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.

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 elevates 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 increase in nitric oxide levels compared to those taking a placebo. This amino acid is considered safe when taken at this dosage. One of the supplements that include L-arginine is Xtreme No natural muscle enhancer.

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

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.

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 like Hypercet omega fatty acid supplements to compensate for fish and fish oil, if you are a vegan. 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.

The post 15 Natural Ways to Increase your Nitric Oxide appeared first on Wingman Magazine - Dating Advice, Sex Ed, Health and Relationships.