Conditions: Vascular Aging
Keywords: endothelial function arterial stiffness flow-mediated dilation pulse wave velocity sodium nitrite aging vascular diseases
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 33
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
The proposed research will determine the effectiveness of nitrite, a naturally occurring compound in the body, for improving the health and function of arteries in middle-aged and older adults. The study also will provide insight into how sodium nitrite therapy improves artery health by determining the physiological mechanisms (biological reasons) involved. Overall, the proposed research will provide important new scientific evidence on the effectiveness of sodium nitrite for decreasing the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases with aging.

Detailed description:
The improvement in blood vessel function and stiffness will be determined over a 10 week period. Subjects will be randomly assigned to either placebo (0 mg/day), low dose (80 mg/day) or high dose (160 mg/day) sodium nitrite. Main outcome measures will be performed at baseline and week 10.

Arms:
arm 1: inert oral capsules (0 mg sodium nitrite morning; 0 mg sodium nitrite in evening) for 10 weeks arm 2: 80 mg/day (40 mg in morning; 40 mg in evening) oral capsules for 10 weeks arm 3: 160 mg/day (80 mg in morning; 80 mg in evening) oral capsules for 10 weeks

Interventions: intervention 1: Placebo intervention 2: Sodium Nitrite
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Sugar pill manufactured to mimic sodium nitrite capsules intervention 2: 80 mg/d or 160 mg/d

Protocol document: