Do Nitric Oxide (No2) Supplements work?
April 24th, 2008 by AdminThe last 5 years there has been an absolute craze in the bodybuilding supplement industry over Nitric Oxide (NO2) supplements. Many bodybuilders have not looked at the research and just listened to what other bodybuilders or supplement companies have said. The supplement companies promise increased muscle growth, pumps, vascularity, and even sexual benefits. However, NO supplements may really be the biggest supplement scam to ever hit the bodybuilding industry.
What are NO (Nitric Oxide) supplements?
NO supplements contain some form of arginine, an amino acid. There are many different forms of arginine compounds in the NO supplements today, promising to be better than the other. The goal of NO supplements are to have the arginine break down into NO (Nitric Oxide) into the blood. Arginine can break down into the bloodstream by enzymatic action, into citruline and Nitric Oxide. NO is a vasodilator and is thought to play a role in muscle building. There is some research showing NO levels increase post workout, leading some bodybuilders to believe it is crucial to protein synthesis. Many have theorized that because NO supplements increase blood flow due to NO in the blood, that increased blood flow from NO leads to better muscle growth. NO in the blood is also the same mechanism by which viagra works too.
NO (Nitric Oxide) studies
There is not one single legitimate scientific study showing NO2 supplements taken orally directly increase NO levels in the blood by a significant level. Yes, that is right you have all have been duped by the supplement companies and bodybuilding “gurus” for years now!
Now I did mention earlier, arginine does convert to NO so, why doesn’t arginine supplements increase NO in the blood? Arginine indeed does increase NO levels in the blood, but only when taken intravaneously. Why? Because if you took the doses orally that required a big increase in NO, you would be a vomiting mess. Arginine causes extreme nausea at high doses, that is why all the studies at high doses were done intravaneously. Unfortunately, the upper limit for oral doses, doesn’t seem to increase NO levels much.
See this artcle from Mayo clinig on Arginine. It disagrees with the above article and has been peer reviewed.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/l-arginine/NS_patient-arginine#68CDBDEE-E7FF-0DBD-1EB7BB192C5CE4B0
Rob thanks for your comment. However, I don’t see how that article proves anything against what I specifically said in this article. Many of the studies on arginine are done on injection instead of orally, which is the point of my post.
I’m starting week 2 with NO suppliments. We’ll see. Been going for 6 weeks without suppliments and am quite pleased so far. All this protien, creatine, NO suppliments, and vitamins better do something pretty impressive cuz the stuff costs a lot
Greetings to all. Who knows where quickly and not expensively to buy tablets without leaving the house?
(((((
Has bothered to walk on drugstores
Hey, me again. I swear by NO suppliments, There is a perpetual pump. I dunno if it’s the NO or just being healthier but, better sex, better boner…yes, i just said boner
I am a certified personal trainer, I work at a medical based health & fitness center, and I am a natural body-builder. Folks, please listen…NO is a BIG SCAM…like the author said, there is no scientific data to support the outrageous claims, and I know a lot of people who tried it (all different brands) and they were all dissappointed because it did nothing and cost a lot of money.
Thanks for this article. We use NO in gaseous form through a ventilator in the hospital setting so I had to wonder if it was effective in oral form and if it even survives, intact, after passing through the highly acidic stomach.