moderation.

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Written By W. Gifford-Jones MD & Diana Gifford-Jones

Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, MD is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Harvard Medical School. He trained in general surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, Montreal General Hospital, McGill University and in Gynecology at Harvard. His storied medical career began as a general practitioner, ship’s surgeon, and hotel doctor. For more than 40 years, he specialized in gynecology, devoting his practice to the formative issues of women’s health. In 1975, he launched his weekly medical column that has been published by national and local Canadian and U.S. newspapers. Today, the readership remains over seven million. His advice contains a solid dose of common sense and he never sits on the fence with controversial issues. He is the author of nine books including, “The Healthy Barmaid”, his autobiography “You’re Going To Do What?”, “What I Learned as a Medical Journalist”, and “90+ How I Got There!” Many years ago, he was successful in a fight to legalize heroin to help ease the pain of terminal cancer patients. His foundation at that time donated $500,000 to establish the Gifford-Jones Professorship in Pain Control and Palliative Care at the University of Toronto Medical School. At 93 years of age he rappelled from the top of Toronto’s City Hall (30 stories) to raise funds for children with a life-threatening disease through the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Diana Gifford-Jones, the daughter of W. Gifford-Jones, MD, Diana has extensive global experience in health and healthcare policy. Diana is Special Advisor with The Aga Khan University, which operates 2 quaternary care hospitals and numerous secondary hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies, and laboratories in South Asia and Africa. She worked for ten years in the Human Development sectors at the World Bank, including health policy and economics, nutrition, and population health. For over a decade at The Conference Board of Canada, she managed four health-related executive networks, including the Roundtable on Socio-Economic Determinants of Health, the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, the Canadian Centre for Environmental Health, and the Centre for Health System Design and Management. Her master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government included coursework at Harvard Medical School. She is also a graduate of Wellesley College. She has extensive experience with Canadian universities, including at Carleton University, where she was the Executive Director of the Global Academy. She lived and worked in Japan for four years and speaks Japanese fluently. Diana has the designation as a certified Chartered Director from The Directors College, a joint venture of The Conference Board of Canada and McMaster University. She has recently published a book on the natural health philosophy of W. Gifford-Jones, called No Nonsense Health – Naturally!

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