People with gum disease have more nitrate left in their saliva after drinking beetroot juice, meaning their mouth bacteria aren't converting it as well as healthy people's bacteria.

People with gum disease don't get the same blood pressure-lowering effect from beetroot juice as healthy people do.

Treating gum disease helps people with gum problems get the blood pressure-lowering benefits from beetroot juice.

Drinking beetroot juice makes people produce more saliva, with healthy people producing more than those with gum disease.

If older adults with high blood pressure drink beetroot juice every day for a month, their body shows more of certain chemicals in their blood and saliva that help relax blood vessels — which means their body is using a natural pathway to make nitric oxide.

Even if healthy middle-aged and older adults take the same amount of beetroot juice every day, some people still get more nitrite in their blood than others—so something else, like their mouth bacteria or genes, must be why they respond differently.