Why NO supplements may
not work for diabetics

If you’re a diabetic and have tried nitric oxide-generating supplements, you may find they don’t work. This is very frustrating, as diabetics need nitric oxide to help protect their vascular system. However, new research has found out why these supplements may not work for you. And it gives us a clear way to help make them work.

This new research looked at how the body of a mouse generates NO. The answer lies in an enzyme called nitric oxide synthase (NOS). This enzyme makes nitric oxide (NO). And NO reduces inflammation in your smallest blood vessels. The increased fat and sugar found in diabetics are a major cause of this inflammation.

But before NOS can make NO, your body has to go through a complex conversion process and activate the NOS. The enzyme must physically attach to your endothelial cells (vessel inner lining) by the fatty acid palmitate in order to work. Your body has an abundance of this fatty acid. So researchers assumed it would be a slam-dunk that available palmitate would activate available NOS. Not so. This new research discovered that activation occurs only if the palmitate is made onsite (right at the endothelial cell) by yet another enzyme called fatty acid synthase (FAS). But, FAS requires insulin to make the locally needed palmitate.

In diabetes, there is less insulin to do this. As a result, all of these processes don’t occur. The result? You can’t activate NOS to make NO, and your small blood vessels become inflamed and diseased. You can take all the NO generating supplements in the world, and you still might not be able to generate sufficient NO.

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However, you don’t have to suffer from diabetes to have this problem. You also can suffer from insulin resistance, or metabolic syndrome. In my book, metabolic syndrome is diabetes without high blood sugar. You can get significant vascular damage even without high blood sugar. That’s because you have abundant insulin, but your body is resistant to its effects. The insulin doesn’t kick-start these processes.

Again, the researchers discovered this process in a mouse study. There’s no guarantee that it’s 100% applicable to humans. However, these researchers found similar mechanisms in human endothelial cells as in the living mice. My observations suggest it is so. And, if you are diabetic or have insulin resistance (metabolic syndrome) and if NO supplements don’t work for you, then you’re seeing firsthand that it’s true.

Why don’t the supplements work? The supplements provide the precursor molecules for generating NO. So, they are still totally dependent on these processes to convert the precursors to actual usable NO.

So what can you do? There is only one sure fire way to fix the problem. You must resolve your insulin problem. The only way to completely reverse it is to clean up your diet. When you do, you’ll see the wondrous effects on your health, from elimination of insulin resistance to far better immunity. And it will jumpstart your nitric oxide conversion processes.

You might not even need supplements for NO if you take care of your diet. But, if you do need further assistance, you can aid in NO generation with NO supportive supplements. These include the powdered beets in Advanced Greens Formula (my first choice) and/or Neo40. And, if you don’t have diabetes or insulin resistance, they can protect you from ever damaging your vascular system in the first place.

Ref: The Journal of Biological Chemistry, January 28, 2011.

Soundview Communication, Inc.

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