★★★★★
I've finally put together the pieces of the puzzle. Although I don't have heart disease and my ED is/was only an occasional thing, I do have high blood pressure. In the past I found that red beets, especially the juice from red beets (beet root), is extremely effective at lowering my blood pressure. Unfortunately, after about 12 hours or so, the effect of the beets goes away.
Why is nitric oxide critical for our health and especially for maintaining healthy blood pressure and sexual health?
“Released by the inner layer of cells (endothelium) of blood vessels, nitric oxide relaxes the vessels and keeps them flexible, allowing them to dilate, boosting blood flow, and helping to control blood pressure. Nitric oxide also has anti-inflammatory effects and helps prevent platelets and white blood cells from adhering to the lining of blood vessels, thus reducing the risk of plaque development. As we age, our cells produce less nitric oxide, so blood vessels become less flexible, which contributes to hypertension, inflammation in blood vessels, and atherosclerosis (plaque buildup)—that is, cardiovascular disease.”
https://www.berkeleywellness.com/self-care/preventive-care/article/why-nitric-oxide-so-important
Now that you know the importance of nitric oxide and why it decreases with age, you probably want to know how you can fix it. The good news is that the body has a number of pathways to produce NO. One of them involves your gut microbiome. The trillions of good bacteria and yeast that live in your gut and account for 80% of your immune system.
For those who are interested in the science and biochemistry behind the process, I am including the process here:
The chemistry for the production of NO involves 3 steps. Consumption of nitrate (NO3) rich foods, the reduction of nitrate to nitrite (NO2) and the further reduction from nitrite to nitric oxide (NO). (Nitric oxide cannot be supplemented since it is an unstable gas and will quickly oxidise back to nitrate and nitrite).
The following is one of several ways in which these reactions can take place in our bodies:
The following reaction converts nitrate (N03 from food with the help of gut bacteria) to nitrite (N02) and water.
Bacterial nitrate reductase:
NO3 – + e– + H+ → NO2 – + H2O
This is then further reduced from nitrite to nitric oxide (NO). This is facilitated with ascorbate (Vitamin C). It's a 2 step process where with the help of vitamin C nitrite is converted to nitrous acid (HN02) and then from there to Nitric Oxide (NO water and a transformed type of vitamin C).
Ascorbate:
NO2 – + H+ → HNO2
2 HNO2 + Asc → 2 • NO + dehydroAsc + 2 H2O
Higher levels of Nitric oxide help athletic performance, prevents Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, lowers blood pressure, and fixes erectile dysfunction (ED).
What to do in summary if you want to fix ED and lower blood pressure as well as get all of the other benefits of increased levels of NO?
1. Avoid glyphosate since that kills your microbiome and causes all sorts of serious havoc in your body. (Avoid soy and corn that is not organic. Eat as much organic vegetables and fruits as possible. Also, avoid non organic wheat products such as bread and pasta, since that is heavily sprayed in the USA just before harvesting. If you eat imported pasta and bread from Europe, that isn't the case and you should be fine.)
2. Juice or otherwise incorporate organic red beets and green vegetables into your diet.
3. Drink kefir.
Kefir has tons of benefits besides helping in the production of NO. Our gut is said to constitute 80% of our immune system, so we should focus most of our attention on our gut, or more specifically on the microbiome in our gut.
After switching from yogurt to kefir, I saw great improvements in my energy levels, stamina and overall health. Kefir is the heavy weight champion of probiotic foods. It contains over 60 different strains of beneficial bacteria as well as several strains of beneficial yeast. Milk kefir has the ability to colonize your intestines with beneficial bacteria and thus rebuild your microbiome.
Integrating red beets and kefir into my diet on a regular basis has made a big difference to my health and I hope it can do the same for you! Only doing one without the other will only get you partial results. So I highly recommend doing both.
I hope that this article will be posted by EC under Kefir and high blood pressure cures as well.
Thanks for reading and God bless!
