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Check out Sherra Aguirre's fascinating article on Nitric Oxide: Nature's Youth Serum? in my blog. You don't want to miss the $.99 eBook sale through April 11 for her award winning book Joyful, Delicious, Vegan: Life Without Heart Disease with an inspiring story of reversing her hypertension with a plant-based diet, more health and wellness tips, and delicious recipes!
Nitric oxide is a chemical in our blood that relaxes the blood vessels and at the same time reduces the blood’s viscosity or stickiness, which lowers blood pressure, boosts athletic performance, and improves sexual performance. It is essential for the health of our heart and arteries, however our ability to produce this chemical declines with age. This helps explain the increased risk for high blood pressure, and other symptoms of heart disease as we get older. By the time we reach age 40 our body’s nitric oxide production drops by about 50%. And by the time we reach 60, it has dropped by about 85% percent! The discovery of nitric oxide’s function in the body is so significant that the three scientists who discovered its role received a Nobel prize in 1998.
Nitric oxide in addition to being critical for heart health offers the following benefits.
Strengthens the immune system. Increased by eating a plant rich diet, nitric oxide is thought to be a factor in statistics indicating that people who eat a healthy plant-based diet have a 9% lower risk of COVID-19 infection and a 41% lower risk of severe COVID-19.
Boosts athletic performance with more efficient blood flow and oxygen delivery to the muscles. It also enables faster recovery, reduced soreness and a decreased demand on your heart and skeletal muscles during exercise.
Enhances sexual performance also by dilating the blood vessels in both men and women.
Protects the brain from dementia as we age which is often caused by hardening or damage to the arteries which disrupts the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain.
How do we get it?
Do we need to buy an expensive supplement to get these benefits? Absolutely not! Our bodies are the best nitric oxide producers and here’s how:
Eat plenty of dark green leafy vegetables with your meals - kale, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens spinach, bok choy, Swiss chard, arugula, beets and beet greens, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cilantro, parsley, asparagus and spirulina. Tip: If you cook these these greens just steam them for about 10 minutes to preserve maximum nutrients. However, I like eating most of them raw.
Breathing deeply through our nose and not the mouth increases the supply of this vital chemical which also has a calming effect and lowers blood pressure.
Sunshine also boosts production, which strengthens our immune system.
Exercise 30-45 minutes three to five times a week. Combine that with three 4-minute aerobic mini-sessions throughout each day to increase production by breaking up extended periods of sitting.
Don’t use anti-bacterial mouthwash and avoid toothpaste with fluoride when possible. It is certain helpful bacteria on our tongue that trigger nitric oxide production when we chew, and mouthwash and fluoride destroy them. Since chewing is an important part of the process, eat and chew most of your greens rather than juicing them for optimum nitric oxide benefit.
Antacids and antibiotics also disrupt bacteria essential to the body’s production of nitric oxide. Use them only when necessary and according to directions.
For an extra boost, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn advises chewing a small handful of cooked or raw greens with a few drops of balsamic or other vinegar six times spaced throughout the day from morning until bedtime. Because nitric oxide dissipates quickly in the body, this keeps our blood vessels bathed in it.
Boosting our nitric oxide levels naturally through a vegetable rich, plant-based diet is one of the best ways to help our bodies stay at their healthiest and most active throughout our lifetime.
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