L-Arginine and L-Citrulline For Nitric Oxide Support
Last blog we discussed the reasons you want a high nitric oxide level in your body and brain. As a review nitric oxide is involved in maintaining healthy blood pressure, clean arteries, helps direct traffic in the brain, makes erections possible, helps maintain a healthy heart and heart rhythm and the list goes on.
L-Arginine is Semi-Essential
L-arginine is a semi-essential amino acid meaning that the body can make it from other amino acids but not always in the quantities for optimal health. Therefore, some arginine will ideally come from the diet or as we will see from supplementation. We are particular interested in L-arginine because of its role in producing NO, nitric oxide that has all those wonderful benefits mentioned above.
L-Citrulline Not Used in Protein Synthesis
L-citrulline is an amino acid but is not used in protein synthesis like many other amino acids. It is used in some important biochemical pathways including the production and release of nitric oxide. Young people tend to have no problems producing healthy levels of citrulline. Age is not your friend when we are discussing citrulline and nitric oxide which at least in part explains why many of the problems of aging arise like cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and reproductive problems arise.
Combo of L-Arginine and L-Citrulline Seems Best
Researchers and clinicians have worked to understand the relationship of arginine and citrulline supplementation and the control of health issues. Current thinking is that a combination of arginine and citrulline is best.
Arginine alone works but experimentation indicates that the combination of arginine and citrulline seems to work better than either one alone. Citrulline and arginine are both part of the pathway that produces NO. If you just take arginine, much of that can get converted to other amino acids before it gets to the rest of your body in meaningful quantities. Citrulline is not so easily converted to other amino acids and as mentioned isn't used to assemble proteins. Also, some excess arginine can get sent off to the urea cycle.
So, arginine at the lining of the blood vessels is very effective at producing NO but first you have to get it there. Citrulline is converted into arginine at the sites where it is most needed so is an effective way of boosting arginine and therefore NO.
High Quality Combination of L-Arginine and L-Citrulline is Fairly Easy
That is a bit complicated and fortunately, the practical application is not that difficult. You will need a high-quality arginine-citrulline powder that you take two to three times a day. We generally recommend that you start with a good blood test and a physical exam to evaluate your cardiovascular risk. On your blood test you are particularly interested in your LDL and HDL levels and LDL/HDL ratio and also your triglyceride levels.
The physical exam will include your blood pressure, an EKG and preferably a carotid ultrasound. If you have a history of smoking or diabetes you can figure you are already at risk.
You can find many articles on lifestyle changes, and you should begin working on making those healthy changes. But also, you will begin taking your scoops of the arginine and citrulline. If you are in pretty good shape and need to head off problems, one scoop might do the job. If you already have some of these issues but they are still fairly mild, go with two. If you are having some serious issues, you might need three to five scoops per day. Do this for six months and then repeat the relevant tests to see how you are doing.
L-arginine and L-citrulline are almost tasteless so the powder only needs a little stevia help to taste pretty good. It is a plus to have a good tasting medicine.
We have great results with Pure Encapsulations Nitric Oxide Support powder as our primary recommended supplement.
We have also used and recommended Berkeley Life Professional Nitric Oxide Support
I should also mention that you can check your NO levels with Berkeley Life Professional Test Strips so testing is fairly easy and convenient with the home test strips.
