Men tend to have bigger blood pressure drops than women when taking nitrate supplements, even though both groups get similar increases in nitrite levels in their blood.

When nitrite levels in the blood go up after taking nitrate supplements, blood pressure tends to go down more. The higher the nitrite increase, the bigger the blood pressure drop.

Women naturally have higher nitrite levels in their blood than men, which may help explain why women typically have lower blood pressure than men.

Women with high blood pressure tend to have slightly lower mouth bacteria activity for converting nitrate to nitrite compared to women with normal blood pressure, though this difference isn't quite statistically significant.

Taking nitrate supplements makes more nitrite in your blood, and the more you take, the more nitrite you get.

When nitrite levels in the blood went down after using mouthwash, blood pressure went up, and this connection was strong enough to be statistically significant.