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Nitric Oxide to Boost Your Brain and Body
When it comes to the way your body functions and operates, there are few things more important than nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a crucial substance in a huge number of bodily and mental processes and yet it’s something that a large number of people actually aren’t really aware of. It hardly has the same attention as something like testosterone for instance.
If you want to increase your energy levels though and start feeling more energized throughout the day, this is something that really needs to change. Here we will look at how nitric oxide helps you to regulate your energy levels and how you can start increasing it for positive effect.
What Nitric Oxide Does
Nitric oxide is a substance found in some foods and is also produced by the body. It has a variety of different important functions but as far as we’re concerned there are two that are particularly interesting. One is that it acts as a signaler that tells the body to begin ‘vasodilation’ – that’s the widening of the veins and arteries to let more blood and oxygen get around your body. This gives you energy because it means more oxygen to your muscles and to your brain. Both your muscles and your brain use oxygen for energy so this is very important.
The other is that it is also a neurotransmitter. This means that it helps your neurons to communicate and actually, it’s one of the only neurotransmitters (if not the only one) that can communicate without a synapse. In other words, two neurons don’t have to be connected in order for nitric oxide to be passed between them and researchers now think that this is how the brain ‘boots up’ in the morning – by spreading nitric oxide throughout it.
How You Can Raise Your Nitric Oxide
The good news is that there are a number of ways you can easily raise nitric oxide. One method is to start supplementing with garlic and vitamin C. Taking two regular supplements together has been shown to raise levels by as much as 200% which is a phenomenal increase.
Another strategy is to consume beet juice. Beet juice is so potent at raising nitric oxide that it can improve the performance of distance athletes by up to 3%. Be wary of raising nitric oxide too much as there can be some negative side effects. Nevertheless, these two methods are healthy and safe and could be very useful for helping you to get through a long working day.
