Nitric Oxide Therapy Archives - Dan Hammer Health LTD

Eliminating Heart Disease Naturally Thru Nitric Oxide Therapy

Archive for Nitric Oxide Therapy

CoVid19 and Endothelial Health

Posted by Dan Hammer //

11/08/2020

My daughter sent me an article from NPR that talks about CoVid19 and endothelial health. The title of the article is “Clots, Strokes And Rashes. Is COVID-19 A Disease Of The Blood Vessels?”

As more and more research is being done on the CoVid19 virus, one of the areas of focus has been the lining of the vascular system.

This lining is call the endothelium.

It’s only one-cell thick. But it actually regulates most of your cardiovascular health.

To give you an idea how large this tissue is, there is approximately 60,000 miles to the average vascular system. This includes all your arteries, veins, and capillaries. Lining all of this is the endothelium. If you took it out and laid the endothelium on the ground it would cover the surface area of a football field.

That’s a lot of surface volume.

Dr. William Li, who is a vascular biologist and the founder of the Angiogenesis Foundation, compared the endothelium to a freshly resurfaced ice skating rink before a hockey game. Smooth ice that allows the players and puck to glide smoothly.

However, the CoVid19 virus has an effect on the enthelium. In Dr. Li words,

“When the virus damages the inside of the blood vessel and shreds the lining, that’s like the ice after a hockey game. You wind up with a situation that is really untenable for blood flow.”

Dr. Li and his researchers came to this conclusion when they compared the lung tissues of people who died from CoVid19 to those who died from influenza. CoVid19 patients had nine times as many tiny blood clots when compared to influenza patients. And the endothelial lining of the blood vessels of the lungs were severely injured.

A normally functioning endothelium helps to: Read More →

Health Benefits of Quercetin

Posted by Dan Hammer //

09/15/2020

Today we’re going to talk about the health benefits of quercetin, which is a plant flavoniod that helps to address multiple health issues.

Quercetin is found in a wide range of foods such as grape skins, red onions, green tea, and tomatoes. And while this ingredient is naturally abundant in plant foods, most people do not get enough quercetin through their daily diets.

Part of the reason why is that the American diet is centered on high protein from animal sources. Or high in carbohydrates from processed grains, which strips out needed nutrients.

This is unfortunate because the research clearly shows the health benefits of quercitin on a wide range of concerns.

Cardiovascular Disease

The number one killer of all people is cardiovascular disease. Quercetin can be a significant help in this area. In a study of 805 men that ranged in age from 65-84 years old, those with the highest intake of quercetin were 68% less likely to die from coronary heart disease when compared to those with the lowest intake.

Other studies in this areas showed a reduction in death rates of 31% for women and 24% for men, when all causes were factored. And scientists attribute this reduction to several key factors, which include the following:

Reduction of dangerous accumulations of abdominal and liver fat.
Reduction in total cholesterol.
Reduction in LDL (Bad) cholesterol.
Increase in HDL (Good) cholesterol.
Reduction in blood sugar.
Reduction in blood pressure.
Increased plasma levels of nitric oxide.
Inhibits platelet aggregation to reduce potential for blood clots.
Inhibits the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.

This last benefit of inhibiting the oxidation of LDL cholesterol is significant because oxidized LDL cholesterol causes vascular inflammation that leads to plaque formation and the disease know as atherosclerosis.

In one human study, those who supplemented with just 30 mg/day of quercetin had a 28% reduction in LDL oxidation in as little as two weeks.

Cancer

The second leading cause of death in the United States is cancer. This is another area that the health benefits of quercetin show up. Numerous research studies have shown those with the highest intake of quercetin had a significantly lower risk for most of the leading causes of cancer. For example: Read More →

Improving Brain Function – Part One

Posted by Dan Hammer //

08/01/2020

As people age one of their concerns is improving brain function. Every study that I’ve ever seen that improves blood flow to the brain improves brain function.

It is one of the reason why I’m a big proponent of Nitric Oxide Therapy.

Helping your body improve its ability to create nitric oxide ends up improving blood flow. Improved blood flow improves the deliver of oxygen and nutrients to the brain. As well as helps to properly remove metabolic waste.

This allows your brain cells to function better.

What is critical to blood flow is the health of your endothelium and its ability to properly produce nitric oxide.

The importance of your endothelium was recently highlight in a 2019 video that I saw from the BrainMind Summit. In this video Dr. George Church of Harvard Medical School made the following statement:

“Here some stem cells are turning into two different kinds of important brain cells. The one that everyone thinks about which is neurons . . . but the one that people tend to forget about is the endothelium, which provides the blood to the neurons. And there is almost exactly 1 capillary per neuron. So you have 86 billion neurons in your brain you have almost 86 billion capillaries. . .”

Capillaries are needed to bring the oxygen and nutrients to the neurons. Capillaries are endothelial tissue.

Thus the health of your endothelial tissue helps determine the health of your capillaries.

And contained in your endothelium are enzymes that convert the amino acid L-arginine to nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide then dilates the blood vessels for improved blood flow.

As I’ve already stated, improved blood flow delivers more oxygen and nutrients, which then nourishes your neurons to improve their performance.

One of the ways for improving brain function is to improve the health of your endothelium and its ability to properly produce nitric oxide. To this end there are five key ingredients. They are: Read More →

Vitamin D and Heart Health

Posted by Dan Hammer //

05/15/2020

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about CoVid19 and Vitamin D Deficiency. Today I want to focus on vitamin D and heart health.

Additional studies are showing how optimizing your vitamin D intake can help to prevent both heart disease and stroke. And it seems to do this by:

Improving endothelial function
Reducing arterial stiffening

Vitamin D does this by increasing your endothelium’s ability to create nitric oxide. Nitric oxide dilates your blood vessels to improved blood flow.

Additionally, vitamin D helps to decrease the destructive chemical compound called peroxynitrite, which can cause inflammation that leads to arterial stiffness.

Researchers at the Nanomedical Research Laboratory at Ohio University conducted a study that examined this relationship between nitric oxide and peroxynitrite. For simplicity, please remember the following:

Nitric oxide is good
Peroxynitrite is bad

In their study, the researcher introduced a human hormone called angiotensin-II. This hormone causes endothelial dysfunction. The result was a decrease in nitric oxide and an increase in peroxynitrite.

When vitamin D3 was introduced, this was significantly reversed. There was a 10 fold increase in nitric oxide and a 10 fold decrease in peroxynitrite.

This study suggests that by maintaining normal levels of vitamin D in your blood stream, you can help to maintain normal endothelial function. This helps your body to properly produce nitric oxide for improved blood flow.

And, normal levels of vitamin D help to prevent the destructive peroxynitrite, which can cause vascular inflammation that leads to arterial stiffness.

So the question becomes:

How much vitamin D to you need to take to see a benefit? Read More →

NO More Heart Disease Book Review

Posted by Dan Hammer //

02/08/2020

The book NO More Heart Disease by Nobel Laureate in Medicine Dr. Louis J. Ignarro was key to helping me understand the power and effectiveness of nitric oxide therapy.

Back in 2008 I first came upon this concept of using nitric oxide to improve blood flow.

While my background is exercise physiology, I had never heard of what has become know as “The Miracle Molecule.”

I had been told that nitric oxide would help me improve my workouts and athletic performance. At that time I still played competitive indoor soccer at the age of 55. He was in a men’s over 40 league. And when I consistently used ingredients that would help me optimize my nitric oxide production, what I experienced was greater endurance on the soccer court.

More importantly I didn’t have soreness the next day after a competitive match.

I then got my wife to address her high blood pressure with nitric oxide. Prior to taking ingredients that would help optimize this Miracle Molecule, her blood pressure averaged 160 over 90. Within one week her blood pressure lowered to 112 over 68 and has been at this level ever since.

My experience, and the experience of my wife, prompted me to learn about this remarkable molecule for vascular health.

Enter NO More Heart Disease

The book that was recommended to me (and I recommend it to you) was Dr. Ignarro’s book called NO More Heart Disease. It was originally published in 2005 but I feel it is still the best book written to date to help people understand how significant this molecule is to their health.

In fact, Dr. Ignarro makes no bones about it. He firmly believes nitric oxide is key to your health.

If you look at the cover of his book, then you will see the subtitle, which states: Read More →

Lower Blood Pressure The Number One Key

Posted by Dan Hammer //

02/01/2020

If you want to reduce your risk for strokes and heart attacks, then you need to lower blood pressure. There is one key to this process. Unfortunately it is seldom shared in any of the articles or videos you find on this topic.

This article with provide you with this key. In fact, this key centers on Nobel Prize winning information.

Now before I introduce this number one key I want to emphasis how it is left out in most discussion about blood pressure.

You can do your own Google search for the keyword phase “Effective ways to lower blood pressure” and you will see a boat load of articles all about this topic.

I’ve taken just two of these articles from two very respected sources. One is the Mayo Clinic and the title to their article is “10 Ways to Control High Blood Pressure Without Medication.” The other article is from Healthline and it’s titled “17 Effective Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure.”

You can click on the article titles above to link to these lists, but I’ve summarized them below. Not once is the key to addressing your blood pressure listed. I’ll share this key after the summary of their recommendations:

Lose weight if you’re overweight – Both sources agree

Exercise regularly – Both sources agree

Eat a healthy diet – Both sources agree but Healthline adds specific recommendations:

a. Cut back on sugar and refined carbohydrates

b. Eat more potassium and less sodium

c. Eat less processed food

d. Eat some dark chocolate

e. Eat garlic or take garlic extract supplements

f. Eat healthy high-protein foods

Limit the amount of alcohol you drink – Both sources agree

Quit smoking – Both sources agree

Cut back on caffeine – Both sources agree

Reduce your stress – Both sources agree

Monitor your blood pressure at home and see your doctor regularly – Mayo Clinic

Get support – Mayo Clinic

Make sure to get good, restful sleep – Healthline

Take these BP lowering supplements – See Healthline article for their list

Try these medicinal herbs – See Healthline article for their list

Try meditation or yoga – Healthline

Take prescription medications – Healthline

Now in the list above there is not one mention of the number one key to helping you bring your blood pressure back into the normal range. Although dark chocolate can help to produce this key. And one of the BP lowering supplements in the Healthline article also helps to create this key.

So what is this key ingredient?

It is NITRIC OXIDE!

Number One Key to Lower Blood Pressure – Nitric Oxide

The 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to 3 American researchers for discovering how the endothelium, which lines all of your vascular system, converts the amino acid L-arginine into Nitric Oxide, the master signaling molecule of your entire cardiovascular system.

Nitric oxide relaxes the smooth muscle of the vascular wall to vasodilate your system, This reduces resistance to blood flow and helps to naturally bring your blood pressure back into the normal range.

Rather than write about this process here is a video that will help you better understand how nitric oxide therapy can naturally address high blood pressure:

My recommendation to you, and anyone you know who has high blood pressure, is to consume foods and supplements designed to create nitric oxide. This “Miracle Molecule” is the number one key to improving your cardiovascular health.

Blessing Lives Through Nitric Oxide Therapy!

Dan

To Stent Or Not To Stent

Posted by Dan Hammer //

11/22/2019

To stent or not to stent has recently become public news with the release of the ISCHEMIA study. This study has create headlines like this one from The Washington Post:

“Stents and bypass surgery are no more effective than drugs for stable heart disease, highly anticipated trial results show”

or this headline from CBS News:

“Medication and lifestyle changes could be as effective as surgery for heart disease, trail finds”

This newly released trial was led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Stanford University. They looked at over 5,000 patients who had heart blockages but were stable. And what they found can be summarized as follows:

Placing a stent in a patient with stable blockages could improve a patient’s quality of life by reducing their symptoms like chest pain.
But when compared to taking medications or implementing lifestyle changes, stenting didn’t lower their risk of a heart attack or stroke.

Needless to say this study has caused a significant reaction in the medical community. According to Harvard Medical School “about 600,000 people in the United States undergo an angioplasty to widen a narrowed coronary artery, nearly always with a tiny wire mesh tube (stent) left inside the artery to keep it open.”

This is not an inexpensive procedure.

To Stent or Not To Stent – The Numbers

The average cost for this procedure (angioplasty with the placement of a stent) is around $29,000.

This means that this medical procedure is a 17.4 billion dollar industry. It’s a major income stream for both interventional cardiologist and hospitals.

In response to the release of this study Elliot Antman, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital made the following statement:

“The ISCHEMIA trial shows that an early invasive approach does not protect patients against death or the overall chance of a heart attack, but does effectively relieve chest pain – the more chest pain a patient has, the more likely they are to benefit.”

Now before we demonize interventional cardiologist and hospitals it’s important to note the following key words that apply to this trial:

“. . .who had heart blockages but were stable.”

Stable heart blockages is the key piece of information.

Going back to the Harvard Medical School they estimate that approximately “two-thirds of these procedures are done in people experiencing a potentially life-threatening event – a heart attack or unstable angina, defined as severe, worsening chest pain during exertion or stress, or chest pain that happens at rest.”

One-third of 600,000 is 198,000 people who might find other alternatives like medications and lifestyle changes to be as effective as stenting in keeping themselves alive. That could be a 5.7 billion dollar savings per year.

To Sent or Not To Sent – What is Stable Heart Blockages

Most vascular blockages are due to a process called atherosclerosis. This usually starts with very low density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) being oxidized by free radicals. This creates inflammation and damage to the endothelium resulting in plaque formation. Over time this plaque continues to grow, which narrows the inside of the artery.

There is usually a fibrous cap to this plaque. This fibrous cap provides structure to the plaque.

However, unstable plaque or vulnerable plaque has a thin fibrous cap usually formed from a collection of white blood cells and lipids like bad cholesterol. And if free radical damage is continuing to occur, then the resulting inflammation makes this cap even more vulnerable for a rupture.

This rupture can then form a blood clot, or release cellular debris, that can then lead to a blockage resulting in a heart attack or stroke. If you remember Tim Russert from Meet The Press, then his heart attack and death would be a good example of this process.

There are certain biomarkers that can help you and your physician determine the increased probability of plaque being unstable. They are:

c-Reactive Protein

Oxidized LDL

Both of these are due to inflammation. Oxidized LDL is usually due to free radical damage.

Which gives a strong clue to lifestyle changes that can address this. One lifestyle change would be to significantly increase your intake of fruits, vegetables, and herbal extracts that are powerful antioxidants.

As well as eliminating as many omega 6 fatty acids from your diet and replacing them with omega 3 fatty acids.

Sugar and highly processed foods also contribute to vascular inflammation.

These 3 lifestyle changes can significantly improve your health while reducing the potential for oxidized LDL and vascular inflammation. All of which can help to stabilize any plaque in the vascular system.

And as I’ve share multiple times in previous articles, nitric oxide therapy can help to vasodilate the vascular system for improved blood flow. This would then help those who are experiencing chest pain and angina.

Blessing Lives Through Nitric Oxide Therapy!

Dan Hammer

6 Key Ingredients That Optimize Nitric Oxide Production

Posted by Dan Hammer //

08/22/2019

There are 6 key ingredients that can help you optimize nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide is key to your vascular health as it helps you enjoy the following benefits:

Improved Blood Flow By Relaxing the Smooth Muscle of the Vascular Wall

Reduce Your Risk for Strokes and Heart Attacks by Keeping Blood Platelet Cells From Sticking Together

Helps to Initiate Repair Mechanisms to Heal Damage to Your Vascular System

All of these benefits are important to your cardiovascular health. Which means learning how to optimize nitric oxide production also helps you harness these benefits for improved health.

To help you learn which 6 ingredients are key to nitric oxide production, I’ve recorded a video that will walk you through this process. Enjoy!

And for those who prefer to read the information, I’ve summarized it below the video.

Endothelial Health Equals Cardiovascular Health!

Posted by Dan Hammer //

08/15/2019

When was the last time anyone ever asked you about your endothelial health?

NEVER!

It’s estimated that there are approximately 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the adult body. These blood vessels include arteries, veins, and capillaries. They’re all protected by a microscopic inner lining of endothelial cells. What is commonly called the endothelium.

It’s important to note that these cells line the entire circulatory system. From the inside of your heart all the way down to your smallest capillary. When added up, the volume of these endothelial cells would cover the surface area of 4 to 8 tennis courts depending upon the size of the individual.

That’s amazing since the endothelium is only one cell thick and can’t be seen by the human eye.

Once discovered, the endothelium was classified as an inert membrane whose primary function was to keep the blood in the circulatory system and out of the body’s tissues and organs.

Research over the last 25 years has shown that your endothelium is an active, multi-functional tissue that plays a vital role in metabolic, immunologic, and cardiovascular health.

Or is your endothelium an organ? Read More →

Health Benefits of Pomegranate

Posted by Dan Hammer //

04/15/2019

This article is going to give an overview of the health benefits of pomegranate. This amazing fruit is recognized in the Bible as one of the Blessings the Promised Land would provide for the Israeli people as they entered into this land. Here’s the Scriptural context:

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey.” Deuteronomy 8:7-8

As modern day science continues to study this fruit, their research is showing that the health benefits of pomegranate center on two primary health issues:

Cardiovascular Health
Cancer Prevention

Let’s look at each so that you can see why this amazing fruit should be part of your daily diet.

Health Benefits of Pomegranate – Cardiovascular Health

Your cardiovascular health centers on the function of a tissue that lines all of your cardiovascular system. That tissue is called the endothelium.

This is a one-cell thick layer that lines the inside of all of your blood vessels. Your capillaries are just extensions of this endothelium. In fact, it is the largest tissue in your body. Let me give you a point of reference:

If you took your endolhelium out of your body and laid it flat out, depending on the size of the adult individual, it would cover the surface area of 3 to 6 tennis courts.

And the healthier your endothelium, the healthier your capillary function for improved blood flow.

Damage to your endothelium increases your risk for all types of cardiovascular disease. There are 4 main factors that damage your endothelium:

High Blood Pressure
High Blood Sugar
LDL Cholesterol or more specifically oxidized LDL Cholesterol
Nicotine

The health benefits of pomegranate focus mainly on preventing oxidized LDL cholesterol, reversing plaque formations that result from oxidized LDL, and enhancing the ability of the eNOS enzymes of the endothelium to produce higher levels of nitric oxide to dilate your blood vessels for improved blood flow.

Most statin drugs work to lower cholesterol and do a good job in accomplishing this objective. The problem is they do not work effectively in reducing the cause of plaque, which is oxidized LDL cholesterol. Oxidized LDL cholesterol creates inflammation that then leads to the formation of plaque. As this plaque grows over time, the inside of your vascular system narrows.

This narrowing then increases your risk for a stroke or heart attack.

Your body has natural mechanism to protect you from this sequence. And this is where the health benefits of pomegranate extract show up:

Protect LDL molecules from being oxidized
Moderate the effects of inflammatory white blood cells and their role in plaque formation
Boost your natural antioxidant systems to protect your endothelium from free radical damage
Initiate vascular repair systems to help remove oxidized LDL from your arterial walls
Enhance eNOS enzymes for greater production of nitric oxide

Additionally, a 2014 study showed that the combination of pomegranate extract with the cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin significantly lowered both oxidized LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

For more details on the health benefits of pomegranate on cardiovascular health please click here.

Health Benefits of Pomegranate – Cancer Prevention

New studies are expanding the health benefits of pomegranate to cancer prevention. Pomegranate contains these key compounds:

Punicalagin
Luteolin
Ellagitannins
Polyphenols

These compounds help to initiate multiple pathways in cancer prevention. Primarily because they inhibit inflammation. But it goes beyond this.

Research in the health benefits of pomegranate, as it applies to cancer cells, has shown the following:

Block cell cycle – pomegranate can help to shut off the cancer cell’s ability to divide by targeting specific cancer genes needed for cell replication. But doesn’t effect healthy cells.

Induce cell death – compounds in pomegranate directly cause programmed death of cancer cells.

Blocks blood vessel formation that feed cancer cells – blood vessels are needed to support cancer growth in tumors. Pomegranate selectively blocks the needed growth factors to help limit the formation of new blood vessels in a tumor.

Preventing the spread of cancer – pomegranate helps to inhibit multiple factors, which then helps to prevent the spread of cancer to other parts of the body.

Two specific cancers that have promising studies in helping to prevent them and their spread are prostate and breast cancer.

And there are ongoing studies on how pomegranate can help in the prevention of leukemia, bladder, brain, cervix, colon, liver, lung, skin, and thyroid cancers.

Plus, there are additional studies that show pomegranate aiding conventional cancer treatments like chemotherapy. These ongoing studies seem to indicate that pomegranate enhances the cancer-killing effect of the drug while helping to protect normal cells.

For more details on the health benefits of pomegranate on cancer prevention please click here.

Personally, I’ve been using pomegranate fruit extract for over 10 years. I use it to help me enjoy the benefits as it applies to cardiovascular health. It’s good to know that it’s also helping me with cancer prevention.

Blessing Lives Through Nitric Oxide Therapy!

Dan Hammer