Science identifies powerful rejuvenating substance – Nitric Oxide
Learn more: Natural News
(NaturalNews) Human beings have always been looking for the perfect regenerative tonic. In my book the The Tao of Rejuvenation I detail the ancient search and identify some of the great elixirs that have been used to restore health and extend life. Even so, the key understanding is that it is the human body itself that produces the great life restoring chemistry. As it turns out, the long sought elixir of the ancients is actually produced by the body when all of it’s systems are purified and boosted.
When we eat right, when we exercise, when we serve others, when our lives are happy and full of love, the body secretes a powerful regenerative chemistry that protects and extends our days. Over the last several years, research scientists under the direction of Dr. Nathan Bryan at the University of Texas have pointed to nitric oxide as the essential regenerative substance produced by the body. As their research continues to progress they are discovering that nitric oxide deficiency seems to be a culprit in all kinds of imbalances, such as bone loss, diabetes and cancer. Perhaps nitric oxide is the long sought, legendary tonic.
Nitric Oxide (NO) is a fundamental chemical messenger manufactured by the body within the circulatory system and it’s production relaxes and expands the blood pathways. This increases blood flow to all the organs and cells, restoring the health and strength of the cardiovascular tissue. By the age of forty, nitric oxide production begins to decline. This significant decline in NO production appears to be universal. Even so, the cardiovascular system never loses its ability to relax and open. It is the absence of NO that accounts for the fact that a person in their fifties and sixties has about half the circulatory capacity they had in their twenties.
The impact of this finding on our health and well begin is profound: if we boost NO production in the body, we are counteracting the aging process at the fundamental level of the circulatory system.
As it turns out, many of the foods and herbs that have been traditionally used for cardiovascular healing are highly effective nitric oxide precursors. Dr Bryan’s research not only confirms traditional approaches but it also allows us to formulate simple and effective strategies for rejuvenating the body. Through the persistent practice of cultivating nitric oxide production, we may even be able to eliminate cardiovascular disease in the future.
NO Producing Foods (NO precursors):
Kale, Swiss Chard, Arugula, Spinach and Beets top the list. Those wonderful cancer protecting cruciferous vegetables – cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli are also strong NO precursors. Eat liberally from these foods.
Feel free to have some dark chocolate after your veggies. The news on dark chocolate just keeps getting better. Cocoa increases NO production in the body. Recent research demonstrates that regular eaters of dark chocolate have significantly less heart disease. Choose low glycemic dark chocolate rather than the overly sweetened kind.
NO Producing Herbs:
Many of the medicinal herbs which have been used for centuries to heal and rejuvenate the cardiovascular system proved to be powerful NO precursors. Hawthorn, Chinese Salvia, Peony Rubra, Fructus Trichosanthus, Prunella vulgaris and Chinese Ginseng are among the best. Classical heart and blood rejuvenation formulas work very well. Traditional Botanical Medicine’s Heart Protector http://www.traditionalbotanicalmedi… and Cultivation formulas http://www.traditionalbotanicalmedi… contain an abundance of NO producing herbs.
Over time we will see more and more NO rich products entering the market using herbs, Vitamin C, and Vitamin B12 as key ingredients. Recent developments in our ability to measure NO in the body confirms the effectiveness of these supplements.
Foods And Practices Detrimental To NO Production:
Cigarette smoking, lack of exercise, shallow breathing, drinking soda and eating junk food, dehydration, poor sleeping habits. It is no surprise that all of these things decrease NO production in the body.
The biological half life of nitric oxide is very short, so persistence is key. In our own clinical experiments we have found that two doses of NO rich food and herbs daily, one in the morning and one after lunch, dramatically increases circulation and energy. NO levels seem to peak about 30 minutes after consumption of the food and herbs. The beauty of Dr Bryan’s research is that it affirms the virtues of traditional healing approaches, traditional medicines, right and natural living altogether.
Sources: The Nitric Oxide Solution by Bryan, Zand and Gottlie Neogenis, Austin, Texas, 2010
About the author:
Angelo Druda practices oriental medicine in Cobb, California. He is the founder of Traditional Botanical Medicine and the Author of The Tao of Rejuvenation.
www.TraditionalBotanicalMedicine.com
www.facebook.com/TraditionalBotanic…
Nitric Oxide & The Otto Tuner 128 Hz
We are thankful for the research of Dr. John Beaulieu, co-creator of BioSonics. During a multi-million dollar scientific study, when he used a 128Hz Otto Tuner* he was able to cause various human cells to “puff” nitric oxide (NO) – a vital cellular response to psychological and physiological stress. He got maximum results from using the fork just 2-3 times – re-igniting the “puffing” system! John Beaulieu, N.D., Ph.D., is one of the foremost philosophers and major innovators in the area of sound healing therapies.
* The 128Hz Otto Tuner is available as part of a set of 3 Otto Tuners (32Hz. 64, Hz and 128 Hz) from SomaEnergetics.
What is Nitric Oxide?
The research at BioSonics focuses on a molecule called Nitric Oxide and its effects on physiological processes and disease from an energy medicine perspective. Nitric Oxide was first identified in 1987 and since then there have been over 20,000 papers published.
The remarkable thing about Nitric Oxide research is its ability to cross boundaries and unify different fields of research and disciplines. The study of Nitric Oxides shows us biochemical processes that give us deeper insights into the healing effects of music and sound both within the Medical Model and the Energy Medicine paradigm.
Perhaps even more exciting is the implications of Nitric Oxide research for holistic health care. Energy Medicine practitioners have long asserted the necessity of working with the larger energy field, or the “whole person”, in order to effect specific change. Nitric Oxide is a molecule which is rhythmic in its action. Anything we do in the larger energy field with the whole person will involve Nitric Oxide rhythms and have a profound effect on our health and well-being.
As a result of this larger field perspective, our BioSonic research helps us to make the connection between sound, tuning forks and herbs. Our research is conducted in coordination with Cell Dynamics, New York-based laboratory functioning in partnership with the State University of New York. The focus of our research is on the effects of tuning forks on Nitric Oxide signaling. The focus of Cell Dynamics research is on the ability of natural herbs and foods to signal Nitric Oxide.
The result of our combined research was the development of a Nitric Oxide based herbal product we call EnRhythm. From our perspective EnRhythm is like an herbal tuning fork which signals our body to pulse Nitric Oxide in just the right rhythms. Therefore we have included plant research along with sound research with Nitric Oxide as the common denominator.
Nitric Oxide research also suggests a new scientific understanding of other therapies and practices. Although there is no specific research to date we will show research that suggests the role of Nitric Oxide signaling in Polarity Therapy, Cranial Therapy, Visualization, and Chiropractic as well as its role in the practices of Meditation, Yoga, and Tai Chi.
This research center contains science articles from such publications as Medical Science Monitor and The Journal of NeuroScience. These studies are not light reading and are presented for scientists and those with scientific interest.
Scientific Papers
Sound Therapy Induced Relaxation: Down Regulating Stress Processes and Pathologies
Tonal Nitric Oxide and Health – a Free Radical and a Scavenger of Free Radicals
From Dr. Beaulieu’s website: www.biosonics.com.
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have identified a surprising new molecular pathway in skin cells that is involved in wound-healing and sensory communication.
The new study, published in Nature Communications on June 28, 2011, shows that in this process skin cells produce nitric oxide, a versatile signaling molecule involved in temperature-sensing and wound-healing. This alternative, oxygen-independent mode of nitric oxide production previously had been thought to occur only outside cells.
“This alternative nitric oxide production process could prove to be crucial in the clinic,” said Ardem Patapoutian, a professor at the Dorris Neuroscience Center at Scripps Research and the senior author of the study. “The usual nitric oxide production process requires oxygen, so drugs that target that process might not work when oxygen availability is low after blood supply disruption.”
Studying the Biology of Sensation
Patapoutian’s lab focuses on the molecular biology of skin-based sensory pathways—pathways that typically start with stimulus-sensing receptors on nerve ends. Such receptors include the TRPV (transient receptor potential vanilloid) class of receptors, which are sensitive to various temperature- and pain-related stimuli. One of these receptors, TRPV3, is found not only on some nerve cells and nerve ends, but also on outer skin cells known as keratinocytes.
In 2005, Patapoutian’s lab reported in the journal Science that TRPV3 seemed to be a heat-sensing receptor; mice bred without it lacked a normal sensitivity to moderately warm stimuli. “That and previous findings made us suspect that TRPV3-expressing keratinocytes are somehow involved in sending thermosensory signals to local nerve ends,” said Patapoutian.
In the current study, Patapoutian, his graduate student Takashi Miyamoto, and their colleagues demonstrated that TRPV3 activation leads to the production of nitric oxide in keratinocytes—which suggests that nitric oxide is the carrier of thermosensory signals from skin cells to nearby nerve ends. A simple gas consisting of one atom of nitrogen bound to one atom of oxygen, nitric oxide is one of the more evolutionarily ancient biological signaling molecules, and even plays a role as a neurotransmitter in the brain.
“Nitric oxide was high on our list of possibilities because it is known to be produced in keratinocytes when they are warmed,” said Miyamoto, who was first author of the study.
A Surprising Result
Miyamoto applied compounds that are known activators of TRPV3 to cultured mouse keratinocytes, and observed that the cells sharply increased their production of nitric oxide.
“The surprise was that I couldn’t find evidence that the nitric oxide was being produced in the normal way, with nitric oxide synthase (NOS) enzymes,” he said. The keratinocytes turned out to be producing nitric oxide through a different process, which is known to occur in saliva and other bodily fluids, but hadn’t yet been seen in cells.
This alternative nitric oxide production occurs by the stripping of oxygen atoms from compounds called nitrites, which normally come from dietary sources. When Miyamoto deprived the cultured cells of nitrites, their TRPV3-triggered production of nitric oxide dropped to near zero.
To confirm the role of nitrites in this pathway, Miyamoto compared the mice bred without TRPV3—which don’t distinguish two different innocuous warm temperatures—to those with no-nitrite diets. “The behavior of the no-nitrite mice was basically the same as that of the TRPV3-knockout mice,” he said. Feeding TRPV3-knockout mice with no-nitrite diets had no additive effect, which again suggested that the two work on the same pathway.
Next, the scientists asked, “If nitric oxide is a messenger that delivers temperature-sense signals from skin cells to nearby nerve ends, then to what nerve-end receptor does it bind?” Miyamoto, Patapoutian, and their colleagues suspected TRPV1, a known pain and temperature sensor on nerve ends, which their lab had shown to be activated by nitric oxide, in a study published in 2009. In the present study, they used a chemical to block the activity of TRPV1 receptors in mice, and observed that the lack of TRPV3 or nitrites no longer made a difference in the animal’s behavior—a result consistent with the idea that TRPV1 is the main nerve-end receptor on this thermosensory pathway, acting directly or indirectly.
Hints of Things to Come
Nitric oxide’s versatility as a signaling molecule also led the researchers to look for other processes in which the TRPV3-mediated pathway might be involved. “We found evidence that the nitric oxide produced by this pathway makes a partial contribution to wound-healing and also specifically to the keratinocyte migration that occurs during wound healing,” said Miyamoto.
The team now plans to detail the elements of the TRPV3-activated nitric oxide pathway in temperature sensing, and to look for evidence that the same kind of nitrite-dependent pathway is involved in other nitric oxide-producing cells throughout the body.
“The dogma has been that nitric oxide can be produced in cells only with NOS enzymes, but this study hints that nitrite-based nitric oxide production could potentially be just as important,” Miyamoto said.
More information: In addition to Patapoutian and Miyamoto, other co-authors of the study, “TRPV3 regulates nitric oxide synthase-independent nitric oxide synthesis in the skin,” were Matt J. Petrus and Adrienne E. Dubin, also of the Patapoutian lab at Scripps Research.