Cardiovascular disease (CVD )-the heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure that kill most Americans-isn’t the only health problem that NO can help prevent, slow, or reverse.
*Cardiovascular Disease Facts and StatisticsLeading Cause of Death in the United States: One person dies every 30 seconds from heart disease, that’s over 2,600 people every single day!Cardiovascular disease (CVD), principally heart disease and stroke, is the Nation’s leading killer for both men and women among all racial and ethnic groups.Almost 1 million Americans die of CVD each year, which adds up to 42% of all deaths.Heart disease doesn’t just kill the elderly — it is the leading cause of death for ALL Americans age 35 and older. Heart disease accounts for over one million deaths each year; in 160,000 of those deaths the individuals were 35 to 64 years old.
The death toll on it’s own is an incredible problem, but it is only part of the picture. The residual picture is full of people who daily struggle with the complications of CVD. One out of every four Americans has CVD, implying about 57 million Americans. Heart disease and stroke make up practically 6 million hospitalizations on a yearly basis and cause disability for nearly 10 million Americans age 65 years and older.
*”NO, generated by eNOS and nNOS [two enzymes that spark the production of NO], plays a ubiquitous role in the body in controlling the function of almost every, if not every, organ system,” according to a team of scientists at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana as published, in the medical journal Experimental Gerontology.
Put simply; in your immune system … in the hormone generating glands of your endocrine system in your digestive system in your respiratory system … in the brain and spinal cord of your central nervous system-in virtually every, if not every, organ system as those researchers put it-NO is hard at work, protecting and restoring your health.
*Also, a number of health-related behaviors practiced by people every day contribute markedly to cardiovascular disease. Their statements are as follows:
• Tobacco Use: Smokers possess twice the risk of heart attack as nonsmokers. One-fifth of the annual 1,000,000 deaths from CVD are attributable to smoking. Surveillance data indicate that an estimated 1,000,000 teenagers become “regular” smokers each year.
• Lack of Physical Activity: Those who are sedentary have twice the risk of heart disease as individuals who are physically active. Despite these risks, America is still a mostly sedentary society. Research shows that more than half of American adults do not perform the proposed level of physical activity, and more than one-fourth are completely sedentary.
• Poor Nutrition: Between 20% and 30% of the nation’s adults (some 58 million people) are obese and thus have a higher risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other chronic diseases and ailments like diabetes. Only 27% of women and 19% of men report eating the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
*So it’s hardly surprising that a huge (and growing) body of scientific literature (more than 100 thousand studies, some of them in a medical journal called Nitric Oxide this devoted solely to the molecule) describes the many rates that NO plays and also might play in health and healing.
We say “might” since the fact that NO is a vital signaling molecule in every organ is a quite recent discovery, and scientists are still working out exactly how NO functions to maintain health and heal the body. And the role of NO in recovery is determined by “just right” amounts:, too much NO in fact can harm the body, like any other compound.
Let’s look over the scientific literature on the role of NO in disease prevention and cure so that we understand the scientific evidence about NO and disease and again-that this particular wonder molecule actually is miraculous, with the power to positively affect “almost every, if not every, organ system.”
Let’s begin with your bones.
Arthritis: Do Painkillers Work Better with NO?
In osteoarthritis, the cartilage that cushions bones wears away, the bones shateringly rub together, and the structures around the joint-the tendons, ligaments, and muscles-become strained, inflamed, and painful. Osteoarthritis has an effect on 27 million Americans, and is the #1 cause of impairment in the US. (Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, where the immune system wrongly assaults the joints; it affects 2.5 million Arnericans.
*For most people arthritis pain and inflammation cannot be avoided as the body ages. In fact, most people over the age of 50 show some signs of arthritis. Joints normally degenerate over time. Thankfully, arthritis can be handled by using a combination of medication, exercise, rest, weight-management, nutrition, and, sometimes, surgery. Your doctor can tell if you have arthritis through blood tests and x-rays. He or she will then be able to enable you to decide on the best strategy for your case.
Arthritis is a chronic ailment that can stay with you for some time and perhaps throughout your life. Your treatment options will most likely change over time and medication can be adjusted. Developing a positive mental outlook and the support of family and friends will help you live with arthritis and be able to continue to perform your daily activities. Arthritis is not just 1 disease; it is a complex disorder that comprises more than 100 distinct conditions and can affect people at any stage of life. Two of the most common forms are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
*The actual drug most people take to deal with the chronic pain of arthritis include the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. There are dozens of such drugs, but some of the more common ones.include ibuprofen (Advil, Morrin), naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn), and diclofenac (Voltaren, Cataflam).
But like every drug, NSAIDs have several downsides-including in some cases they can even kill. This was uncovered when it was discovered that the new generation of NSAIDs-the so’ called COX~2 inhibitors, such as celecoxib (Celebrex), and the now-banned valdecoxib (Bextra) and rofecoxib (Vioxx)- elevated blood pressure and the risk of heart attack and stroke. (Some professionals estimate the drugs killed at least. 150 thousand people before they were pulled from the market.) In the wake of that pharmaceutical massacre, scientists focused on the entire class of NSAIDs and found that ibuprofen, naproxen, and diclofenac can also increase your risk of heart attack and stroke.
That’s the bad news. The good news: taking an NO~increasing supplement with those drugs can help prevent the problem.
The French NO-connection
In fact, a French pharmaceutical company developed a NSAID which also raised levels of NO: naproxcinod, meant to stop the rise of blood pressure and the risk of CVD with NSAIDs. To evaluate the drug, doctors from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine carried out a 13 week study, offering nearly one thousand people with arthritis either naproxcinod, Aleve, or a placebo. Naproxcinod alleviated the pain and symptoms of arthritis along with Aleve and better than the placebo. But, in contrast to Aleve, naproxcinod didn’t increase blood pressure.
“Most of these effects exhibited the clinical efficiency and safety of naproxcinod in the management of the signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis,” concluded the researchers in the May 2010 issue of the medical journal Osteoarthritis. and Cartilage. “Naproxcinod was well-tolerated, with blood pressure effects similar to placebo and different from naproxen.”
But in May 2010, the FDA declined to approve the drug, asking the company for more safety data.
Bottom Line: if you’re taking a NSAID for arthritis, you should speak with your medical doctor about also using an NO boosting supplement. An extra bonus: that NO enhancing supplement may also help ward you from stomach ulcers, which yearly kill 16,500 NSAID~takers, and hospitalize another 200 thousand. And that supplement might not only prevent side effects-it may also help some NSAIDs work better to relieve pain.
Ibuprofen works better with NO
In an animal study, mixing ibuprofen with NO,boosting L-arginine elevated the anti-inflammatory power of the drug, reported Italian researchers from the University of Milano. “NO may limit inflammation and anti-inflammatory compounds able to release NO display higher efficacy,” they concluded in the journal Pharmacological Research.
Their suggestion: if you have arthritis, take an anti, inflammatory drug and take an NO~boosting supplement to “exploit the beneficial effects of NO.”
More NO, less arthritis pain
Other researchers have found NO reduces arthritis pain on its own. In a research in the Clinical Journal of Pain, scientists from the Physical Therapy Program at the University of Colorado-Denver theorized that NO is a key factor in the decrease in arthritis pain.
They hypothesized that NO is decreased in joints stressed by “chronic load-induced stress” (like knee arthritis in people who are overweight) and “biochemical change-induced stresses” (like the oxidative damage in bones brought on by diets loaded with saturated fat and low in antioxidant-rich vegetables and fruits).
Depending on the fact that NO is decreased in arthritis, the study speculated that “NO-based treatment may produce substantial pain relief without undesirable side effects, by increasing circulation, decreasing nerve irritation, and decreasing inflammation in joints.”
Bottomline: NO can provide spectacular comfort to people with painful osteoarthritis.”
Aging: If You’re Over 40, You Probably Need More NO
It’s an annoying fact of life: as you age, your endothelium ages with you, and your manufacture of NO drops year by year by year. This is why heart problems are far more common among senior citizens than seniors in college. The aging circulatory system, wrote a team of Spanish researchers in the journal Ageing Research Reviews, has a deteriorating balance between artery – expanding and artery-tightening compounds, and this is mainly characterized by a progressive reduction of the bioavailahilirv of NO.
Why does NO decline?
Endothelial cells age, wrote the scientists. Damage from oxidative stress increases. The aging immune system can’t keep cell-damaging compounds (cvtokines) under control. The genes of aging kick in. And due to these changes, increasing your NO through diet and exercise may become less efficient.
That’s a primary reason why, if you’re 40 years old or older, we strongly suggest you think about a NO-boosting supplement to make up the shortfall in your body’s capability to generate artery-saving NO. This is especially crucial if your blood pressure is higher than 130/80 the body’s miracle molecule mm Hg-the incontestable sign of a damaged endothelium and NO deficiency.
Altitude Sickness: Preventing Disease at 7,000 Feet
Altitude sickness-formally called acute mountain sic/mess (AMS)affects about 50 percent of people who travel from their homes at or near sea level to a destination at 7)000 feet or higher, such as Mexico City or Aspen, Colorado.
Its cause: your system has not got enough time to adjust to the lower levels of oxygen in the atmosphere at that altitude. Common symptoms incorporate headaches and nausea for a day or two. But quite a small percentage of people with AMS go on to produce a life-threatening respiratory problem known as high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), in which the alveoli-the tiny structures that pass oxygen from the lungs into the bloodstream fill up with fluid.
Writing in the journal Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, a team of Swiss doctors from the Botnar Center for Extreme Medicine theorized that “impaired … epithelial NO synthesis and/or bio-availability” is the “central underlying defect” that predisposes some people to develop HAPE.
Our advice: if you’re planning to travel to an altitude higher than 7,000 feet, talk to your doctor about taking an NO~boosting supplement to help it prevent AMS and PrAPE.
(You can read more about NO and high-altitude living-showing that Tibetans living at high altitudes have more than ten times the level of NO as Americans living at sea level-on page 91 of Chapter 4).
Asthma: Opening Closed Airways with NO
Twenty-seven million American children and adults have asthma: inflamed, constricted, rnucous~clogged airways (bronchi), with symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing, phlegm, and chest tightness. The number of people with asthma has quadrupled in the last three decades-and the number of deaths from asthma (caused by a bronchishutting severe asthma attack) has doubled.
Experts theorize the causes of that increase include: more allergens (many people with asthma also have allergies, which result in asthma attacks); higher amounts of air pollution, outdoors and in; an inflammation causing diet high in saturated fat and refined carbohydrates and low in vegetables, fruits, fish; whole grains, and beans; and higher levels of stress (which causes the chronic release of cortisol, an inflammation-increasing hormone).
How can NO help?
NO sends a signal for blood vessels to dilate-to widen. Well, it can also help widen so-called “hyper responsive” airways that react to an allergen, pollutant, or other trigger by tightening and turning breathing into a wheeze.
Boosting NO, relieving asthma
In a study of animals with experimentally induced asthma, researchers . found a “deficiency of bronchodilating nitric oxide (NO)” and increased “airway hyperresponsiveness.” They also found that giving animals NO-boosting Larginine “reverses allergen-induced hyperresponsiveness.” The findings were in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Bladder Problems
Urinary incontinence, bladder infections, and other bladder problems affect millions of people (most of them women). NO may help. Researchers from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine observed that NO relaxes the muscles of the urethra (the tube that empties the bladder), and might also playa role in the ability- to control the detrusor muscle (which contracts while urinating). In an animal study, the researchers found that mice bred to have bladder dysfunction also had “low bioavailable NO,” The findings were in the Journal of Urology .
Cancer: Improving Treatment with NO -
Cancer is notoriously difficult to treat because of two main factors, observed a team of Belgian researchers in a review paper on cancer and nitric oxide in the European Journal of Cancer: (1) hypoxia, the lack of oxygen in and around the tumor; (2) the variable levels of blood flow to the tumor.
But NO• can help “circumvent these sources of resistance”. to cancer therapy, they wrote. NO can also “sensitize” the tumor to treatment with chemotherapy and radiation.
Specifically, NO can:
• alter blood flow to improve the effectiveness of drug therapy (so-called pro vascular treatment).
• sensitize cancer cells to radiation.
• limit DNA damage from radiation.
lit boost the cancer killing ability of macrophages (immune cells).
Dementia: Normal NO, Normal Brain
The brain relies on NO. The enzyme nNOS-neuronal nitric oxide synthase-. ensures the brain is well-supplied with this signaling molecute, which helps brain cells communicate with each other, and keeps them in a balanced state (rather than the “excitotoxicity” caused by overactive neurons).
But with aging, a lot of brains go wrong. Nearly five million Americans are afflicted by dementia, typically either by Alzheimer’s disease (caused by a buildup of toxic proteins in the brain) or vascular dementia (caused by a stroke or other circulatory problems). Issues with NO may play a role.
In a research involved with experimental animals bred to have dementia-like brain changes early in life, Chinese scientists discovered that “down regulation [poor production] of NO!} could potentially cause the learning and memory problems in the animals. The findings were in the International Journal of Neuroscience.
Same for people with dementia
Spanish scientists tested the blood levels of NO in 99 people with dementia and 55 people of a similar age with no disease-and found “a significant decrease of . . . NO levels in dementia, particularly in . . . Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia patients, as compared” with the non-dementia group. They also found a link between lower NO levels and a greater degree of “cognitive deterioration” in those with dementia.
Diabetes: Sugar-Regulating Insulin Needs NO
Type 2 diabetes-fasting blood sugar (glucose) levels above 125mg/dL-is an epidemic in America) affecting 24 million Americans) more than half of them over 60. Another 57 million Americans have prediabetes: fasting blood sugar levels 100 to 125 mg/dL. High blood sugar slowly but surely destroys the circulatory system – every inch of it. High blood sugar:
• quadruples the risk of heart disease and stroke.
• is one of the leading causes of kidney disease, an organ rich in blood vessels (diabetic nephropathy).
• destroys blood vessels in the eye, and is the leading cause of blindness (diabetic retinopathy).
• cuts off circulation to the nerves, causing burning pain and numbness (diabetic neuropathy).
• creates skin ulcers that won’t heal (diabetic ulcers), leading to amputations of toes, feet, and legs. (Diabetes is the #1 cause of nontraumatic amputation of lower limbs.)
• more than doubles the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Obviously, it also reduces the length of life: a diagnosis of diabetes in a 40~year-old man shortens his life expectancy by 10 years; in a 40~year~010 woman, by 12 years. (And in today’s diabetes epidemic, it’s not unusual for children to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.) Low NO may playa key role in the development of type 2 diabetes.
Insulin needs NO
Your body regulates blood sugar levels with the hormone insulin, which ushers glucose out of the bloodstream and into cells. In fact, prediabetes is also called insulin resistance: the insulin receptors on cells no longer respond to the horrribne, like locks that cause a key.”NO regulates insulin signaling and secretion,” wrote a team of Irish. researchers in a paper (in the journal Clinical Science) that explored why exercise can help prevent diabetes. (For much more information on exercise and NO, read this.
“NO synthesis is essential for glucose uptake,” they continued.
“If levels of NO are decreased, insulin resistance will result,” they added.
Diabetes decreases NO
Writing in the journal Clinical Science, doctors from the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Maastricht University Medical Center in the
Netherlands noted that there is a “diabetes induced impairment of. eNOS “_ .. one of the enzymes that sparks the production of NO.
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