Which Nitric Oxide Supplement is the Best?
There Are Supplements For Everything
When it comes to making healthy choices, we all know the big ones: eat plenty of vegetables, exercise a few times a week, drink plenty of water, and spend a few minutes outside everyday moving around and getting some natural sunlight. The truly daunting task comes when we begin to venture into optimization. To be our healthiest selves, we often look to supplements to aid us in this endeavor. There are supplements for everything these days. Some people take protein powder to hit your macronutrient/caloric goals. Other people take pre-workout for an energy boost for workouts. Others take collagen for skin and nail health, and so many more. You can even take a multivitamin to “get those micronutrients.” In all that chaos, one supplement that will help you potentially live a longer and healthier life is nitric oxide.
A quick google search for nitric oxide supplements will pull up dozens of brands to choose from. So how do we figure out which nitric oxide supplement we should buy when there are so many to choose from? There are many factors to consider. Such factors include dosage, ingredients, flavor, and cost. By the end of this article, the answer will be clear.
What Is Nitric Oxide?
Without getting too scientific, nitric oxide (NO) is a molecule the body uses to relay information from cell to cell. NO is essentially a telephone between cells, aiding in multiple processes due to its function as a vasodilator. This means NO relaxes and widens your blood vessels. This in turn decreases your blood pressure and allows a better flow of blood, oxygen, and nutrients throughout your body. This improved blood flow has a ton of health benefits as a bonus! For this reason, many health and wellness circles refer to NO as a miracle molecule.
What Are the Health Benefits of Nitric Oxide Supplements?
When it comes to buying supplements, we all want to make sure if we are putting in the money to buy a supplement that it is worth investing in. Nothing hits the confidence and wallet worse than buying an expensive supplement that does nothing for you. Shopping for nitric oxide supplements is no different. If you get your hands on the right NO supplement, there are some amazing benefits for your overall health. As you learn more about the following benefits of NO, you’ll see why you should be buying one.
Improved Heart Health
NO is a vasodilator, meaning it can widen and relax the blood vessels. This in turn allows your blood to carry more oxygen and nutrients throughout the body more effectively. Another benefit of this vasodilation is improving your heart health. As a result, wider blood vessels lead to improved blood flow , reducing the chance of blood clotting. This also decreases blood pressure, meaning there is a lower chance of hypertension. All these benefits can reduce the risk of a heart attack and potentially lower your chances of developing heart disease. Regardless of your age and current health status, anything that can keep your ticker going longer is worth exploring. A solid nitric oxide supplement is going to be a good bet.
Improved Sexual Health and Performance
Fellas, this one is for you! Obviously, you want your favorite wingman going strong for as long as you’re around. If not, that’s cool but I’m positive I’m speaking for the majority here. So how do nitric oxide supplements help keep the good times rolling? We look again to that vasodilation. Nitric oxide will aid in the smooth muscles of the penis relaxing. These muscles relaxing is the key to a strong erection. So, in case you did not know, your muscles must RELAX for you to get HARD. Since NO can improve blood flow, supplementing NO can improve your erection. Furthermore, your performance in bed can be enhanced thanks to the overall improved circulation and blood flow. For the ladies who read this part, there is a little benefit for you as well with supplementing NO. Female arousal is potentially enhanced due to improved blood flow.
Improved Brain Health
Remember in the beginning of the article where we discussed how NO is a great at communicating between cells? Well, that includes brain cells. Thanks to NO’s ability to transmit information so well between cells, there is an improvement of cognitive ability. This means that increasing your NO intake can help reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. If you want to keep those neurons firing on all cylinders, a good nitric oxide supplement is key.
Improved Immune System Health
There are a couple ways NO can serve as an immune system aid. One way is through helping with cell transportation. Our immune system uses white blood cells to destroy harmful viruses, bacteria, and pathogens to keep us strong and healthy. For this to work optimally, we want our white blood cells to get to those pathogens as quickly as possible. NO comes in to make the our blood vessels wider and improving circulation so our white blood cells can get from Point A to Point B quick, fast, and in a hurry.
Another way NO aids in immune system support is by improving oxygen delivery. Supplementing with nitric oxide can improve the movement of oxygen throughout the body, and can improve the effectiveness of your immune system.
Improved Athletic Performance
Whether you are an avid gym-goer, hardcore athlete, or average joe, you likely care about how exercise makes your body look and feel. Well, NO can be helpful there too. Since NO is said to improve oxygen delivery through the body, NO can improve exercise performance and reduce muscle soreness. Another potential benefit of NO for exercise is it can be helpful in improving exercise tolerance and muscular endurance. It is because of this belief there is often NO in certain pre-workouts. There is research that says NO can help you work out longer and harder, but more research is needed there. What we can say is NO will help your body push blood, oxygen, and nutrients into muscles more effectively, improving your ability to exercise more.
Which Nitric Oxide Supplement Should I Get?
Now we finally get to the good stuff, finding the right supplement. Provided you have already investigated naturally increasing your NO levels via exercise and superfoods such as beets and other veggies, it’s time to check the supplement labels. Not only do the ingredients matter, but the amount of each ingredient matters. The right dosage of ingredients is what makes the NO viable for your body to use. So, what are we looking for and how much are we looking for on the label?
What to Look For? L-Arginine.
This is an amino acid that occurs naturally in red meat, milk, cheese, chicken, and fish. The body uses L-Arginine to produce NO, which triggers the release of hormones such as insulin. With NO released into the body, vasodilation and all those benefits associated with vasodilation can occur. Since L-Arginine is an amino acid, the body uses it to build proteins.
How Much to Look For?
Studies will vary about the exact dosage you should consume daily for optimal results, but most will agree that 3-6 grams is sufficient for improving NO levels in your body and reaping the benefits.
What to Look for? L-Citrulline.
This is an amino acid that occurs naturally in the body is found in foods such as nuts and watermelon. When consumed, the body converts L-Citrulline into L-Arginine and NO for use. People use L-Citrulline and L-Arginine together in many supplements to increase NO levels in the body.
How Much to Look For?
Just like with L-Arginine, you want to find a supplement that has roughly 3-6 grams included. Exact dosages are contested in research and in real world application left to individual preference. If you are taking 5 grams or more of L-Arginine, you likely do not need as much L-Citrulline.
What Else to Look For ?
Firstly, a good nitric oxide supplement will help create an alkaline environment for stable and consistent NO bioavailability. A good Nitric oxide supplement will help promote antioxidants. A good nitric oxide supplement will have ingredients to promote NO absorption. Lastly, a good nitric oxide supplement contains a variety of vitamins to promote optimum health.
Final Thoughts on Nitric Oxide Supplements
Let’s face it: it can cost an arm and a leg getting your hands on every so-called necessary supplement. You likely don’t need multivitamins and other random supplements like you think you do. Plenty of supplements consumed can be found in a well-balanced diet. What you do need is a data-driven, medically-backed nitric oxide supplement that is trusted by actual doctors all over the world who stand behind the product.