In the race of getting ripped muscles and increasing muscles mass, most men do not realize the massive difference the nitric oxide levels in their body can make. It’s not about a single benefit, it’s about exercising better, thinking clearly, and improving blood pressure levels.

With the time, your arteries get covered with atherosclerosis and scar tissue. This downhill in your arteries lowers your nitric oxide level making you feel worse. However, maintaining nitric oxide production in the body is critical as one ages. Nitric oxide determines a lot many functions in our body primarily the cardiovascular function as it helps regulate normal blood pressure by ensuring sufficient circulation.

What is Nitric Oxide? 6 Nitric Oxide Benefits You Need To Know

It’s no surprise to anyone that dark leafy vegetables like kale, spinach, and arugula are phenomenal for you. These trendy vegetables are now popular in smoothie bowls, large toss salads, and morning green juices. 

But while many people have wholeheartedly embraced the green juice trend, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Enter nitric oxide supplements. Nitric oxide supplements have skyrocketed in popularity over the past decade. But what can they do for your body? 

In this article, we’ll cover what nitric oxide is and the benefits of nitric oxide supplementation. 

What is Nitric Oxide? 

Nitric oxide is a neurotransmitter that’s essential for our survival. It’s beneficial as a supplement because it’s a vasodilator, so it relaxes your blood vessel’s inner muscles. This improves blood flow and reduces your blood pressure. 

You can get nitric oxide from many foods, including:

• Dark leafy green vegetables (kale, Swiss Chard, spinach, arugula, etc.)
• Beetroot 
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli 
• Carrots 
• Cabbage

Nitric oxide supplements (including Nitric Oxide Booster) don’t contain nitric oxide itself. Instead, they contain compounds like L-arginine that your body uses to increase nitric oxide production. 

Almost every type of cell in the human body can produce nitric oxide.

In the race of getting ripped muscles and increasing muscles mass, most men do not realize the massive difference the nitric oxide levels in their body can make. It’s not about a single benefit, it’s about exercising better, thinking clearly, and improving blood pressure levels.

With the time, your arteries get covered with atherosclerosis and scar tissue. This downhill in your arteries lowers your nitric oxide level making you feel worse. However, maintaining nitric oxide production in the body is critical as one ages. Nitric oxide determines a lot many functions in our body primarily the cardiovascular function as it helps regulate normal blood pressure by ensuring sufficient circulation.

What is Nitric Oxide? 6 Nitric Oxide Benefits You Need To Know

It’s no surprise to anyone that dark leafy vegetables like kale, spinach, and arugula are phenomenal for you. These trendy vegetables are now popular in smoothie bowls, large toss salads, and morning green juices. 

But while many people have wholeheartedly embraced the green juice trend, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Enter nitric oxide supplements. Nitric oxide supplements have skyrocketed in popularity over the past decade. But what can they do for your body? 

In this article, we’ll cover what nitric oxide is and the benefits of nitric oxide supplementation. 

What is Nitric Oxide? 

Nitric oxide is a neurotransmitter that’s essential for our survival. It’s beneficial as a supplement because it’s a vasodilator, so it relaxes your blood vessel’s inner muscles. This improves blood flow and reduces your blood pressure. 

You can get nitric oxide from many foods, including:

• Dark leafy green vegetables (kale, Swiss Chard, spinach, arugula, etc.)
• Beetroot 
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli 
• Carrots 
• Cabbage

Nitric oxide supplements (including Nitric Oxide Booster) don’t contain nitric oxide itself. Instead, they contain compounds like L-arginine that your body uses to increase nitric oxide production. 

Almost every type of cell in the human body can produce nitric oxide.

6 Benefits of Taking Nitric Oxide

Now that you know what nitric oxide is, here are six reasons you should consider taking nitric oxide supplements:

#1. It Can Lower Your Blood Pressure

High blood pressure occurs when your blood pushes on the walls of your arteries too forcefully. High blood pressure can make your arteries less elastic, decreasing blood flow and leading to poor heart health and heart disease (which causes one in every five deaths in the United States).

Multiple high-quality studies (including this one and this one) have shown that nitric oxide can lower blood pressure. 

Research also supports taking nitric oxide supplements. A 2017 review of 43 studies, for example, found that nitrate supplements (which your body turns into nitric oxide) reduce systolic blood pressure by 3.55 on average and diastolic blood pressure by 1.32 mm Hg on average. 

So, taking nitric oxide can reduce your blood pressure. 

#2. It Can Help You Manage Type 2 Diabetes

People with type 2 diabetes often struggle to produce nitric oxide. A lack of nitric oxide causes heart disease and high blood pressure, so those with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of heart disease.

Research shows that taking nitric oxide (specifically L-arginine) can sometimes slow the progression of type 2 diabetes. However, lifestyle changes and a healthy diet are still recommended to control blood sugar levels.

So, if you have type 2 diabetes, speak to your doctor about whether nitric oxide supplements are right for you. 

#3. It Can Reduce High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy

Preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure, can be dangerous for both mom and baby. 

Research shows that women who develop preeclampsia often have low levels of nitrite (which is used to create nitric oxide). 

In 2005, a study also found that L-arginine decreased blood pressure among women with pre-eclampsia. The study compared the progress of 61 pregnant women with pre-eclampsia — half took 3 grams of L-arginine daily, and the other half took a placebo. 

And while L-arginine can’t treat preeclampsia alone, supplementing it during pregnancy can be helpful. 

#4. It Can Reduce Erectile Dysfunction

Erectile Dysfunction (ED), the inability to maintain an erection for sex, affects 30 million men in the United States alone. ED can often impact self-esteem, sexual relationships, and a man’s enjoyment of life. 

Nitric oxide helps the corporal cavernosal muscles inside the penis to relax, allowing the chambers to fill with blood and the penis to become erect. 

A Future Science OA article from 2015 dived into the research behind nitrate oxide for ED, concluding that it can be used to reduce mild to moderate ED. So, if you have a mild case of ED, try nitric oxide supplements.

#5. It May Reduce Muscle Soreness

Muscle soreness is the aching, uncomfortable feeling that peaks 24-72 hours after strenuous exercise. 

Stretching, regular exercise, and a balanced diet can all help with muscle soreness. Nitric oxide can also help — specifically, a form of L-citrulline (a compound your body makes with L-arginine) called citrulline malate. 

A 2010 study of 41 fit people compared citrulline malate to a placebo drug, finding that those who took 8 grams of citrulline malate experienced a 40% decrease in muscle soreness. 

Another study in 2018 compared the recovery time of untrained young men when taking a placebo drug and 6 grams of citrulline malate. This study found that 6 grams didn’t reduce muscle soreness (notably, the dose is lower than the 2010 study). 

So increasing your nitrite oxide levels may be helpful for muscle soreness — though dosing is likely vital for effectiveness. 

#6. It May Help You Exercise Better

I mentioned earlier that nitric oxide is a vasodilator, so it can relax your blood vessels and widen them. Your blood vessels deliver oxygen and nutrients to your body during exercise. Wider blood vessels mean an increase in delivery. 

So, more nitric oxide may help you enhance your performance and work harder.

Final Thoughts: Nitric Oxide Supplementation

Nitric oxide is a neurotransmitter that encourages blood vessel expansion and healthy circulation. Our bodies make nitric oxide from compounds like L-arginine. You’ll often see L-arginine in nitric oxide supplements. 

There are many benefits to nitric oxide supplementation, including:

• Lower blood pressure
• Better managed type 2 diabetes
• Lower blood pressure in pregnancy
• Reduced ED
• Reduced muscle soreness
• Enhanced performance during exercise

Benefits of Nitric Oxide

The benefits of Nitric Oxide is not limited to just create a feeling of ‘pump’, it has a lot many benefits besides this one:

• Nitric oxide is quite beneficial in preventing cardiovascular disease, as it helps relax walls of artery, dilates the vessels and improves blood flow.

• No increases the blood flow to the brain thereby improving general functioning of the brain and reducing cognitive decline.

• Nitric Oxide improves the libido and sex drive, as it is one of the main reasons behind erections.

• Moreover, increased NO levels can greatly improve the effectiveness of the workouts, because of the reason that muscles receive more oxygen and nutrients when your veins are dilated. This is also the reason that NO shortens the recovery time after workout.

In simple words, nitric oxide make body functions smoother as oxygen, nutrients and red blood cells can reach their target tissues and cells faster.

After knowing all the benefits of nitric oxide, you finally would want to know the ways to increase your nitric oxide levels naturally. Fortunately, it’s quite easy to increase your nitric oxide levels even within a small budget. You can also monitor your NO levels using saliva testing strips at home only.

Now that you know what nitric oxide is and what it does for your body, here are some ways to enhance your nitric oxide levels.

How to increase nitric oxide?

1. Eat Foods High in Nitric Oxide

The first step here is to know about all the nitrate rich foods. What are they and how they help us? Some of the nitrate rich food includes lettuce, carrots, parsley, cabbage, radishes, collard greens spinach, celery,aragula and beet root. These nitrate rich foods help increase the Nitric oxide levels in man even he is suffering from significant atherosclerosis.
When you eat nitrate rich foods, these nitrates are converted into nitrites by the bacteria on your tongue. When these nitrites reach the gut, it converts these nitrites into nitric oxide. This phenomenon certainly increases the nitric oxide levels in your body depending on the amount of nitrate rich foods you eat. The best part is foods rich in nitrates are easy to find and consume.

2. Eat Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate has a great impact on blood pressure levels. In a study conducted for two weeks by investigator Karin Reid and fellow researcher from the University of Adelaide in Australia, it was found that chocolate lowered blood pressure by increasing the production of nitric oxide in the body. Chocolate contains flavonols, which are antioxidants that considerably elevate nitric oxide levels.

3. Take L-arginine Supplements

Supplements that contain L-arginine – the amino acid, also help improve nitric oxide levels. In a report, which was published in the issue of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology in January 2008, it was revealed that taking 3 grams of L-Arginine per day for one week experienced an increase in nitric oxide levels compared to those taking a placebo. This amino acid is considered safe when taken at this dosage.

4. Pomegranate Juice– a great nitric oxide booster

Pomegranate Juice is a great nitric oxide booster. It is even known for lowering blood pressure, improving cholesterol levels and in some patients clears out plaque. Drinking 1.7 oz of pomegranate juice whoppingly reduces IMT around 35% and improve cardio artery blood flow to about 44%.

“IMT is the thickness between inner and middle layers of the artery”.

However, Pomegranate juice is a good bedroom prowess as it improves sexual power of a man.

5. Take Citrulline Supplements

Citrulline Supplement is a nice way to boost arginine levels without any potential side effects of Argenine. Taking citrulline supplements bypasses the normal arterial pathway and allows men with atherosclerosis to gain some of the nitric oxide back. In a study done on senior men, it has been shown that taking 5 grams of citrulline supplement daily improves the stiffness of arteries. In other study in the following year, it was verified that citrulline supplements show promising results in erectile dysfunction patients.

6. Avoid High Fat Meals

Eating high fat meals lead to temporary disruption of production of nitric oxide which is produced in the inner lining of the arteries. The reduced NO level prevents the arteries from increasing blood flow in response to physical activity. However, the inflammatory response created by high fat meals can be overcome by walnuts. Walnuts have both arginine, ALA and various antioxidants in them that actually helps overcome this arterial stiffness that higher fat meals cause.

7. Ginseng and Black Ginger

Ginseng contain the active compounds called ‘ginesonides’ that are structurally very similar to androgens, such as testosterone. Ginseng has been proven to increase testosterone, nitric oxide, improves circulation, promote sleep quality and relax arteries and boost libido. Ginseng is quite popular herb and because of it markets have plenty of fake products available. So be sure to buy only Korean red Ginseng (panax) and not any alternatives.

We recommend trying Black Ginger supplement, which not only boost your sexual functions on a physical level by increasing endurance, vigour and muscle strength, but it’s also famous for being one of the best natural aphrodisiacs!

8. Moderate Exercise

Moderate exercise meaning brisk walking (covering over 3.0 mph) is great for boosting your baseline nitric oxide levels. One thing to keep in mind is that your overall nitric oxide levels increase only when you do it daily for around 30 or more minutes. It stiffens arteries and lowers the blood pressure considerably. Besides brisk walking, other moderate exercises like breathing exercises, jogging and cardio workouts also helps.

9. Pycnogenol

Pycnogenol is an extract of French maritime pine bark. It’s supplements has also been proved successful for treating erectile dysfunction. It works by increasing the activity of eNOS, the enzyme that help improve libido in men.

10. Hawthorn Extract

Hawthorn prevents arterial walls from becoming coated with plaque, therefore it is often used to prevent heart diseases. It acts as a calcium channel blocker and helps the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels to produce nitric oxide.

11. Omega 3 fatty acids

All of us are aware of the health benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids. These are antioxidants and helps improve blood pressure and cholesterol, thereby improving nitric oxide levels. Omega 3 fatty acids are also beneficial at lowering stroke risk and blood clots. But, the problem is the intake of this essential fatty acid is very low by us.

The fact is we eat way too much of omega-6 fatty acids and too little of omega 3 fatty acids. You need to add fish, fish oil, nuts and dried fruits to your diet to considerably increase the omega-3 fatty acids intake.

However, you can also take Omega-3 supplements to compensate for fish and fish oil, if you are a vegan or just want to make it easier for yourself. This will help improve your health dramatically by increasing the nitric oxide levels during the whole process.

12. Vitamin C and Garlic

Vitamin C protect nitrate foods from turning into carcinogenic nitrosamines in the body and is itself great in increasing nitric oxide production. Garlic on the other hand is filled with nitrates, and also contains a compound called quercetin, which increases NO levels in the body. Garlic has also been found effective in lowering blood pressure levels.

A researcher named Adam Moussa, also found in a study,that garlic tablets when taken regularly increases nitric oxide level by staggering 200%.

13. Icarrin

Icarrin found in herb named epimedium is a flavonoid. This herb is known for its aphrodisiac benefits as it boosts testosterone levels quite significantly. Icarrin is an active compound of this plant and is considered great for nitric oxide production. Plus, this also acts as a mild PDE-5 enzyme inhibitor. Meaning it works equivalent to Erectile dysfunction drugs. In a way, it enhances circulation, boosts nitric oxide and testosterone levels.

14. Grape Seed Extract

Grape seed extract is potent aromatase enzyme blocker known for increasing testosterone production by blocking the conversion of testosterone into estrogen. Over that, grape seed extract is great at increasing nitric oxide levels. The problem however, is you don’t get enough grape seed compound by eating just grapes. Moreover most of the supplements present on the market are quite weak too.

15. Sunlight

Natural sunlight is a great way for the skin to produce vitamin D. But, most of us are unaware of the fact that, natural sunlight also trigger the skin to synthesize more nitric oxide. For this, I must tell you that you don’t have to burn in the sun, but a few minutes of exposure to natural sunlight in the morning will provide you enough vitamin D.

The research at the University of Edinburgh found that as soon as the sunlight touches your skin, it releases nitric oxide into the blood stream.

Moreover, the researchers found out that the sunlight exposure significantly increase your life-expectancy by cutting the risk of stroke. However, we know off the sunlight exposure as the risk of skin cancer. But if you keep some antifungal tea tree oil cleansing wipes handy and take precaution, the benefits of sunlight to heart health can outweigh the risk of skin cancer.

Dietary vitamin D supplements alone cannot compensate for lack of sunlight, so, it is quite essential to get enough sunlight. Besides, you are 80 times more likely to die from a stroke than by skin cancer. So, go on hit the beach, get the sun.

So, I hope these 15 natural ways to get a nitric oxide boost will definitely help you.