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

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 tend to have more nitrite in their bodies than men when they're at rest, even though both have similar levels of nitrate—this suggests their bodies might process these chemicals differently just by being male or female.