Nitric oxide’s (NO) main function in the body is in controlling blood pressure by dilating blood vessels. It does this by relaxing the smooth muscles in the arteries, allowing for increased blood flow around the body. This in turn increases the efficiency at which nutrients and molecules can travel to sites of importance. This property also plays a role in preventing heart disease.
Heart attacks occur either from blood not being able to properly circulate through the coronary arteries of the heart – in this case the heart dies from a lack of oxygen – or from blood clots forming in these arteries, which leads to inflammation. Clotting in this fashion promotes the condition called atherosclerosis, hardening of the artery wall due to plaques comprised of cholesterol and lipids.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. According to statistics from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, every year about 785,000 Americans have a first heart attack. The disease costs the United States $316.4 billion per year.
Some cases of heart disease are naturally due to aging, but other risk factors include a history of high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, and/or a family history of the disease. Nitric oxide can play a key role in preventing the disease, but unfortunately the build up of plaque on the artery walls cause the endothelial cells to lose their ability to produce NO. Ingesting substances high in nitrates and nitrites can help you to increase nitric oxide in the body (despite a lack of endothelial derived NO) and helps fight heart disease in a variety of ways:
1. Dilate the arteries: Dilating the arteries allows more blood, more oxygen, and more nutrients to reach the heart muscle.
2. Prevents clotting: Nitric oxide has shown to have the ability to prevent platelets in the blood from sticking together and from sticking to the artery wall.
3. Reduce arterial plaque: Nitric oxide has also been shown in studies to reduce already formed arterial plaque.
In the same way that nitric oxide helps fight heart disease, it also helps to reduce high blood pressure. According to the American Heart Association, about 65 million Americans age 20 and older have high blood pressure. High blood pressure occurs when the blood vessels become too narrow to properly pump blood to the heart. By relaxing the walls of the blood vessels, NO helps to allow smooth blood flow.
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