These studies show what Nitric Oxide does: lowers blood pressure, lowers cholesterol and triglycerides, improve diabetes, improves sexual function, reduces blood clots and strokes, improves heart failure, and more.
These are not just light reading magazines. These are medically published clinical studies!
Nitric Oxide is produced from Arginine in the endothelium. If you have enough Arginine, you'll have enough Nitric Oxide. Dr. Ignarro says it takes about 5 grams (not milligrams. . . but grams - that's 5,000 milligrams) per day to stay healthy. Most Americans get maybe 3 grams per day in their diet and they don't assimilate all of that. If we need at least 5 grams and we get 3 grams or less, then we're going in the hole, and the worse our diet is, the deeper we are going in the hole.
And here's more clinical studies . . . . . improves wound healing, improves kidney function, improves memory and cognitive functions, increases human growth hormone, improves muscle growth and performance, and more.
We've known for years that Arginine has been used for weight lifting and body building because it helps a person recover faster. But those same weight lifters and body builders have been taking it in pill form, of which form your body only assimilates about 20%. But Arginine helps ANYBODY recover faster. However, it is NOT recommended that you take Arginine by itself. You need a balanced Arginine product. And we will mention that fact again.
L-Arginine can positively affect people with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, family history of CVD, high estrogen, smokers, chest pains, leg pains, easily winded, lack of energy and impotence.
In looking at this list, why does estrogen cause a problem? One reason is this: in Lexi-Comp's Clinical Reference Library book, titled "Drug-Induced Nutrient Depletion Handbook", thousands of drugs are listed and every drug has a nutrient or nutrients that it depletes. If you look up estrogen, you find that it eventually makes the arteries stiff because of the Vitamin C and the B Vitamins that it steals from your body.
So what is a balanced Arginine product? Stay tuned and we'll find out . . . . .
The answer is: All Natural. . . . which is Good News . . . . . and . . . . Bad News!
The Good news is that it IS all natural and the Bad news is that you cannot "patent" a natural substance (like you can a synthetic drug). That means that the pharmaceutical industry, and most of the medical establishment, is going to be anti-natural.
Here's another quote from Dr. Cooke's book: "There is magic within all of us. It comes in the shape of a molecule known as nitric oxide. A substance so powerful that it can actually protect you from heart attack and stroke."
I introduced the question in my last post: ".....how can we make our bodies produce more?" We've established that our bodies make nitric oxide. And we know the vital role that nutrition plays in how our bodies function. Nitric oxide is not a substance we can take by pill . . . . at least not indiscriminately. A heart patient keeps nitroglycerin tablets nearby for when they feel a problem coming on. This is basically nitric oxide. It does the same thing, only it is more drastic than how your body normally manufactures it.
There IS something you can do nutritionally to enhance your body's own production of this miracle molecule!
The essential amino acid, L'Arginine, or simply Arginine, is what enables our arteries to produce nitric oxide.
Here is a quote from the book entitled "The Arginine Solution", subtitled, "The First Guide to America's New Cardio-Enhancing Supplement" by Robert Fried, Ph.D., & Woodson C. Merrell, M.D. and James Thornton, M.D. I quote: "In the field of medicine and health, it is one of the revolutions of our time: the discovery that the amino acid L-Arginine may be the "magic bullet" for the cardiovascular system." Drs. Fried, Merrell, and Thornton claim that Arginine: "opens clogged arteries, reduces the risk of Heart Disease, boosts potency with the natural alternative to Viagra, improves your immune system and more with this "miracle molecule" whose remarkable properties were validated by the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine."
L'Arginine is a simple, essential amino acid that is not produced by the body, but that is found in our diet - primarily in red meat. It is a protein molecule. We know that red meat is fatty and has cholesterol, and, as a result, many individuals have cut back on their intake of red meat. Another fact is that L'Arginine is somewhat difficult to break down from the diet. In fact, we only assimilate about 20% of the L'Arginine that comes from the food we eat. These facts are probably why, as Dr. John Cooke claims, Amercians are not producing enough nitric oxide in their blood vessels.
The question that many have in regards to L'Arginine, as with other supplements, is" "Does Arginine interact with prescription medications?"
Can you eat red meat with your prescriptions?
If so, you can take Arginine with it.
L'Arginine is safe to take with: Cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin or anticoagulants, calcium channel blockers, Digitalis or ACE Inhibitors and Beta-Blockers: all associated with heart conditions.
What you may find is that, over time, taking Arginine may result in your needing less and less of these prescription medications.
It is always a wise thing to ask your physician prior to beginning any supplementation program. The question to ask is, "Are there any contra-indications in the ingredients in this supplement with the medications I am currently using?"
A few words of caution:
You should never stop taking a prescription medication without your doctor's advice. Usually, if you are on any kind of maintenance meds, you will need to be weaned off of these.
However, if your doctor is critical of you trying Arginine and working on a plan to wean you off the drugs, you may want to seek a second opinion.
Also! Avoid nitrate type drugs, such as Nitroglycerin, or take your Arginine at a different time than these. Avoid Vasculogenic drugs like Viagra for obvious reasons. You will more than likely find that you do not need these type drugs after taking Arginine.
And, speaking of Viagra, Erectile Dysfunction, or ED, is just another form of cardiovascular disease -- below the belt. And these quotes attest to that fact:
If it's so good, how can we make our bodies produce more?
Let's examine The Science. In this post we will look at and outline the research and science that supports Nitric Oxide. We'll also look at the nutritional elements L'Arginine and Vitamin D3 in nitric oxide production. Nitric Oxide has been called the "Magic Bullet". Our bodies are obviously the gun because our bodies produce it. But what pulls the trigger?
These three American Scientists won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery of the Nitric Oxide Pathway. The Associated Press reported on October 12, 1998 that they won the prize "for discovering that the body uses nitric oxide gas to make blood vessels relax and widen - a finding that could pay off in treatments for heart disease."
Dr. Louis J. Ignarro wrote his book, "NO More Heart Disease", based on his more than 30 years of research. The "NO" stands for Nitric Oxide but it also stands for NO: meaning NONE. The subtitles on the cover of his book reads: "How Nitric Oxide Can Prevent - Even Reverse - Heart Disease and Strokes" and "A Program for Boosting Production of the Body's Own Wonder Drug."
If you click on the link above you will be able to view a video clip of Dr. Ignarro speaking about winning the Nobel Prize and the benefits of L'Arginine on the cardiovascular system once it converts it to Nitric Oxide.
So, just what IS Nitric Oxide, or "NO"?
It has been named "Molecule of the Year" by Science magazine in 1992.
It is produced by the endothelial cell linings along 100,000 miles of blood vessels and capillaries in the human body.
It keeps the blood vessels open, elastic and functioning properly.
20,000 articles in medical literature since 1980 attest that "absolutely everything depends on it!"
According to Dr. John Cooke in "The Cardiovascular Cure", "Most Americans are not producing enough "NO" in their blood vessels." If they are not producing enough "NO", then what is going to be the results? If it is what keeps blood vessels elastic, then a lack of it will result in the hardening of those vessels. If it is what causes those vessels to vasodilate, or relax, then a lack will result in constricted vessels. If it is what allows for better blood flow to all parts of the body, then a lack of it will decrease that flow and thus deterioration will occur. Where ever the weakest link in the chain is: whether it's the heart, the lungs, the legs (as with PAD), the kidneys, or elsewhere, that's where the problem is going to be!
I hope you are beginning to get a picture of just how important this little molecule is to your health and, indeed, your life. Maybe you're beginning to understand what in the world is Nitric Oxide!
I beg the indulgence of my readers. This information may be a little dull and boring but it shows the insidious nature of this disease that is so subtle, many times, in its approach, but so often deadly in its results. As I said in the beginning, much of the time, the first sign that you have heart disease is . . . . sudden death!
This picture shows a lengthwise cross section of an artery and actually illustrates the progression of cardiovascular disease. First, you have normal, healthy artery. Then early fatty streaks begin showing up which continue and grow. White and Red blood cells form an internal rupture within the endothelium (the lining of the blood vessels) and inflammation and calcification begin. A calcified shell forms around this lipid-rich plaque and, with scarring, calicified plaque develops. White blood cells accumulate to the point where the artery is vulnerable and there is a possibility of a rupture. This is what happend to Tim Russert. He didn't have much blockage (only about 40%) but it ruptured and, therefore, the first real sign of his problem was his death.
When a Thrombus and Myocardial Infarction occurs, doctors must go in and place a stent, which is a tube designed to be inserted into a vessel or passagway to keep it open. The other option is to put in a new vein or artery to bypass the damage.
How fast this progression occurs is determined by what we eat and what we assimilate!
Here we are comparing three cross-cut sections of arteries: First, a healthy blood vessel, where the endothelium is relaxed and the vessel is open. Second is a narrowed artery where constriction is occuring because of a lack of Nitric Oxide.
Nitric Oxide is what the endothelium produces to keep the arteries relaxed and vasodilated. This problem is compounded by the plaque build-up. But notice the third artery, where Nitric Oxide has been increased allowing for dilation. Even with the plaque still present, one can see how blood flow is increased!
In my next post I will discuss how our bodies produce this essential Nitric Oxide and what we can do nutritionally to enhance its production . . . . and . . . . . put a halt to Cardiovascular Disease Progression!
