What Does Nitric Oxide Do For The Body? And How To Increase It

In 1992, nitric oxide—a gas often associated with its toxic properties—was named “Molecule of the Year.” This unexpected recognition highlighted its surprising versatility and crucial role in health. In 1998, the three scientists who discovered it as a signaling molecule won the Nobel Prize in medicine. 

Nitric oxide is not just a pollutant. Your body produces it, too. It supports heart health, boosts exercise performance, and aids brain function. These benefits make it a key focus in research and wellness. 

So, what exactly does nitric oxide do for the body? And how can you naturally boost its levels to support your health? Let’s explore the science behind nitric oxide and its many benefits.

Why Is Nitric Oxide Essential For Your Body?

Nitric oxide influences everything from blood flow to brain function. Before we discuss the benefits, I want you to know how your body produces nitric oxide. It uses two major pathways.

1) L-Arginine-NO-Oxidative Pathway 

This is the primary way our body makes nitric oxide. It starts with the amino acid L-arginine. Special enzymes called nitric oxide synthases (NOS) convert it into NO. These enzymes, found in blood vessels and nerves, help control blood flow and nerve signaling. 

This pathway contributes most of the nitric oxide in the body—about 1000 μmol per day.

2) Nitrate-Nitrite-NO Reductive Pathway

This pathway is a backup source of nitric oxide, especially when oxygen levels are low. Nitrates from food start the process. They turn into nitrites, then into nitric oxide. This pathway makes less nitric oxide—about 85-100 μmol per day.

Now, let’s look at the ways nitric oxide benefits your body. 

Cardiovascular Health

Nitric oxide (NO) plays a key role in keeping your heart and blood vessels healthy. It’s produced by the cells lining your blood vessels and helps them relax and widen, a process called vasodilation. This allows blood to flow more easily, reducing strain on the heart.

NO also stops platelets from sticking to vessel walls. This helps prevent blood vessel blockage.

A lack of nitric oxide, often from oxidative stress, can stiffen and narrow blood vessels. Oxidative stress occurs when your body struggles to neutralize excessive oxidants. This raises blood pressure and stresses your cardiovascular system.

In short, nitric oxide keeps your blood vessels flexible, your blood flowing smoothly, and your arteries healthy. Good circulation delivers vital nutrients throughout your body, keeping all your organs functioning at their best.

Cognitive Function

The important role nitric oxide plays in blood flow extends to cognitive function. Nitric oxide is a key player in vasodilation. It boosts blood flow to the brain and body. This ensures your brain gets enough oxygen and nutrients.

NO also helps your brain function in other ways. It acts as a retrograde neurotransmitter. Such neurotransmitters travel in the opposite direction of most neurotransmitters. As a neurotransmitter, nitric oxide supports key processes like memory storage, sleep regulation, and even appetite and body temperature control—all essential for clear thinking and overall cognitive health.

Additionally, nitric oxide supports neurogenesis, the growth and development of new neurons. This is crucial for long-term cognitive function. The brain must generate new neurons to support learning and memory. [R6]

To boost learning and memory, NO also modulates other important neurotransmitters like glutamate. They are key to synaptic plasticity – the ability of synapses, or neuron connections, to strengthen or weaken. This process is fundamental for memory formation, learning, and recall.

Sexual Health

Everything in your body works better with a little extra blood flow. And it’s not just men; nitric oxide is important for women, too. 

When NO is released, it relaxes muscles in the genital area, allowing blood vessels to widen and boosting circulation to support arousal. In men, it helps initiate and maintain an erection by increasing blood flow to the penis. In women, it supports physical arousal by enhancing blood flow to the clitoris and vagina.

In women, estrogen helps support NO production, improving blood flow and relaxation of tissues to support arousal.

Healthy Immune System Function

Nitric oxide is essential for a healthy immune system. It helps your body fight off harmful invaders like bacteria, viruses, and parasites by stopping them from functioning and multiplying. Immune cells, such as macrophages and neutrophils, produce NO to defend against these pathogens.

Nitric oxide plays a key role in the immune system by supporting immune cell growth and development, as well as clearing out cells when they’re no longer needed. It also regulates signaling molecules like cytokines and chemokines, which coordinate and enhance the immune response. On top of that, your immune system uses nitric oxide to activate T cells, the immune cells responsible for detecting and attacking pathogens.

Through these roles, NO keeps your immune system balanced, promoting or calming immune activity as needed. However, while NO is crucial for defense, too much of it can harm healthy tissues. Maintaining the right balance is key to ensuring your immune system works effectively without causing unnecessary damage.

Energy Production

Nitric oxide affects how the body processes energy sources like glucose and fat. It interacts with proteins involved in metabolism, impacting pathways such as glycolysis (the breakdown of glucose), fatty acid metabolism, and the production of energy in the mitochondria.

At low to moderate levels, NO helps the body metabolize glucose and fatty acids more efficiently, supporting energy production. On the other hand, higher levels of NO shift the body’s energy processes to rely more on glucose.

Moderate amounts of NO also improve the efficiency of mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of cells, making better use of oxygen and increasing overall energy production.

Over time, nitric oxide helps cells adjust to use oxygen more efficiently and produce the right amount of energy for the body’s needs. It can also block some enzymes involved in energy production, encouraging cells to switch to other energy sources, like glutamine. This adaptability ensures that the body can maintain energy production under various conditions, especially when energy demand is high or when glucose is limited.

Naturally, this leads us to how nitric oxide can help improve exercise performance.

Exercise Performance and Recovery

Nitric oxide is important for exercise performance as it helps deliver oxygen and nutrients to muscles, boosts energy production, and improves physical performance.

One of the main benefits of nitric oxide during exercise is that it improves blood flow to muscles, especially those used for quick movements. By delivering more oxygen to these muscles, nitric oxide helps you perform better and last longer, especially during intense activities. Better blood flow also helps muscles work more efficiently and reduces early fatigue.

Nitric oxide also helps control how muscles use calcium, which is important for muscle contractions. This can increase strength, power, and force during exercise. By adjusting muscle activity, nitric oxide allows you to work out more effectively and for longer periods.

Nitric oxide also plays a role in metabolism by acting as a “metabolic switch,” helping to regulate the production of ATP, the main energy source for muscle cells. This helps delay fatigue, allowing for longer, more intense exercise sessions.

And once you’ve finished your exercise for the day, nitric oxide is still helping you recover. Better blood flow during and after exercise speeds recovery. It delivers oxygen and nutrients to muscles, which helps repair them.

Nitric oxide may also help with recovery by boosting insulin production. Insulin helps muscles grow and repair by allowing glucose to enter muscle cells. This provides energy for recovery and helps replenish glycogen lost during exercise.

What Are the Signs of Low Nitric Oxide Levels?

How can you tell if it’s time to boost your nitric oxide levels? Nitric oxide levels naturally decline with age, and can be linked to several symptoms, including:

• Reduced blood flow  
• Poor circulation, like cold hands and feet  
• Suboptimal sexual health
• Suboptimal blood pressure
• Memory loss 
• General fatigue, low energy or stamina
• Suboptimal sleep
• Low athletic stamina or endurance
• Slower recovery after exercise  
• Ongoing stress  

If you’re experiencing one or more of these symptoms, you might benefit from supporting your nitric oxide levels. Fortunately, there are natural ways to address this.

How To Boost Nitric Oxide Through Your Diet

It’s always best to give your body what it needs through food when possible. It comes with nutrients and compounds that work together to support your health. 

Modern society may just suffer from suboptimal nitric oxide levels due to the lack of green vegetables in the diet. In fact, the CDC finds that less than 10% of Americans eat their daily recommended 5 servings of vegetables and fruits daily. 

The best foods to help support healthy nitric oxide levels are nitrate-rich vegetables, including

• Beets (with beet juice being the most popular source)
• Spinach 
• Arugula
• Fennel
• Rocket
• Radishes
• Chinese cabbage
• Parsley
• Celery
• Spirulina

When you eat nitrate-rich vegetables, your salivary glands absorb the nitrates, and bacteria in your mouth turn them into nitrites. After you swallow, these nitrites enter your bloodstream and are converted into nitric oxide through different processes.

A study of 18 healthy adults with normal blood pressure looked at how different nitrate-rich vegetables affect nitrate and nitrite levels in the blood, as well as resting blood pressure. Each participant drank one of four beverages containing 800 mg of nitrate:

• Sodium nitrate (NaNO₃)
• Concentrated beetroot juice
• Rocket salad beverage
• Spinach beverage.

Participants who drank beetroot juice, rocket salad, and spinach beverages experienced a significant drop in systolic blood pressure. There was no change after consuming sodium nitrate. All the drinks lowered diastolic blood pressure, with rocket salad and spinach having a longer-lasting effect.

Researchers note that this process might be more effective with nitrate-rich vegetables than sodium nitrate because vegetables contain other compounds, like vitamin C and potassium, that support NO production. Not to mention fiber and other beneficial components in vegetables.

Beetroot juice is the most researched vegetable for its nitrate content, particularly regarding exercise performance. A review of 23 studies examined how beetroot juice impacts cardio endurance in athletes. The researchers found that beetroot juice may boost endurance by improving efficiency, enhancing performance over various distances, and delaying fatigue.

Athletes who drank beetroot juice performed better in 4 km, 5 km, and 16 km tests. They finished faster and generated more power than those who took a placebo. However, researchers noted that caffeine might reduce the benefits of beetroot juice. More research is needed to understand this interaction fully.

If you’re not a fan of beet juice or when dietary intake falls short – and it often does- supplements can be a helpful way to fill the gaps and maintain optimal levels.

Supplements to Help Increase Nitric Oxide

Before we get to the more commonly known ingredients in “nitric oxide boosting supplements,” I want to cover some of the lesser-known supplements equally important for increasing nitric oxide. 

Magnesium

Magnesium is important for supporting nitric oxide production because it helps improve blood vessel function and regulates calcium, both of which are needed to make nitric oxide.

The endothelium, the inner lining of blood vessels, relies on magnesium to work properly. Magnesium is also important for nitric oxide production in the blood vessel wall. Here, the NO helps relax and widen blood vessels.

A study looked at how magnesium affects nitric oxide production in endothelial cells by testing different magnesium concentrations (1.0, 2.0, 5.0, and 10.0 mM). The researchers placed the cells in different concentrations and observed them. They noted that higher magnesium levels increased nitric oxide production by boosting the enzyme eNOS that helps produce it.

Magnesium also regulates calcium levels within cells, another crucial part of NO production. Calcium activates nitric oxide synthase. Without enough magnesium, calcium levels can become unbalanced, potentially disrupting NO production.

A magnesium deficiency may reduce nitric oxide production. A study investigated how magnesium deficiency impacts oxidative stress and the behavior of endothelial cells, particularly in human umbilical cells. The researchers aimed to understand how low magnesium levels influence these cells and their ability to produce nitric oxide.

Researchers exposed the cells to different levels of magnesium to observe the effects. Under low magnesium conditions, there was an increase in oxidative stress. As a result, the levels of nitric oxide increased, which is normally helpful for blood vessels. However, in this case, the high nitric oxide levels disrupted blood vessel function by slowing cell growth and making the blood vessel walls more permeable.

This study suggests how magnesium plays a key role in regulating oxidative stress and nitric oxide production, which are important for maintaining healthy blood vessel function.

Maintaining optimal magnesium levels helps ensure your cells have the magnesium needed to support this process. If you’re deficient, magnesium supplementation may be necessary. Magnesium Breakthrough offers a high-quality, full-spectrum source of magnesium to help meet your needs.

Probiotics

We’ve talked about nitric oxide production in the endothelial cells, but did you know that your gut also produces it? It’s part of the nitrate-nitrite-NO reductive pathway.

Probiotic bacteria, like lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, can enhance NO production by breaking down nitrate to nitrite and then to NO.

An animal study tested how ten different strains of Bifidobacterium affected nitric oxide production in immune cells from mice. The researchers measured the NO levels using a test and blocked a key enzyme (iNOS) to see if it played a role in NO production. All 10 Bifidobacterium strains increased NO production, with levels ranging from 5-18 μM.

Support nitric oxide production with targeted probiotics. Cognibiotics includes a potent blend of Bifidobacterium, Microbiome Breakthrough features a specialized Lactobacillus blend, and P3-OM offers our patented strain of Lactobacillus plantarum.

The probiotics in your mouth are also important for nitric oxide production. Streptococcus salivarius is a type of probiotic found naturally in your mouth. Some strains of S. salivarius can produce nitrite, which may come from breaking down nitrate. Oral bacteria can then convert the nitrite into nitric oxide.

A study of ten healthy men explored how taking S. salivarius might affect nitric oxide production by measuring nitrate and nitrite levels in plasma and saliva. Participants took either probiotic lozenges or water for 14 days and then switched after a break in between.

When supplementing with S. salivarius, participants had significantly increased plasma nitrite levels compared to baseline. Nitrate levels remained unchanged during the placebo phase.

Now, let’s look at what you might typically find in a “nitric oxide boosting” supplement.

L-Arginine 

L-arginine is a conditionally essential amino acid, meaning your body can produce it, but you need extra amounts during muscle recovery, growth, or pregnancy. It plays a key role in the body’s primary nitric oxide NO production pathway, particularly in your blood vessels. 

As the crucial ingredient for NO production, L-arginine is converted into nitric oxide by the enzyme nitric oxide synthase (NOS), which helps relax and widen blood vessels.

The challenge with taking L-arginine as a supplement is that it’s often not very effective at boosting NO levels. This is because it gets broken down in the gastrointestinal tract and liver before it can enter the bloodstream, limiting its ability to increase NO production.

However, when combined with other compounds like L-citrulline, L-arginine works much better. 

L-Citrulline

L-citrulline is another amino acid – but this one is non-essential- most abundantly found in watermelon. Your body converts L-citrulline into L-arginine, which helps produce more nitric oxide, making it a valuable supplement for boosting NO levels. 

Unlike L-arginine, the stomach and liver don’t break down as much L-citrulline. This means more of it reaches the bloodstream, making it more effective at increasing L-arginine and NO levels where your body needs it.

One review of studies explored the cardiovascular protective effects of supplementing with L-citrulline. Researchers determined L-citrulline:

• Can help lower blood pressure. 
• Supports blood vessel health by protecting them from damage
• May improve muscle function and metabolism, especially in older adults. 

Even one dose of L-citrulline malate may help improve exercise performance. A study of 14 men evaluated the effects of a single dose of citrulline malate (CM) on anaerobic performance and muscle soreness during barbell bench presses.

Each participant performed two bench press training sessions, of 16 sets each. In one session, they took 8 grams of CM and in the other, a placebo. Researchers measured performance by the number of repetitions to fatigue at 80% of their one-repetition maximum.

The results showed that participants could do more repetitions starting from the third set with CM, with a total increase of 52.92 repetitions by the last set. They also felt 40% less muscle soreness 24 and 48 hours after exercising. However, 15% of participants experienced mild stomach discomfort.

Not all studies show the same promise. Despite the positive findings, a literature review of CM supplementation’s impact on exercise performance and recovery found mixed results. This could be due to differences in exercise protocols, dosing, and issues with the citrulline: malate ratios in supplements. 

Taking L-citrulline with L-arginine may work better for boosting nitric oxide levels than taking either one alone. In a study with animals, researchers tested the effects of combining L-citrulline and L-arginine on nitric oxide availability. They gave rabbits and rats L-citrulline, L-arginine, or both together.

When combined, L-arginine levels in the blood increased quickly within an hour. This also improved nitric oxide production and blood flow. L-citrulline likely helped recycle more L-arginine and increased the production of eNOS, an enzyme that helps produce nitric oxide.

Pine Bark Extract

Pine Bark Extract helps regulate nitric oxide levels. A compound in it, called pycnogenol, may help cells absorb nitric oxide better and reduce the activity of the enzyme iNOS, which produces nitric oxide.

By reducing the activity of iNOS, pycnogenol could help balance nitric oxide production. And, since nitric oxide is involved in the body’s inflammatory response, regulating its levels may support overall health by ensuring the body doesn’t produce excessive amounts.

A meta-analysis of 39 placebo-controlled trials evaluated the effects of pycnogenol on cognitive function and vascular health. Pycnogenol showed beneficial effects across all age groups for cognitive function. Children taking pycnogenol experienced improved focus and attention, while elderly individuals experienced an improvement in working memory.

Regarding vascular health, those taking pycnogenol experienced improved blood vessel function, reduced blood pressure, and enhanced antioxidant levels in peri-menopausal women, supporting overall vascular health.

Other Ways to Increase Nitric Oxide Levels

Beyond eating foods or taking supplements to increase nitric oxide levels, you can make other lifestyle changes. Let’s take a look.

Avoid Using Antiseptic Mouthwash

Earlier, we discussed your oral bacteria’s role in helping produce nitric oxide. If you kill all those bacteria with a daily rinse of antiseptic mouthwash, you put yourself at a distinct disadvantage from a nitric oxide perspective. 

A study with 19 healthy, non-smoking participants looked at how antiseptic mouthwash affects oral nitrate levels and blood pressure. The study began with a 7-day control period, followed by a 7-day treatment where participants used a chlorhexidine-based mouthwash.

Researchers measured participants’ blood pressure and nitrite levels before and after treatment. Using antiseptic mouthwash reduced oral nitrite production by 90% and plasma nitrite levels by 25%.

At the same time, systolic and diastolic blood pressure increased by 2–3.5 mm Hg. These changes started within a day of using the mouthwash and continued throughout treatment.

The findings highlight how nitrate-reducing bacteria in your mouth help maintain nitric oxide levels, which are important in regulating blood pressure. And if you want to support their optimal function, skip the antiseptic mouthwash. 

Exercise

As we age, nitric oxide levels tend to drop, especially in less active people. A great way to boost NO is through exercise, which not only improves performance and slows down some aspects of aging, but also increases NO production.

In a study, eight healthy young men exercised at three different intensities: mild (25% of their maximum effort), moderate (50%), and high (75%) for 30 minutes each. The results showed that blood flow increased significantly during moderate exercise, suggesting that nitric oxide helps open blood vessels.

Researchers also noticed, however, that high-intensity exercise raised blood pressure and increased oxidative stress, which may reduce the bioavailability of nitric oxide.

A review of 10 studies confirmed that exercise boosts NO levels, with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and aerobic exercise having the biggest impact. Researchers think exercise helps NO become more available by boosting the production of an enzyme called eNOS, which helps make NO, and by slowing down the process that breaks it down.

While research might not agree on what intensity you should exercise for optimal NO production, balance is probably best. You want to do the activities you enjoy, combine various intensity levels, and avoid overstressing the body. This approach supports healthy NO levels and cardiovascular health and can be especially helpful as you age or are less active.

Conclusion

Nitric oxide plays a crucial role in helping you achieve optimal health. You can support its production and reap the benefits by:

• Incorporating nitrate-rich vegetables like beets, spinach, and arugula into your diet.
• Engaging in regular exercise, especially moderate-intensity workouts.
• Limiting the use of antiseptic mouthwash to preserve beneficial oral bacteria.
• Support nitric oxide production with supplements like Magnesium Breakthrough and targeted probiotics like Cognibiotics, Microbiome Breakthrough, and P3-OM.

By combining these strategies and considering our supplement recommendations, you can empower your body to thrive and unlock the full potential of nitric oxide.