Matter ad: A cardiologist's 60 day test

I'm a cardiologist, and I tested Daily Beets on myself for 60 days. Here are the actual blood pressure readings, week by week. I'm Dr Richard Ashworth, a consultant cardiologist. I've treated high blood pressure for 26 years, and it's the most common thing that comes through my clinic. I've sat across the desk from thousands of patients and explained the same things over and over. The morning headache at the base of the skull. The dizziness when you stand too fast. The reading that jumps the second the cuff goes on. I've watched patients cry in my consulting room because their numbers wouldn't move. I always told them to be patient, and I meant it. Three years ago, it happened to me. I'm 57, and my readings started climbing out of nowhere. First borderline, then Stage 1, then Stage 2. Fourteen hour days, hospital sandwiches, and five hours of sleep between on call nights had finally caught up with me. At first it was one bad reading at my own check up. I assumed the cuff was off. Then I started checking at home. 148 over 94 in the morning, and 152 over 96 after lunch. Then came the headaches. Mornings, mostly, at the back of the skull, the kind that makes you feel sick. I'd take my reading first thing, and the number would set the mood for my whole day. 145 and I was anxious, 155 and I was frightened. It was the same cuff anxiety I tell my patients to ignore. I was checking six, sometimes eight, times a day. The irony wasn't lost on me. Every one of my patients had been right. My GP wanted to start me on ramipril. I said I'd think about it. I prescribe ramipril, amlodipine and water tablets every single day. I also see what they do to people. The dry cough from ramipril that wakes patients at night. The swollen ankles from amlodipine that turn shoes into vices by three in the afternoon. The constant trips to the loo from water tablets that leave you worn out. And half my patients are on two of these, and their numbers still creep up. My own mother died of a stroke at 71. She was on three different tablets for nearly twenty years, and I'm a cardiologist who couldn't save her. I didn't want to start that road without trying everything else first. So I did what I tell every patient to do. I cut my salt, followed the DASH diet, and walked 45 minutes every morning before clinic. My numbers dropped by about six points. I was still sitting at 142 over 90 most mornings. I tried beetroot too. I've recommended it to patients for years, because the research on dietary nitrates is solid. I bought a powder with hundreds of five star reviews. I drank it every morning for six weeks, and my numbers didn't move. I tried beetroot chews from the supermarket. Same result. I decided my own body must be too far gone for beetroot to help. Then, two months ago, one of my regular patients came in for her review. Margaret is 67, a lovely woman, and she's had high blood pressure for over a decade. She'd been on ramipril and a water tablet for years, and her readings were creeping up. But this time her chart looked different, and her morning reading was 124 over 78. I nearly asked if we'd pulled the wrong file. I asked what she'd been doing differently. She went a bit shy and said, "Doctor, I added something on my own. I didn't want to bother you." I told her she could bother me. She took a pouch out of her handbag. It said Daily Beets. She said, "I told my friend Sheila about it, but she bought the cheap stuff and it did nothing. You have to get the right one." I'll be honest, I was very sceptical. Patients bring me supplements every week, and most of them are nonsense. But Margaret's chart was in front of me, and I knew her well enough to know she wasn't making it up. That night my reading was 151 over 94. I sat at the kitchen table feeling defeated, so I opened my laptop and read more than I had in years. Here's the mechanism, in plain language. Your blood vessels are lined with cells that make nitric oxide, a molecule that tells the muscle in the vessel wall to relax and open. When the vessel opens, blood moves more easily and pressure comes down. And as we get older, our bodies make less of that signal. Less signal means tighter vessels. Tighter vessels mean a higher reading. I think of it as a fading signal. It was the missing piece in a lot of my patients, and in me. Here's what I realised. The tablets I prescribe work through their own routes, and they do their job. But they aren't designed to top up a signal your vessels have lost. Cutting the salt helps too, but it doesn't bring the signal back either. Think of a garden hose gone stiff in the cold. Turning the tap down lowers the pressure, but it doesn't make the hose soft again. So what actually supports the signal? Reading the research, I found three different routes. The first is dietary nitrate, which is what beetroot is rich in. Your body converts it to nitric oxide, so the signal itself comes back. The second is hibiscus. It's one of the most studied plants for healthy blood pressure, and it supports that same relaxing effect. The third is grape seed. It contains compounds that help protect the walls of your vessels, so they stay flexible. One lever helps a little. Three levers working together is a different story. Let me show you what the research says. A trial funded by the British Heart Foundation found that dietary nitrate lowered the top number by an average of 7.7 points after four weeks in adults with high blood pressure. In a trial of 65 adults, hibiscus tea lowered the top number by an average of 7.2 points over six weeks, compared with placebo. In a study of 27 adults, grape seed extract was linked to lower readings against placebo. These were studies on the ingredients, not on any one product, and some were small. But the pattern was the same each time: support the signal, and the numbers can move. Then I looked at what I'd been taking. A beetroot powder that was one lever, a chew that was one lever, and neither of them was something I could keep up. I'd been recommending beetroot for years. And I had never once checked what was in the brands my patients were buying. I started looking for something that: → Put beetroot, hibiscus and grape seed together in one formula → Used extracts at doses I recognised from the studies → Was tested by an independent lab → Was formulated in the UK → Didn't need three capsules a day or a powder that tasted of soil I found Daily Beets, made by a London company called Matter. Two capsules each morning contain hibiscus extract at 700 mg, beetroot extract at 150 mg and grape seed extract at 200 mg. There's also a B vitamin complex with B6, folate and B12. Every batch is lab tested, and it's a food supplement, not a medicine. I ordered a pack. I decided to test it the way I'd test anything, properly, with a log. I wrote my readings in a notebook, twice a day, same time, same arm. I carried on with my salt, my DASH diet and my morning walks, so nothing else changed. I took two capsules each morning with breakfast. And I told my GP, so he knew exactly what I was doing. Here are the real numbers. Day 1, I was at 148 over 94. Week one, I was at 147 over 93, and I'll be honest, I didn't trust a thing. Week two, I was at 145 over 92. My hands were warmer in the mornings, which I noticed because they're normally like ice. By day 30, I was at 141 over 89. The headaches were less frequent, and I was checking twice a day instead of eight times. By day 45, I was at 137 over 87. I stopped needing coffee at two in the afternoon. At day 60, I checked three times in a row to be sure. 132 over 84. For the first time in three years, I was out of the Stage 2 range. I'd gone from 148 over 94 to 132 over 84 in 60 days. I sat at the kitchen table and had to take a moment. I'm a cardiologist, I treat this every day, and nothing I'd done for three years had moved my own numbers like this. I had to be fair, though. It didn't happen in week one, and anyone who tells you it does is selling you something. In fact, in a survey of Matter customers, the longer people had been taking it, the more of them reported lower readings. The first month is when most people stop, and it's the month where very little shows. The morning headache that used to set my mood is gone. So is most of the cuff anxiety, and I now take my reading once in the morning and once before dinner. I sleep through the night without lying awake over my heart. When I took the notebook to my GP at the three month mark, he read through it. He said we'd keep monitoring, and that we would sit down and talk about next steps from there. I want to be clear about that. Daily Beets doesn't replace anything your doctor prescribes, and you should keep taking your tablets and tell your GP. I'm also not the only one. Here is what other people have written publicly. Seamus started in January with a reading of 155 over 100 and a resting heart rate of 100. He now reports 116 over 75, and a heart rate of 81. Michael was getting 150 to 160 over 110 to 115, even on amlodipine. After about five months he says he's at a steady 130 over 90, and still takes his tablets. Peter's bottom number sat around 100, which his tablets brought down to about 90. Six months after starting, he says it's always 80. Lee was averaging 145 over 90 on his prescribed tablets. After almost a year he reports an average of 122 over 82. Pete wrote that he saw little in the first month. After that he saw a real improvement, and he now goes to the gym five days a week instead of one. These aren't miracles, and your results will be your own. But they show what can happen when you give it time. So ask yourself how many of these sound familiar. → A morning reading that still sits above target, even on tablets → Cold hands and feet in a warm room → Heavy legs by the end of the day → A flat, foggy patch that arrives around two in the afternoon → A reading that's higher at the surgery than at home → Checking your blood pressure again and again, and trusting it less each time → Being told "let's see how it goes" for the third appointment running → The exhaustion of trying everything and no longer expecting anything These aren't simply signs of getting older. They can be signs of a fading signal. If you ever have chest pain, breathlessness or sudden changes to your vision, please see a doctor straight away. That is not something to manage with a supplement. I think about Margaret a lot. If she hadn't taken that pouch out of her handbag, I'd still be checking my reading eight times a day. I'd still be dreading the headache, and still putting off the conversation about tablets. After 26 years as a cardiologist, I thought I knew every option. It turns out my patient knew something I didn't. Here's where I got mine: getmatter.co/products/blood-flow A pack of 60 capsules, which is 30 days, is £19.99 right now, down from £29.99. Don't judge it at 30 days, because the numbers above took 60, so a bigger bundle is worth a look. You also have a 90 day money back guarantee. If your numbers don't move, customer service will refund you. Write your reading down every morning, take the notebook to your GP, and let your own numbers decide. ~ Dr Richard Ashworth P.S. A few things I wish I'd known before I started. I didn't realise it would take the best part of two months to show, and I nearly gave up at week one. Don't judge it by the first week, keep a notebook, and keep taking whatever your doctor has prescribed. P.P.S. I do not get paid by Matter. I bought my first pack myself, kept my own log, and I'm sharing the numbers because Margaret shared hers with me. If your readings don't move in 90 days, you get your money back, so the only thing at risk is another year of not knowing.