Dr. Louis Ignarro: Benefits of Nitric Oxide

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Nitric Oxide is the natural performance booster that strengthens your heart, lungs, and nerves, along with every cell in your body. It also allows you to prolong your exercise, and prolonged exercise increases NO levels in your body. It’s a virtuous cycle that can lead to improved athletic performance and better health.

NO is a short-lived, gaseous molecule that is produced in your cells. Once released into the bloodstream, it signals the body to perform certain functions such as vasodilatation opening up the blood vessels and capillaries to increase blood flow and deliver oxygen and critical nutrients throughout your body at the time it needs them most. Do you ever wonder why people suffering from chest pain are often prescribed and instructed to take nitroglycerine? It’s because the body uses nitroglycerine to produce high levels of NO quickly by opening the coronary arteries and increasing the flow of blood to the heart.

For the athlete seeking enhance performance, endurance and strength, as well as faster recovery, the availability of NO in the body is critically important. As any endurance athlete can tell you, a triathlon or other long-distance event becomes a competition between body parts over demand for the blood supply. The skin wants the blood circulating to dissipate heat, but the muscles are screaming for the oxygen and nutrients that the blood carries. Meanwhile, the stomach needs blood to digest food and make those nutrients available in the first place. It’s not hard to see how ample NO, with its ability to increase circulation, would be critical to athletic performance.

But as additional research is beginning to show us, NO doesn’t stop with cardiovascular benefits. It now appears that NO is the “master signaling molecule” throughout the body and that maintaining sufficient levels through exercise and nutrition not only improves cardiovascular condition but also optimizes the function of every body system; this leads to superior athletic results and greater wellness, quality of life, and even longevity.

When you exercise, your body goes through a remarkable process during which it releases NO into your bloodstream. NO is a “signaling molecule.” Its sole function is to send out various biological signals that regulate the activity of cells and instruct the body to perform certain functions. Some of the benefits that your body gains from NO include increased blood flow to muscles and organs as well as better cardiovascular and enhanced lung functions, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. It turns out that NO benefits nearly every cell and system in the body.

NO is primarily manufactured in the endothelium, which is the layer of cells lining the interior surface of the blood vessels. The endothelial tissue, which separates the blood from the smooth muscles of the vessel walls, is extremely thin and fragile. It’s easy to see what occurs when such a vast, crucial network gets what it needs to function at its biological peak. When your endothelium is well nourished, it produces NO at optimal levels. The NO then rapidly spreads through the cell membranes to the underlying muscle cells, causing the arteries to dilate and blood to flow unimpeded to the heart and other organs.

Because NO functions on a localized basis, it is released by billions of cells throughout the body, enhancing overall functioning. The longer NO circulates in the body, the greater benefit it provides to your cells, cardiovascular system, lungs, nervous system, and organs and the more optimal their functionality will be. The more efficiently each of your cells functions, the more you will be able to produce peak speed, strength, and endurance as part of your athletic endeavors.

Also, the desirable effects of NO aren’t limited to athletes. On the contrary, this molecule is quickly becoming regarded as a critical component of a pro-wellness lifestyle for all people, ranging from athletes to the sedentary. Some of the benefits of sufficient levels of NO include:

• Helping to increase cardiovascular capacity and circulation and enhancing oxygen and nutrient delivery to cells.
• Helping cells get rid of waste products.
• Regulating the muscle tone of blood vessels and having a major impact in controlling blood pressure.
• Stopping blood platelets from forming clots, which helps prevent arterial blockages and heart attacks.
• Transmitting messages between nerve cells, a process known as neurotransmission.

NO helps slow the accumulation of atherosclerotic plaque in the blood vessels. This artery hardening build up of cholesterol and fats that narrow or block the arteries is a major precursor to coronary heart disease, leading to heart attack and stroke. Our research strongly suggests that NO’s ability to combat this plaque helps produce healthy levels of cholesterol by working in concert with medications commonly prescribed for people with high cholesterol.

NO also help the immune system fight bacterial infections, viruses, and parasites, and even decreases the growth of certain types of cancer. NO is crucial to to memory function, as the brain uses it to help neurons store and retrieve long-term memories and transmit information. As an anti-inflammatory agent, NO is being studied for its potential role in reducing the welling and discomfort of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

by Nobel Laureate in Medicine Dr. Louis Ignarro and Naturopathic Physician Dr. Andrew Myers

Dr. Andrew Myers: Prevention Should Start Early

As parents, we are charged with the safety and well-being of our kids.  That means paying attention to things like seat belts, bicycling helmets, cross walks and “stranger danger”.  But one of the biggest factors that most parents overlook is disease prevention for their children.

I know, it sounds a bit far-fetched; we as parents tend to think “All kids are healthy, right?”  Not according to the research.
A number of studies over the past several years point to childhood obesity as a major risk factor for heart disease.  A study published in the journal Pediatrics, showed the inflammatory changes that cause heart disease were clearly present at age 3 and worsened up to the age of 17.  Other research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that childhood obesity is the strongest factor linked to premature disease-associated death, more than doubling the risk.

So when we think about protecting our children, we need to add their health to the top of the list.

By The Numbers: Heart Disease Risk and Kids
According to national statistics, about 10 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 19 have high cholesterol – total cholesterol levels above 200 mg/dL. (NHANES III [1988-94], CDC/NCHS)
The well-known Bogalusa Heart Study found that overweight children between the ages of 5 and 17 were more than twice as likely to have high cholesterol levels as those of normal weight children.
About 80 percent of people who use tobacco begin before age 18. Smoking tobacco increases blood pressure, decreases exercise tolerance and increases the tendency for blood to clot. (http://www.oas.samhsa.gov) and (http://www.americanheart.org)
37.2 percent of high school students spend three or more hours a day watching TV.
According to the Framingham Children’s Study, by the end of adolescence, BMI (a measure of obesity) was highest for those children who watched the most television during childhood.
Being responsible as a parent can help your child avoid obesity, heart disease and diabetes later in life. So how can we best shape the health and wellness of our children?

Well, the problems that lead to heart disease in adults, turn out to be the same in children – poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle and excess weight gain.

Here’s what the American Heart Association says, “Children age 2 years and older should be encouraged to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily as well as a wide variety of other foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Doing this will help them maintain normal blood cholesterol levels and promote cardiovascular health.” (www.americanheart.org)

Here are five solid recommendations to consider as you seek to promote your children’s health:
Provide your children with a safe and secure home full of love and support.
Be a good example of a healthy lifestyle by eating right, exercising frequently and maintaining a healthy weight.
Feed your kids lots of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and a variety of foods low in saturated fat and high in nutrition.
Turn off the television and find ways to build movement (and exercise) into your children’s life.
Use love and recognition to reward your children, not sweets and candy.
As a physician, and a parent, I urge you to consider the opportunity that you have to promote your children’s health by making sound choices for yourself and for them.  By building a healthy lifestyle for your family, you may be giving your children the greatest gift anyone can bestow:  a lifetime of good health.

Read more at http://www.HealthIsWealth.net

This is a re-print from a CNN report in Time it’s worth repeating….

Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008

Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat?

By Alice Park

When it comes to dieting, most of us are willing to resort to a trick or two to help us curb our appetite and eat less — drinking water to fill up when we’re hungry, for example, or opting for artificial sweeteners instead of sugar to get the same satisfying sweetness without the offending calories. But new research suggests that the body is not so easily fooled, and that sugar substitutes are no key to weight loss — perhaps helping to explain why, despite a plethora of low-calorie food and drink, Americans are heavier than ever.

In a series of experiments, scientists at PurdueUniversitycompared weight gain and eating habits in rats whose diets were supplemented with sweetened food containing either zero-calorie saccharin or sugar. The report, published in Behavioral Neuroscience, presents some counterintuitive findings: Animals fed with artificially sweetened yogurt over a two-week period consumed more calories and gained more weight — mostly in the form of fat — than animals eating yogurt flavored with glucose, a natural, high-calorie sweetener. It’s a continuation of work the Purdue group began in 2004, when they reported that animals consuming saccharin-sweetened liquids and snacks tended to eat more than animals fed high-calorie, sweetened foods. The new study, say the scientists, offers stronger evidence that how we eat may depend on automatic, conditioned responses to food that are beyond our control.

What they mean is that like Pavlov’s dog, trained to salivate at the sound of a bell, animals are similarly trained to anticipate lots of calories when they taste something sweet — in nature, sweet foods are usually loaded with calories. When an animal eats a saccharin-flavored food with no calories, however — disrupting the sweetness and calorie link — the animal tends to eat more and gain more weight, the new study shows. The study was even able to document at the physiological level that animals given artificial sweeteners responded differently to their food than those eating high-calorie sweetened foods. The sugar-fed rats, for example, showed the expected uptick in core body temperature at mealtime, corresponding to their anticipation of a bolus of calories that they would need to start burning off — a sort of metabolic revving of the energy engines. The saccharin-fed animals, on the other hand, showed no such rise in temperature. “The animals that had the artificial sweetener appear to have a different anticipatory response,” says Susan Swithers, a professor of psychological sciences atPurdueUniversityand a co-author of the study. “They don’t anticipate as many calories arriving.” The net result is a more sluggish metabolism that stores, rather than burns, incoming excess calories.

Swithers stops short of saying that the animals in her study were compelled to overeat to compensate for phantom calories. But she says that the study does suggest artificial sweeteners somehow disrupt the body’s ability to regulate incoming calories. “It’s still a bit of a mystery why they are overeating, but we definitely have evidence that the animals getting artificially sweetened yogurt end up eating more calories than the ones getting calorically sweetened yogurt.”

Though it’s premature to generalize based on animal results that the same phenomena would hold true in people, Swithers says, she notes that other human studies have already shown a similar effect. A University of Texas Health Science Center survey in 2005 found that people who drink diet soft drinks may actually gain weight; in that study, for every can of diet soda people consumed each day, there was a 41% increased risk of being overweight. So even though her findings were in animals, says Swithers, they could lead to a better understanding of how the human body responds to food, and explain why eating low-calorie foods doesn’t always lead to weight loss. “There is lots of evidence that we learn about the consequences about eating food,” she says. “And we have physiological responses to food that are conditioned.”

So does that mean you should ditch the artificial sweeteners and welcome sugar back into your life? Not exactly. Excess sugar in the diet can lead to diabetes and heart disease, even independent of its effect on weight. But it’s worth remembering that when it comes to counting calories, it’s not just the ones you eat that you have to worry about. The calories you give up matter too, and they may very well reappear in that extra helping of pasta or dessert that your body demands. Your body may actually be keeping better count than you are.

This week we have the great teachings from Jim Rohn. Jim was the mentor to Tony Robbins and a very wise and wonderful teacher. Jim passed last year but his teachings will continue as long as we continue to pass them on. So here is a great one… We believe in passing on great truths, no need to re-invent the wheel. Jim Does a great job with truth.

It is Up to You by Jim Rohn

One of the first things successful people realize is the old adage, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” That is, for you, the fact that your success and your course is up to you. This doesn’t mean that you do it all alone. It simply means that you take responsibility for your life and your career.

Too many people today look at opportunity and figure it is up to someone else to make sure they get it. They look at financial security and hope that the government will make sure they live safely in retirement or in case of disability. They wait and wait, figuring that it is up to someone else. And then the wait is over, and it is too late to do anything. Their life is over and they are filled with regret.

This isn’t true for you however. You know that you must take responsibility for your life. It is up to you.

The fact is that nobody else is going to do it for you—you must do it yourself.

Now, some people may say, “Jim, that’s a lot of responsibility.” Friends, that is the best news you can ever hear. You get to choose your life. Hundreds of millions of people all around this world would give anything to live in the situation you do—just for the chance to have the opportunity to take control of their destiny. “It is up to you” is a great blessing!

Here’s why:

1. You get to chart your own destiny. Maybe you want to start a small business and stay there. That’s great because you can choose that. Maybe you want to create a small chain of stores. Maybe you want to have a net worth of $100 million. That’s okay too. The idea is that you get to choose. You can do whatever you like. Different people have different dreams and they should live them accordingly.

2. You can reap what you sow. Sleep in and go to work late and reap the return. Or get up early and outwork the others and earn a greater return. Place your capital at risk and earn a return—or place it at greater risk and perhaps reap a greater return. You decide what you will sow and thus what you will reap.

3. No one else can stop you from getting your dream. Yes, there will always be things that come up and people who may not like what you are doing, but you can just move on and chart your own course. There is great freedom in that.

4. You experience the joy of self-determination. There is no greater pride than knowing you set your mind on something and accomplished it. Those who live with a victim mentality never get to experience the joy of accomplishment because they are always waiting for someone else to come to the rescue. Those who take responsibility get to live the joy of seeing a job well done.

Let me ask you a question: Where will you be in five years? Ten years? Or 25 years? Do you know? Do you have an idea? Have you ever dreamed about it or set a goal for it? Are you willing to take responsibility and recognize that, “It is up to you?”

You will be wherever you decide to be in those timeframes. You decide. It is up to you.

And that is very exciting!

Today’s Blog is written by Nobel Laureate in Medicine Dr. Louis Ignarro and Naturopathic Physician Dr. Andrew Myers

These 2 Doctors are on a mission to reduce Heart Disease. People don’t get Nobel Prizes in medicine everyday for simple reasons. The Nobel Prize is given to those that contribute the the good of all humanity in their field. This article could save someones life.

Dr. Louis Ignarro: What Is Nitric Oxide?
One tiny molecule produced by the body may do more than any drug to prevent heart attack and stroke. Nitric oxide, a gas that occurs naturally in the body, is critical for healthy circulation. It helps dilate blood pressure, and it may inhibit the accumulation of arterial plaque.

How It Works
Nitric oxide is a signaling molecule primarily produced by cells in the endothelium (inner lining) of blood vessels. A signaling molecule fits into docking sites (receptors) on cell walls and triggers biochemical reactions.

Nitric oxide helps prevent heart disease and stroke by…
Expanding blood vessels. Nitric oxide protects the blood vessels’ smooth muscle tissue from harmful constriction, and this allows blood to circulate with less force. Some doctors report that elevating nitric oxide in hypertensive patients can lower blood pressure by 10 to 60 points.
Controlling platelet function. Platelets, cell-like structures in blood that can clump up together, may form blood-blocking clots, the main cause of heart attack and stroke. A vascular network that is enhanced by nitric oxide sheds platelets and inhibits dangerous clots.
Reducing arterial plaque by 50%. Arterial plaque, which consists of fatty deposits in the coronary arteries, is the underlying cause of heart diseases. Nitric oxide is an antioxidant that inhibits the passage of monocytes, a type of immune cell, into the artery wall. This in turn reduces the underlying inflammation that promotes plaque.
Lowering total cholesterol by 10% to 20%. That’s a modest decrease – but there’s some evidence that nitric oxide is even more effective when combined with the  cholesterol lowering statins. Nitric oxide lowers cholesterol through its antioxidant activity. The preliminary research suggests that stimulating nitric oxide production in people who have elevated cholesterol makes it possible to lower their statin doses by at least 50%.

THANK YOU DR. IGNARRO FOR YOUR GREAT CONTRIBUTIONS!

This weeks blog come to us from Dr. Louis Ignarro, Nobel Prize winner in Medicine.

“Obesity is becoming one of the leading health concerns globally, and it is starting with our children.

The Demopolis Times writes (http://www.demopolistimes.com/2010/12/29/obesity-a-supersized-problem/):

Childhood obesity is on the rise in the U.S., nearly tripling in the number of cases over the last 30 years. Studies indicate states with high numbers of overweight or obese youth also have high rates of childhood poverty with low scores in measurements of childhood wellbeing.

The epidemic of childhood obesity has even been described, by First Lady Michelle Obama, as a national security threat (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oz-garcia/child-nutrition-act-childhood-obesity_b_799670.html).

The solution to this problem is simple: healthy meals with real nutrition and exercise. This new study from the journal Nutrition suggests that one answer to obesity could be wise breakfast choices.

Although the size of the participants breakfast varied, scientists discovered people would later consume the same amount of calories at lunch and dinner, even despite having had a larger portion in the morning. This led researchers to suggest wise breakfast choices could be key to reducing total daily calories and fighting obesity.”

We at bfitnow1 believe, as do Doctors across the board, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Starting your day with a breakfast that does these 3 things will boost your metabolism by 43% and set you up to eat right for the rest of the day.

These are the 3 things your breakfast SHOULD provide you:

1. Provide your daily RDA

2. Provide you with 1/4 – 1/3 of your protein requirement for the day

3. Keep you within or under your daily caloric intake

These are 3 very difficult things to accomplish on a meal by meal basis. If you would like more information feel free to contact us at bfitnow.tracey@gmail.com or see our website www.lifesworkbook.com

Thank you for taking the time to take care of you,

See you next week!!!

Doing the Remarkable by Jim Rohn

THE FIBER FACTOR

At Bfitnow1 we want to bring you quality articles that are applicable to your life and health. Please enjoy this great one by:

Susan Bowerman, M.S., R.D., C.S.S.D.

More than 100 years ago, someone figured out how to separate the bran from grains of wheat, leaving only the starchy interior to be ground into flour. From this discovery, an amazing new product–white bread– was born. But the introduction of refined flour products certainly contributed to the nation’s slow decline in dietary fiber intake. It has been estimated that our hunter-gatherer ancestors–who foraged for food for hours every day–ate about 12 pounds of plant foods a day and about 100 grams of fiber. If we did that, we’d spend a good part of our day just eating. But the average American falls far short of meeting the fiber recommendation of 25 to 30 grams a day. In fact, most of us only eat about 15 grams. Fiber is the structural portion of a plant, and so it is found in whole fruits, vegetables, beans and grains (like corn and brown rice); there is no fiber in meats, fish or poultry. Different types of fibers have different effects on the body, and it’s important to get plenty of fiber from a variety of sources. Water-soluble fibers are found in the highest concentration in apples, oranges, carrots, potatoes, oats, barley and beans. These types of fiber delay the time it takes for food to pass through the system, and so they provide a feeling of fullness. They also slow the absorption of glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream and so they help to keep blood-sugar levels more even throughout the day. This type of fiber is also helpful in lowering blood cholesterol levels, which is why oats and oat bran have been popular for heart health. Water-insoluble fibers are found in the highest concentrations in vegetables, wheat bran, corn bran, rice bran and most other whole grains. These fibers speed up the transfer of food through the intestines and also trap water, so they are particularly good in helping to prevent constipation. The health benefits of a high-fiber diet are numerous. Most people are aware that fiber keeps the intestinal tract functioning smoothly. The fiber not only helps prevent constipation, but also reduces the risk of hemorrhoids. For those wanting to lose weight, a high-fiber diet is a great way to go. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains have fewer calories “per bite” than do foods that have a lot of fat and sugar. Also, the fibers keep food in the stomach longer and absorb water, so they provide the sensation of fullness. Can you get too much? Adding too much fiber to the diet in a short period of time might lead to abdominal discomfort and gas, so if your diet is usually low in fiber, increase the amount slowly over a few weeks to give your system time to adjust. Also, drink plenty of liquid to allow the fiber to soften and swell. And make sure to eat a variety of fiber sources to reap all the health benefits that high-fiber foods provide.

Feel free to visit us at www.lifesworkbook.com for more great support with your health goals!!

“Our health is our first wealth” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Supplementation with Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Reduce Mortality Risk

Friday, February 18, 2011

Did you know that Heart Disease and it’s related issues are the number 1 cause of death in both men and women? Did you know that it is the number 3 killer of teens? This is a very serious issue, and 50% of all Heart Disease related deaths are preventable. Simple choices, small changes make all the difference. Please take a moment to read what Dr. Lou Ignarro, Nobel Prize winner in 1998 for his research in heart health says:

In a randomized, placebo-controlled, 2×2 factorial study involving 563 Norwegian men, aged 64 to 76 years, at high-risk of cardiovascular disease, results indicate that long-term supplementation with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may be associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality. The men were randomized to placebo or 2.4 g omega-3 PUFA/d, with or without diet counseling, for a period of 3 years. During the intervention period, 38 deaths and 68 cardiovascular events were recorded. After adjusting for potential confounders, the omega-3 group showed a 47% reduced risk of all-cause mortality and an 11% reduced risk of cardiovascular events, compared with the placebo group. Thus, the authors of this study conclude, “We observed a tendency toward reduction in all-cause mortality in the omega-3 PUFA groups that, despite a low number of participants, reached borderline statistical significance. The magnitude of risk-reduction suggests that a larger trial should be considered in similar populations.”

“A randomized clinical trial on omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids supplementation and all-cause mortality in elderly men at high cardiovascular risk,” Einvik G, Hjerkinn EM, et al, Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil, 2010 Apr 10;

Small changes, simple choices… When we know better, we do better….

“Our first wealth is our Health” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thank you for visiting us at bfitnow1 🙂