{"doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2020.100693","title":"Beetroot supplementation in women enjoying exercise together (BEE SWEET): Rationale, design and methods","abstract":"Postmenopausal women exhibit higher rates of disability and cardiovascular disease (CVD) with aging compared to men. Whereas habitual exercise training is a known strategy to enhance physiologic function in men and premenopausal women, exercise-related adaptations are often modest in postmenopausal women. We propose dietary nitrate (beetroot juice) administered prior to exercise training may be a feasible approach to improve mobility and cardio-metabolic health outcomes in postmenopausal women. Our randomized, placebo-controlled study aims to determine preliminary effects sizes for changes in functional mobility and endothelium-dependent vasodilation across three study arms: exercise only (EX), exercise + placebo (EX + PL), and exercise + beetroot (EX + BR). Thirty-six postmenopausal women are recruited in small cohorts wherein group exercise is implemented to facilitate social support and adherence to an 8-week training progression. Participants are randomized to one of three study arms (n = 12 per group) following baseline assessments. Post-intervention assessments are used to determine pre-post changes in outcome measures including distance covered during a 6 min walk test, walking economy, muscle speed and power, and endothelial-dependent vasodilation as determined by flow-mediated dilation. Measures of feasibility include recruitment, retention, adherence to exercise prescription, perceived exercise session difficulty, and adverse event rates. Evidence-based, translational strategies are needed to optimize exercise training-related adaptations in postmenopausal women. Findings will inform larger randomized clinical trials to determine if pre-exercise consumption of beetroot juice is an efficacious strategy to promote mobility and attenuate CVD disease risk.","journal":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","year":2020,"id":105985,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9574,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":512253,"name":"Cody A. Altherr","orcid":"0000-0003-3630-0606","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369144,"name":"Allison H. Gruber","orcid":"0000-0002-0750-5656","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369147,"name":"Andrew R. Coggan","orcid":"0000-0002-7723-8872","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369145,"name":"John S. Raglin","orcid":"0000-0002-5298-9514","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":451201,"name":"Samir K. Gupta","orcid":"0000-0001-6031-8705","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369143,"name":"Stephen J. Carter","orcid":"0000-0001-5625-0883","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369146,"name":"Marissa N. Baranauskas","orcid":"0000-0002-5585-6995","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":94,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:12:23.770754Z","pmid":"33392416","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}