'It's actually quite nice' - Dr Amir Khan reveals the unique juice that can help lower blood pressure

High blood pressure affects 25% of women in the UK, making it one of the most common medical conditions in the country. Once diagnosed though, simple lifestyle changes and dietary habits can help control high blood pressure (hypertension).

With regular screenings available, like the NHS Health Check, it's easy to detect the condition and if you want to learn how to lower your blood pressure and ward off hypertension, it's important to speak to your doctor first of all.

Simple dietary changes, made by adding a few new things to your food shopping list, can also make a big difference to your blood pressure and help reduce the risk of hypertension - one of the leading causes of heart attacks in women.

Dr Amir Khan, a GP working in the NHS and bestselling author, appeared on Lorraine with some health tips for 2025. Among them, taken from research by Imperial College London, was drinking beetroot juice to reduce the risk of hypertension.

"I'm a big fan of this one," said Dr Amir Khan. "Things like reducing salt and eating more bananas are good for your blood pressure but beetroot juice can change something called nitrates, which are converted to something called nitric oxide in our body, which widens our blood vessels, which lowers our blood pressure and keeps the cells inside of our blood vessels healthy as well."

While you might be used to drinking orange juice with your breakfast every morning, Dr Khan recommends drinking 250ml of this bright purple juice every day to see the benefits.

But, he warns: "Be careful if you're diabetic. It can push your blood sugars up."

The doctor also covered the subject in another video on Instagram. In response to a comment, he revealed that pickled beetroots can have the same effect - just "be careful of the additives and sugar content," he wrote. Also, although the current research on beetroot is promising, more research is needed before any actual dietary recommendations can be made.

The advice comes in part from a study, led by Queen Mary University of London, which found that 250ml of beetroot juice daily brought participants' high blood pressure down to normal levels in just four weeks.

Importantly, hypertension resumed when the participants stopped drinking the juice, which suggests that you'd have to drink long-term to see any ongoing benefits.