I wrote this earlier, but somehow I must not have hit "Post Reply."
Dr. Coggan, thank you for taking the time to post and for providing links. I will take a look at them. I'm not a scientist and I barely understand some of the things that these studies discuss, but I will add this.
Humans appear to vary significantly in their response to many natural substances. As long as there are no significant adverse side effects, I really don't care how beet juice affects the masses. I'm interested in how it affects highly trained athletes over the age of 50.
Simply put, I want to be able to train harder and recover faster. As an elite 72-year-old middle distance runner, recovery is currently my biggest nemesis.
I've seen enough anecdotal positive responses to give it an experiment-of-one by trying it. Now, I'm looking for brand recommendations. I really appreciated the juicer approach. I'm sure I'll give that a try as well.
As for those of you who think this is snake oil, I'm completely okay with your opinion. If anyone out there has tried beet juice and it did not work, I'd like to hear from you as well.