The Biggest Little Molecule in Biology!
We live in an age of exhilarating medical discoveries. Scientific breakthroughs occur routinely and “miracle drugs” rise and fall in popularity. However, this article is not about the latest magic bullet that will cure everything that ails you. It is about a natural substance, nitric oxide (NO) that has emerged in past decades as one of medicine’s greatest untold success stories and one of the human body’s best allies in its intrinsic quest for wellness.
Nitric oxide (NO), is a free radical gas that is a powerful regulator of circulation (it is an endogenous vasodilator) and a neurotransmitter (it helps in the processing of nerve signals as they cross synapses. L-arginine, one of the 20 amino acids that generates significant amounts of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide initiates and maintains vasodilation through a cascade of biological events that culminate in the relaxation of smooth muscle cells that line arteries, veins and lymphatics. Since the early 1980s, an explosion of research in laboratories across the globe has revealed many successes confirming that nitric oxide works within the body’s complex biochemistry to help prevent major diseases. Results also validate that it can restore health to those who already suffer from those diseases.
Researchers now know that nitric oxide can significantly reduce high blood pressure and slash the risk of the blood clots that trigger heart attacks and strokes. It can often lower cholesterol levels almost as well as high-priced statin drugs, and it can keep the so-called bad cholesterol from oxidizing into an even nastier artery-clogging form. Nitric oxide can reduce the risk of diabetes and lessens the severity of damage in those who suffer from it. It appears to trigger the pituitary gland into releasing human growth hormone, the same substance shown to slow, and even reverse, the aging process itself. It can also restore erectile function to impotent men, and very likely enhance sexuality for women as well.
In fact, the editors of the highly prestigious journal Science, after voting NO the 1992 Science Molecule of the Year state, “Nitric oxide helps maintain blood pressure by dilating blood vessels, helps kill foreign invaders in the immune response, is a major mediator of penile erections, and is probably a major biochemical component of long-term memory … these are just a few of its benefits.”
Nitric oxide (not to be confused with nitrous oxide, otherwise known as the laughing gas your dentist may use as an anesthetic) is a chemical produced in the body that keeps blood vessels dilated, thus increasing blood flow. Nitric oxide also has a wide variety of other benefits, including killing bacteria and viruses and promoting healing of wounds and ulcers. Nitric oxide regulates muscle contraction, signals the long-term adaptive response to exercise, controls nutrient delivery and uptake, widens the blood channels, indirectly initiates fatty-acid oxidation and generates new muscle growth.
Stress, aging, injuries, intense exercise, and fighting disease-causing organisms call all deplete the body of nitric oxide. A human or animal that has insufficient levels of nitric oxide will be unable to perform to the best of its abilities. Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) from which nitric oxide is derived is a pH dependent enzyme. It is active at slightly alkaline conditions but is suppressed by acidic conditions (such as the result of modern American diets) therefore creating a deficiency of nitric oxide. In diabetics, glycolysis and ketoacidosis force pH toward acid conditions and this may account for the reduction of nitric oxide.
Depletion of nitric oxide may be involved in a variety of health problems, including reduced blood flow to the stomach causing stomach ulcers, and in other cases insufficient nitric oxide allows blood pressure to rise excessively in the lungs, causing bleeding. For others, insufficient production of nitric oxide can reduce blood flow to the sex organs, causing impotence.
Dr. Jonathans Stamler and his colleagues at Duke University Medical Center showed that nitric oxide binds to hemoglobin, the blood’s chemical “magnet” that delivers oxygen to our cells, and then carries carbon dioxide back to the lungs for discharging.
What’s more, Dr. Stamler and his team convincingly demonstrated that nitric oxide is not just some passive molecular hitchhiker along for a blood-borne ride. Instead, it serves as the key regulator of blood circulations and lung function. Without nitric oxide, human life would be impossible.
Note: Nitroglycerine was discovered by Alfred Nobel, the man after whom the Noble Prize is named. Nitroglycerine was used as a drug for cardiac treatment for more than 100 years after the accidental discovery that the workers in his nitroglycerine factory had low blood pressure. Through this research the levels of nitric oxide were raised increasing the body’s ability to regulate blood pressure. It is now possible to explain the beneficial role of nitric oxide in the treatment of heart disease. The three scientists, Robert F. Furchgot, Louis Ignarro, and Ferid Murad, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1998 for their pioneering research on nitric oxide.
Just Say NO to Sexual Dysfunction and Say Yes to Sexual Enhancement
During the early 1990’s, urologist Dr. Jacob Raijfer and other researchers at UCLA discovered that in the healthy penis, blood inflow is triggered when nerve ending s release the short-lived gas nitric oxide. This is the same nitric oxide that had so recently emerged as the chief natural relaxant for the smooth muscle rings in arteries themselves. The researchers determined that nitric oxide, like a tipped domino, initiates a series of biochemical reactions in the penis that ultimately engorge it with blood and allow it to remain erect.
When declaring nitric oxide the 1993 Molecule of the Year, the editors of Science referred to the pivotal discoveries at UCLA when they wrote, “This year scientists proved definitively that in men, nitric oxide translates sexual excitement into potency by causing erections. The pelvic nerves get a message from the brain and make nitric oxide in response. Nitric oxide dilates the blood vessels throughout the crucial areas of the penis, blood rushes in, and the penis rises to the occasion.”
In a report in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Raijfer and his colleagues suggested that defects in the nitric oxide system may prevent sufficient inflow of blood or, alternatively, may cause blood to leak out prematurely, in either case quashing an erection. Dr. Raijfer stated that up to 81 percent of impotence in American men was directly attributable to some form of nitric oxide failure.
Recently, researchers have discovered that it’s not just men who undergo changes in their sex-organ blood flow patterns. Women endure nearly identical changes as well, To be sure, blood engorgement of the vaginal tissues may be harder to see than the changes in a penis as it becomes erect, but more and more doctors now believe that a healthy sexual response in women is as dependent on a well functioning vasculature as it is in men. Vaginal lubrication, for instance, is just one example of a process that’s highly dependent on ample blood flow in the urogenital arteries. Nitric oxide will definitely enhance blood-flow patterns to the female sex organ.
Below are the “Seven Steps to Erection” in terms of the biochemical pathway:
- Sexual stimulation causes a variety of nerves originating in the brain to start firing.
- Once stimulated, these nerves cause the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the penis.
- This acetylcholine, in turn, causes the endothelial cells in penile arteries to begin producing nitric oxide. (Endothelial cells are small cells that make up capillaries and line every blood vessel and lymph duct in the body.)
- Nitric oxide then triggers the release of another naturally occurring chemical called cyclic guanosine monophosphate (GMP).
- As cyclic GMP levels build, the smooth muscles of the penile arteries relax, the vessels dilate, and increased blood flow causes swelling of the corpus cavernosa, producing an erection.
- Even as nitric oxide continues to build up cyclic GMP, an enzyme begins to break it down. This enzyme, phosphodiesterase, appears to act as a brake on the overall system, preventing erections from becoming excessive or permanent.
- Following climax or other cessation of the sexual stimulation, the penile nerves stop firing and the nerve endings cease releasing acetylcholine. Without the acetylcholine signal, the endothelial cells cut back on nitric oxide production. What little cyclic GMP remains free floating is soon broken down by phosphodiesterase. The smooth muscles of the penis blood vessels once again contract, and the penis goes into its nonarousal, compact state.
A well-advertised pharmaceutical drug for sexual enhancement works by an entirely different mechanisms. This drug blocks the enzyme, phosphodiesterase. Without this enzyme to put the brakes on cyclic GMP, levels of this potent vasodilator can create potential problems.
NO and Plaque Prevention
Heart disease. Six million Americans have it, over 600,000 die for it each year, and countless others worry obsessively about getting it. This worry means stress, and stress may up your odds of developing the condition.
There are many different forms of heart disease. The most common is CAD (coronary artery disease), a condition characterized by coronary vessel blockages that reduce the blood reaching the heart. The second form is hypertensive heart disease. It occurs when the heart itself actually changes in form and function as a result of chronic and untreated high blood pressure.
A study in the journal Circulation revealed that increasing the amount of nitric oxide in the body actually reduced pathological increases in the thickness of plaque-lined vessel walls. Another study published in the Circulation showed that nitric oxide improved blood flow in men aged 54-74 who had a history of elevated serum cholesterol and who had shown signs of early coronary artery disease.
NO, The Body’s Safe and Natural Blood Thinner
You have probably heard that so-called blood thinners are sometimes used to treat heart and hypertensive patients. Blood thinners prevent platelets from becoming sticky and forming clots. The medical term for theses thinners is anticoagulants.
One well-known anticoagulant is aspirin. Doctors know that one of aspirin’s many properties include the inhibition of platelet clumping. Unfortunately, an anticoagulant like aspirin can have pernicious side effects for many patients, side effects that can range from serious stomach bleeding to kidney damage.
A recent report from the Boston University School of Medicine, cautioned that aspirin could irritate the stomach lining, causing sometimes sever upper gastrointestinal bleeding and hemorrhagic stroke (unchecked bleeding into the brain). So for some patients, “blood thinning” with daily aspirin can be a lifesaver, but for many others it can result in a kind of disease substitution whereby reducing the odds of one bad outcome simply ups the odds of another.
The good news is that researchers have found another “blood thinning” approach that is equally effective in controlling platelets aggregation, but without the side effects like those of aspirin. Drs. M.W. Radomski, R.M.J. Palmer and Salvador Moncada learned that platelets themselves contain their own form of the enzyme, nitric oxide synthase. This ability to form nitric oxides is a “fail-safe” mechanism that limits the capacity of platelets to do inadvertent damage to the blood vessels they are designed to save. Nature has equipped us with our own emergency clot-busters. Not only will nitric oxide prevent your platelets from clotting, it will dilate the blood vessels supplying tissues with a high demand for oxygen and nutrients.
The delivery of oxygen from the lungs to body tissues and the subsequent removal of carbon dioxide waste back to the lungs for exhalation is a complex process. It is largely mediated by hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein found in red blood cells. Recent research has found that hemoglobin also binds to a third gas, nitric oxide. This is ferried along with oxygen and carbon dioxide and can be released when needed to dilate arterial vessels, thereby allowing more blood flow to tissues, which require extra oxygen.
Te reiterate, nitric oxide figures prominently as a kind of fail-safe mechanisms for blood platelets, which are, by the way, the body’s smallest cells. When a vessel sustains an injury, platelets become ‘sticky’ and aggregate into clots that serve as miniature dams to stanch further blood loss. This protective mechanism can sometimes go awry in patients whose arteries have undergone narrowing and occlusion due to atherosclerotic plaque. Large blood clots can be deadly, especially when they occur in vital areas like the coronary arteries or the arteries that feed the brain. To prevent this outcome, heart patients are often prescribed anticoagulants to inhibit platelet stickiness.
Unfortunately, many of the conventional “blood thinners,” including aspirin, can trigger other side effects, from stomach ulcers to hemorrhagic stroke. Nitric oxide will help open arteries and reduce the stickiness of platelets.
How NO can help Diabetics
Diabetes mellitus is the seventh leading cause of death in the
Diabetes also promotes atherosclerosis and can trigger life-threatening seizures caused by low blood pH, when the blood becomes too acidic. Poor circulation in the extremities predisposes many diabetic men to impotence. In men and women alike, diabetes can result in gangrene in the hands and feet, a catastrophic infection that can require amputation of the affected limbs. Diabetics can also become blind due to damage to blood vessels in the eyes.
When blood serum levels climb high and stay that way too long, they set off a number of harmful biochemical reactions in the blood. Excess sugar, for instance, can bind to hemoglobin, a damaging process known as glycosylation. Glucose can also react with certain proteins in the blood, producing mega molecules that can destroy fragile capillaries and reduce a diabetic’s life span by as much as one-third
Diabetes also accelerates hardening of the arteries in many patients. One likely contributor to this is “lipid peroxidation,” when blood fats such as LCD are turned rancid by oxygen free radicals. Nitric oxide can reduce lipid peroxidation. In one study, thirty patients with diabetes mellitus had their nitric oxide increased and after three months they had a significant decrease in lipid peroxidation – a major benefit in the fight against atherosclerosis. Dr. Ian I. Joffe from
Nitric oxide may have an even more direct benefit, especially for those suffering the adult-onset form of diabetes. Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have demonstrated that nitric oxide production can restore blood vessel function and improve other pathological changes caused by diabetes.
NO and Neurotransmission
Diabetic patients are particularly at risk of damage to sensory and motor nerves in the feet or to dysfunction of the automatic nervous system that innervates internal organs, for example, the intestines. The clinical diagnosis of the latter condition is gastroparesis. Nitric oxide is an important signaling molecule conveying information from one nerve to another, including non-cholinergic, non-adrenergic, (NCNA) nerves. NCNA nerves control smooth muscle cells, which regulate gastric emptying and intestinal motility. Reduced availability of nitric oxide in diabetic patients may be one of the causes of gastroparesis.
Nerves communicate with one another across synapses and several biochemical compounds diffuse from one nerve to the second nerve. Nitric oxide is one of these biochemical “neurotransmitter” molecules and is produced by both brain tissue and peripheral nerves.
Nitric oxide has both a direct and indirect effect on neurotransmission. The direct effect relates to permeability of nerve membranes regulating ion transport that is important for nerve signal transmission. Indirectly, nitric oxide enables nerves to properly function by causing increase in blood flow (vasodilatation) allowing essential oxygen and nutrients to be transported to nerve cells.
Nitric oxide, by affecting cyclic GMP, allows phosphorylation (addition of a phosphate group) of ion channels, especially potassium channels necessary for normal transmission of nerve signals. Nitric oxide also increases blood flow. This allows sufficient oxygen and glucose to be transported to nerve cells, positively affecting ATP (adenosine triphosphate) production, our primary energy source, and in turn, facilitates potassium/sodium homeostasis essential for neurotransmission. Increases in blood flow may also allow the oxygen dependent isoform, bNOS, to produce more nitric oxide. (bNOS is a form of NO that helps in synaptic transmission, the process of nervous information from nerve to nerve across gaps (synapses) and from peripheral nerves to the brain.)
In summary, nitric oxide may reduce pain associated with diabetes directly by increasing cyclic GMP, indirectly by increasing circulation to restore normal membrane potential and reduce pressure of nerves due to localized edema.
NO: The
Nearly sixty million Americans suffer from hypertension, otherwise known as high blood pressure. Untold others are heading along in their footsteps. Often referred to as the “silent killer,” the disorder rarely announces itself with any warning sign. Hypertension is one of the leading causes of illness, disability, and death in the
Researchers for the National Institutes of Health in
So, how does your circulatory system accomplish this amazingly complex logistical task? It does this, by selectively dilating the “pipes” that carry blood to high-demand regions while constricting those that supply regions that are lower on the priority list. Doctors refer to these two complementary mechanisms as vasodilation and vasoconstriction. Your arterial system accomplishes this opening and narrowing via the action of smooth muscle rings that wrap around arterial “pipes” themselves.
Operating properly, the smooth muscle action is a miraculous example of biochemical orchestration, with the principal conductor being nitric oxide. Researchers are now realizing that nitric oxide created by the endothelial cells lining your arteries, is really the principal blood pressure regulator of the body.
Once produced and released by the endothelium, nitric oxide causes the arterial smooth muscles making up the vessel walls to relax enlarging the interior diameter of the artery, and ultimately letting more blood flow through.
It has only recently been discovered that damage from the standard coronary heart disease risk factors, from hypertension to high cholesterol, impairs the ability of your endothelium to produce nitric oxide when and where it is needed.
NO and the Immune System
A healthy, well-functioning immune system is a marvel of natural microbiology, physics and biochemistry. Without it, we could not survive for even the shortest period of time on this planet. Every living organism, from animals to plants, has an immune system, each with differences that promote individual survival and health.
Besides physical, mechanical and chemical means of preventing microorganisms from entering our body, innate immunity also has cellular defenses. This next line of defense consists of specialized immune cells that destroy the invader once it has entered our body. We have natural killer (NK) cells that hunt down and destroy virus-infected cells and caner cells, as well as cells infected with bacteria and protozoa. Also, there are a variety of phagocytes, called “cell-eaters”, including the macrophages that filter and remove debris from the blood and make up an important part of the first line of defense strategy of the immune system in eliminating bacteria and parasites.
Recent research believes that small bursts of nitric oxide fired by macrophage combat our “enemies” in at least two distinctive ways. First nitric oxide interferes with iron containing molecules crucial to cellular respiration. This kills the “enemy” by poisoning it. Among the common infections that nitric oxide is known to kill by the mechanism:
- Salmonella – a bacteria that causes food poisoning
- Candida albicans – a common form of yeast infection
- E. coli 0157 – the infamous bacterial killer
- Chlamydia – a widespread, sexually transmitted disease
- Helicobacter pylori – a bacteria that has been linked to causing peptic ulcer, migraines and heart disease
Secondly, nitric oxide provides a mechanism to neutralize infectious invaders and possible tumor cells. It appears to have the ability to interfere with the enzymes necessary for DNA replication in harmful organisms. Nitric oxide can therefore keep infectious agents and cancer cells from reproducing.
Research on nitric oxide’s effect on cancer has become a priority for many scientists. The journal Cancer Research, (1974) reported a study that showed that increasing the amount of nitric oxide would inhibit tumor growth. Numerous studies have examined the effect of nitric oxide on a spectrum of different cancers in vivo and in vitro and in many cases, nitric oxide seems to hold considerable promise as an adjunct to traditional care.
One area of clinical practice where nitric oxide is playing an increasingly important role is wound healing. From helping patients overcome trauma more quickly to expediting recovery after surgery, many doctors have realized that nitric oxide helps boost the body’s innate restorative powers.
Scientists studying wounds have long observed that the affected tissues often have low levels of nitric oxide in them. Dr. Adrian Barbul, in the Journal of Surgical Research, found that more nitric oxide reduced inflammation and sped up the rate of healing. The latest research has also shown that macrophages can use nitric oxide to poison the internal metabolism of enemy cells, or to interfere with the ability of these adversaries to reproduce their DNA. Nitric oxide is now known to be an effective killer of a wide variety of common infectious disease agents, from Salmonella to Chlamydia. Nitric oxide fired by macrophages and other immune cells also have the power to destroy some tumors.
NO’s Effect on Other Conditions
Throughout this booklet, I have informed you about the ways nitric oxide can benefit your body’s most critical physiological systems. From turning up your heart and cardiovasculature to providing your immune system with the necessary firepower to combat infections, nitric oxide is emerging as one of humankind’s most beneficial ally.
Nitric oxide will help to treat many of the harmful underlying disorders, like high blood pressure, that have for so long put a burden on your body’s crucial blood-filtering organs. Perhaps even more promising is the possibility that nitric oxide can help prevent kidney disease long before it has a change to develop. If your kidneys are not now diseased, increasing your nitric oxide today may well help inoculate you against future problems.
In the rest of this section, I will be examining some of the many other disorders for, which nitric oxide is very beneficial. As Dr. Jonathan S. Stamler of
NO and the Brain
The healthy brain consumes twenty-five percent of the body’s oxygen supply and an astonishing seventy percent of its blood glucose. It also produces an array of chemicals. Cut off blood supply for more than a few minutes, and brain cells quickly begin to die. If blood flow is just slightly reduced, the resulting reduction in oxygen on a chronic basis can contribute to a spectrum of mental disorders, from impaired thinking to disorders of senility.
Just as nitric oxide plays a key role in relaxing coronary arteries to guarantee a plentiful blood supply to your heart, so does this mechanism now appear to regulate blood flow to your brain. A 1993 study in Brain Research showed that inhibiting the enzyme used to make nitric oxide caused constriction of the arteries supplying the brain. The body responded by elevating blood pressure to make sure enough blood still made it through. When the researchers increased the amount of nitric oxide the vessels dilated and blood pressure normalized.
Nitric oxide has other functions in the brain, besides orchestrating blood flow. The way different nerve cells “communicate” with one another is through the release of specific messengers chemicals called neurotransmitters. These are typically secreted in the synapse (the tiny gap that separates the end of one nerve cell from another). Serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline are just three of the more popularly known neurotransmitters. Recently, neuroscientists have learned that nitric oxide functions also as a neurotransmitter, facilitating communication among nerve cells whether they are connected via synapses or not.
According to researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, nitric oxide may well be the “key” for long-term memory. In fact, they were able to show that by inhibiting the enzyme that makes nitric oxide in the brain long-term memory storage was compromised.
Other brain researchers have begun to examine the role of nitric oxide in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In patients suffering either of these disorders, there is frequently a significant reduction in the nitric oxide being produced in their brain. Recent articles in both Nature and the Journal of Neurological Sciences offered evidence that this reduction may hamper memory storage and reduce blood flow to the brain. The latter may at once contribute to and be exacerbated by a deposit of a specific kind of plaque, called beta-amyloid. That is a hallmark of several degenerative brain diseases including Alzheimer’s. This plaque, through chemically different from the astherosclerotic plaque that clogs heart arteries, seems equally damaging to endothelial cells in the same cerebral blood vessels. Restoring healthy levels of nitric oxide in the brain enhances its ability to function at its peak.
NO and the Aging Process
In recent years, researchers have focused attention on a key hormone produced by the pituitary gland and known as HGH (human growth hormone). When we are young, HGH directs much of the growth process. It oversees tissue repair throughout the body. As we get older HGH production begins to reduce. By the age of fifty, the pituitary gland of many people releases only very slight amounts. By old age, fully half or more adults are partially to totally deficient in HGH release. Scientists at the
What is certain is that nitric oxide can benefit one of the most important age-related physiological declines: the damage to blood vessels, which itself serves as the first tilted domino in so many deleterious chain reactions.
NO and Pregnant Women
There is a unique form of hypertension called preeclampsia that affects an estimated nine to twelve percent of pregnant women, usually but not always during a first pregnancy. Symptoms generally develop in the final trimester and usually feature dangerously elevated blood pressure, fluid retention that leads to swollen hands and feet and a puffy face, and elevated levels of protein in the urine. In severe cases, the condition can evolved into life-threatening eclampsia itself. In the
What triggers preeclampsia remains mysterious, but blues now point to a failure of nitric oxide production. In 1991, researchers from the
NO and the Lungs
Scientists have discovered a major new function for the blood protein called hemoglobin. In addition to delivering oxygen (O2) to the body’s tissues and removing carbon dioxide (CO2), it delivers a gas called nitric oxide (NO), which has important roles like regulating blood pressure.
Asthma refers to a group of related diseases caused by constriction of the breathing passage of the lung. Fluid then frequently accumulates in the little terminal bronchial sacs, leading to inflammation and a further reduction in a victim’s ability to take in a refreshing breath of air. Researchers as the National Heart and Lung Institute in England showed that the mechanisms that keep bronchial passages open in the lungs is controlled entirely by nitric oxide.
Increasing nitric oxide available to the lungs via inhalers has become an accepted therapy for a number of more sever lung-related diseases, including adult respiratory distress syndrome, pulmonary hypertension, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, which is the fourth leading cause of death in the
NO and Wound Healing
Nitric oxide and its interrelationship with essential growth factors is critically involved in the entire continuum of events associated with would repair, including cell division, maturation, neovascularization, and collagen synthesis including proper cross-linking of collagen fibers.
Nitric oxide is a powerful stimulator of cell division. This is called proliferation, one cell into tow, four into eight, and so on. For wounds to heal, new tissue is formed through induced division of existing cells. Several of the 10-20 known growth factors are necessary to induce cell division required in tissue repair. Of these, epidermal growth factor and/or keratinocyte growth factor, which are important for re-epithelialization and wound closure, cannot perform their biological function without nitric oxide as a common chemical mediator. It is also important in duplicating some of the components of the cells so that each new cell is identical to its parent.
Without cell division and receptor formation, mediated in part by NO, wound healing will not occur. Formation of new blood vessels, called angiogenesis, is essential for wound healing otherwise newly formed tissue will eventually deteriorate again due to lack of oxygen and nutrients. Growth factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor, determine the extent of revascularization of damaged tissues. All growth factors bind to receptors on the cell surface and generate nitric oxide-mediated cyclic GMP. Therefore, nitric oxide is a powerful and necessary mediator of angiogenesis.
So, How Do We Maintain a Healthy Level of NO in Our Body and Receive its Remarkable Benefits?
There is a proprietary delivery system called Neurotransmitter Production Support (N.P.S.TM) that is designated to achieve synergistic effects by combining neurotransmitter precursors with ingredients that promote neurotransmitter release.
Neurotransmitters can only be formed in the body from a select number of amino acids and other nutrients. Additionally, in order for neurotransmitters to be produced, certain nerve cells must be activated. Unless these nerve cells are activated, simply supplying nutrients is insufficient to increase production of neurotransmitters.
The key to increasing the amount of neurotransmitter produced by the body is to supply the needed nutrients while simultaneously activating the nerve cells that produce the desired neurotransmitter. This concept forms the basis of N.P.S.TM N.P.S.TM based products are formulated to normalize body functions. These products are not designed to stimulate or inhibit mechanisms within the body, as with drugs. Drugs can produce undesirable effects in a healthy body by inhibiting or stimulating mechanisms beyond the normal range. This results in N.P.S.TM based products having a tremendously greater margin of safety as compared to pharmaceuticals.
Frequently Asked Questions about NO
We asked one manufacturer of a supplement that supports the production of nitric oxide to answer these questions.
How does NO work?
Nitric oxide (NO), produced in the endothelium, signals the smooth muscle, which makes up most of the blood vessel, to dilate (relax). It also prevents plaque form forming on the endothelium and keeps the blood cells from clumping. Many vascular diseases may be caused by a nitric oxide deficiency.
How can I maintain a healthy level of NO?
The active ingredient of all VasoRxTM products is N.P.S.,TM a precursor used by the body to produce nitric oxide, which helps to widen blood vessels so blood can flow efficiently to the heart.
I am at a high risk for heart disease, what can I do?
Because of its usefulness in checking hypertension, I believe N.P.S.TM is an ideal preventative measure for presently healthy individuals at risk for heart disease who hope to safeguard their heart and prevent long-term pathological changes such as congestive heart failure.
I’ve read that menopause can case women to suffer from vaginal dryness. Will any of the VasoRx products help me?
The AmoRx3TM for women would be an excellent product. Nitric oxide and glutamate synthesis control the sexual functions of females, including enhanced lubrication and sensitivity, as well as sexual response.]
How do I take the VasoRx products?
The products must be taken when the stomach is as empty as possibly, especially for the first month. Stop eating for one hour before and one hour after taking the product. This is essential to insure rapid absorption of the ingredients in order to produce the desired effects.
Can I take these products with my medication or other supplements?
Anti-inflammatory drugs and certain herbs block formation of nitric oxide. They prevent VasoRxTM products from working. All anti-inflammatory drugs and all other anti-inflammatory supplements/herbs need to be stopped for at least the first four weeks while taking the VasoRxTM products.
What is the difference between AmoRx3 for Men and AmoRx3 for Women?
AmoRx3 for MenTM is a unique blend designed to increase nitric oxide synthesis with a stimulant free proprietary combination of arginine, glutamic acid, histidine and other essential nutrients. AmoRx3 for WomenTM is a special blend designed to promote nitric oxide synthesis. Nitric oxide and glutamate synthesis control the sexual function of females, including enhancing lubrication and sensitivity, as well as sexual response. AmoRx3 for WomenTM works to enhance sexual function by replacing essential nutrients in the female body, as well as arginine, glutamic acid and histidine.
VasoRx3TM is essential to maintaining a diabetic’s wellbeing. Key nutrients coupled with nitric oxide precursor technology help maintain proper circulation to the extremities and internal organs. VasoRx3TM will support the production of nitric oxide and is appropriate where increased blood flow is indicated and beneficial.
I have difficulty maintaining an erection and I don’t want to take drugs. Is there a natural solution?
Over half of the males over forty suffer from erectile dysfunction. With AmoRx3TM for men, you will never fit into this category! Some men lack certain nutrients, which AmoRx3TM quickly and effectively replaces. AmoRx3TM stimulates nitric oxide synthesis with a stimulant free proprietary combination of essential nutrients. AmoRx3TM increases nitric oxide production and nitric oxide increases blood flow to the genitalia, which enhances perceived firmness of erection.
Are these products FDA approved?
FDA approval is pending. Currently, two independent research studies are being performed on the underlying N.P.S.TM technology.
Testimonials
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Chris Greene D.C.,
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Roger Gunderson, MHsc, Ph.D., ND,
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“My name is Guillermo
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Guillermo
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I have been taking VasoRx TM for two months and have seen results that I have not seen prior with other products. For example, at the gym, I increased my weights by 10 percent (during the second week of taking VasoRx TM and by the fourth week, I increased my weights another 10 percent, totaling 20 percent. I now ride my bike 100 miles a week. Overall, I have lost five pounds and added more muscle mass. I am very impressed with this product and believe it has a great potential to serve the health industry in so many ways.”
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Brian Lawrence,
“I am 70 years old and in good health. It is my pleasure to share my experience with a product that has had such a positive impact on me and the people with whole I have shared the products.
I have always been physical and athletic, but not so much at age 70. It is important that I keep my body in good shape and I am told I am still looking like the age of 45. In my effort to stay in shape, I went to a trainer, who I swear must be a Marine Corps drill sergeant. After my first session, I threatened to call the police and file charges for attempted murder. I thought to use NaturaRx3 TM , and I was never sour again after regular usage of this product I also used the EnduraRx3 TM when I do strenuous physical activities or need extra energy. VasoRx TM is the old standby. I had several nagging health issues from the lack of circulation. My extremities were always cold. I had to sleep with socks on my feet at night even when it was not winter. My hands stayed cold to the touch. I would also suffer from gout when I ate seafood. I noticed that when taking VasoRx TM , I had fewer problems.
My wife suffered from nightly leg and feet cramps to the extent that she would have to get out of bed in the middle of the night to get relief. After taking VasoRx TM , neither she nor have I have that problem. Two friends of mine had cancer and after taking the product, they are having favorable recovery. Before taking the product, one was having surgery every year to remove reoccurring cancer growth. That is not longer the case.
A man’s sexual “fountain of youth” is the AmoRx3 TM . It is great at the age of 70; I can feel the excitement and rigidity of age 18 again. The only disadvantage of the product is that your partner does not get much sleep any more. In my profession as a Pastor and Counselor, I often encounter many people who are sexually dysfunctional. It is a serious problem to their relationship and threatens the union often, sometimes ending in divorce because of the problem. Therefore, when I find a product that produces such excellent and exciting results, I can help families be more functional and stay together. These products could be called wonder products because they address so many ailments giving people health and happiness.
Pastor Robert L. Chew, Ph.D.,
Nitric oxide is such an ubiquitous and important substance in the human body that at least one top researcher has stated, “It does everything, everywhere!” Indeed, a host of seemingly unrelated miscellaneous health problems, from Alzheimer’s to diabetes, all seem to have one thing in common: they are caused or exacerbated by a deficiency of nitric oxide.
Researchers searching for ways to treat and prevent these disorders have begun to investigate a way to boost nitric oxide levels and benefit patients. Such benefits can occur through several different processes that nitric oxide regulates. Nitric oxide-mediated dilation of blood vessels keeps oxygen and glucose flowing freely to the brain, thus preventing the cognitive decline that hypoxia can cause. Nitric oxide also serves as a neurotransmitter that allows nerves cells to communicate even when they are not directly connected.
Among other effects, nitric oxide may also promote the release of insulin, which could benefit diabetics, and human growth hormone (HGH), which improves body composition and may play a role in retarding the aging process.
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