This $2 Food Beats Every Nitric Oxide Supplement

Nitric oxide levels fall with age and this is linked to a whole array of age related problems in areas like the heart, brain, reproductive and muscle health. So cue the predatory supplement brands that try and take your money by spinning a story that their pill will stop this decline. There is an alternative though. It's cheap and it's incredibly effective and it's the nitric oxide booster that I take. And most importantly, it does not line the pockets of supplement companies. So notice here that I said nitric oxide booster. Nitric oxide itself is an incredibly unstable gas. We can't just swallow it. So we need to find other strategies to raise nitric oxide levels in our blood vessels. And it's a problem that was solved by pharmaceutical companies a while ago. So in the clinic I routinely prescribe medications like GGN sprays and isosorbide monitrate that result in the production of nitric oxide where it's needed in the body. But these are prescription medications and there's an Achilles heel with medications like this. So when patients take them, the body rapidly builds tolerance and they lose much of their effectiveness. That's because the way these drug works is that they don't support the body's own nitric oxide system. Instead, they bypass it. They act more like a short acting jolt that forces the blood vessels to relax and over time the body can adapt and it stops responding to that kick. So the supplements that you'll find on the market, they take a different approach. So instead of trying to bypass the body's natural pathway of nitric oxide production, they intend to support it. They are in essence trying to supply more of the raw materials of which the body creates nitric oxide. But it hasn't been easy. One of the most popular

nitric oxide boosters is a common ingredient called L argonine which is an amino acid and it's a key ingredient in the primary pathway for nitric oxide production in the body. Now many human studies have looked at L argonine supplements and while L argonine levels in the blood go up that hasn't reliably translated to improved athletic performance or raised nitric oxide levels. But that's where another option called lcertuline comes in. And then we'll have a look at the most popular supplement form. So it gets converted to L argonine after ingestion. And research has shown that it's actually more effective at raising L argonine levels in the blood than L argonine supplements themselves. So maybe L certuline would be able to help raise nitric oxide levels where L argonine supplements failed. Well, unfortunately the research has been underwhelming here too, particularly when it comes to performance. So, for example, there was a study last year that tested lcertuline in healthy young adults to see if it would increase the time to exhaustion during exercise, but it didn't. However, a 2019 meta analysis did find that lcertuline seems to slightly reduce blood pressure when the doses are at least 6 g a day. So, not really much to get excited about here. But more recently, excitement has been building about nitrate supplements. So, they target a recently discovered pathway for supplying nitric oxide to our cells. Now, pay attention here because this does matter in terms of the strategy that you might choose to try and raise your nitric oxide levels. So, nitrate with an A is found naturally in foods like leafy green vegetables and it's converted into nitrite with an I by bacteria on the tongue and then it's further modified through digestion to eventually lead to nitric oxide in the blood. So, a popular type of supplement

in this category is derived from beets since they're rich in nitrate. So, do supplements targeting this pathway actually work? Well, in the clinical trials so far, the results have been encouraging. So, an important study in 2014 tested the effects of daily doses of beetroot juice containing about 397 milligs of nitrate against a placebo in patients with high blood pressure. So, the study found that beetroo juice supplements did significantly reduce blood pressure by around eight points. So, amazingly, that effect size is roughly comparable to the blood pressure medications that I would prescribe in the clinic. So, it's a meaningful amount for reducing risks like heart attacks and strokes. The study also found that beetroot juice supplements also improved blood vessel function and stiffness. And then another study found that just a week of daily doses of beetroo juice containing around 378 millig of nitrate significantly improved exercise endurance and blood pressure metrics in elderly patients with heart failure. But here's where we need to be really cautious. Beetroot products are all over the map when it comes to the actual nitrate levels themselves. So the testing company consumerlab. com found that in the products they tested nitrate it ranged from about as much as 500 mg to as little as 4. 3 milligs in a serving. So supplements with beetroot powder they were particularly liable to have lower nitrate levels. Another analysis of 24 beetroot products found that only five contained a nitrate level of at least 300 mgs per serving. So that's generally the level considered minimum to have actual health effects. So you cannot get that amount from a pill. So any supplement company who's trying to sell you a pill that's a nitric oxide booster is just stealing your money. Instead to try and reach that 300 milligram dose, you need a product like beet juice. So the products in the analysis that hit that dose level are on the screen now. And I'm not affiliated with any of them. And another option of course is that you could just eat beets. So generally it's ideal when we can get nutrients that we're targeting in their natural whole food form because we're going to get all of the other nutrients contained in that food as well. But beets, they do have a downside. They're one of the highest food sources of oxalate and oxalate can inhibit the bioavailability of other certain nutrients and it can lead to kidney stones in particularly susceptible individuals. But there is another option that I do want to

explore. Interestingly, there's an off patent which means it's cheap pharma drug that may solve this nitric oxide issue and it's called talophil. And while I don't take it currently, I take a different nitric oxide booster instead which I'll talk about shortly, I may start taking to dalopil in the future as more data comes out. So the medication was originally developed to treat angina and high blood pressure. And the way it works is quite interesting. So instead of trying to add nitrate from the outside, essentially it just amplifies the signal that the nitric oxide in the blood is already sending. So, here's how it works. Nitric oxide, it relaxes the blood vessels by creating a messenger molecule called CGMP. But your body produces a different enzyme called PDE5 that destroys CGMP almost as fast as it's made. And Tadalophil works by blocking the PDE5. So, by stopping the breakdown of CGMP, Tadal amplifies and prolongs the effects of nitric oxide your body is already producing. and it's been growing in popularity because it's been linked to some eyepopping mortality related data. So, a recent study looked at a massive database of health records to track the health outcomes of men prescribed Tadalapil or similar medications over a 3-year period. So, compared to those who did not take this class of medication, Tadalapil was associated with, and get this, a 34% risk reduction for death and a 27% risk reduction for heart attacks over that 3-year period. Stroke risk was 34% lower and dementia risk fell by 32%. And a 2024 UK bioank study turned up similar data. Teddalafil was associated with a 28% risk reduction of death from all causes during the follow-up period. But while all of that is really exciting, we have to be really cautious here. These studies are observational studies. So the data is intriguing, but there's a serious potential of healthy user bias that could skew the results here. Teddall is most often prescribed for erectile dysfunction. Men who are prescribed to Dalapil and continue to take it are almost by definition healthier than the men with erectile dysfunction who aren't treated. They're also engaged with the healthcare system. They likely have better baseline cardiovascular function and they may have healthier lifestyles overall. We just don't know what's going on to be sure and ideally what we want is randomized clinical trials to actually look at these outcomes, but the data at the moment just isn't there. And it's also worth mentioning that no current guidelines recommend Tadalapil for preventative cardiovascular care. Moreover, there are important contra indications for this medication. Tadalapil can be dangerous for patients who are taking nitrate medications like nitroglycerin or isosorbide monitrate. Plus, the actual impact of tadalapil on blood pressure is minimal and blood pressure is the area that many people who are looking at nitric oxide boosters are interested in. So for me, we do need that randomized clinical trial data before I would consider taking or prescribing to Dalifil for preventative care. The observational data again, while really interesting, has far too much potential for confounding and we cannot prove causation. Which brings me

to the nitric oxide booster that I actually take. It's a natural food source of nitrates like beets. But unlike beets, it's low in oxalate. It's actually one of the highest nitrate vegetables available, comfortably surpassing beets on average. So what's the vegetable? It's arugula or rocket. Arugula salad is an evidence-based zerorisk whole foodsbased approach to get significant doses of dietary nitrate. So, let me quickly run you through the numbers. The source that we just looked at found about 4,800 mg of nitrate per kg. And a delicious and simple way to prepare an arugula salad is just arugula plus olive oil, pepper, and lemon juice. And it does not line the pockets of supplement companies or farmer. Now, if we're looking to reduce blood pressure naturally, there's another important tool that we can use in addition to adding more nitraterich foods to our diet, and that is exercise. But some recent research answers a critical question. What type of exercise can best lower the blood pressure the most? And the answer turns out to be a type of exercise that's super simple to do at home. So, make sure to check out this next video here to find out what that exercise is and the research behind