Nitrate Modulates Cognitive Impairment Via Oral Microbiota.

Alcohol use is increasingly prevalent in modern society and is known to cause cognitive impairment and dysregulation of inflammatory responses. In the present study, the investigators want to perform a randomised controlled trials to test whether nitrate could change the oral microbiota and benefit the cognitive impairment in alcohol dependence patients. The investigators survey the oral bacterial communities in saliva samples of 70 alcohol dependent patients following 14 days of dietary inorganic nitrate (nitrate-rich beetroot juice, \~750 mg NO3- /d) and placebo (nitrate-depleted beetroot juice, \~1 mg NO3- /d) supplementation.