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Why is Nitric Oxide Important?

nitric oxide
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Why is Nitric Oxide Important?

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Nitric oxide is a common air pollutant released by automobile exhaust and other sources (it’s also the explosive chemical in dynamite). Ironically, nitric oxide is also the gas released in your body as a cellular signaling molecule to help promote healthy blood vessel flexibility and dilation — a discovery that earned three scientists the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine. The use of a gas, in this case nitric oxide, for signaling between cells in your body, was an entirely new concept until just over a decade ago, but now it’s known that nitric oxide: • Enhances your blood flow when produced by blood vessel cells • Helps support healthy blood pressure levels that are already within the normal range • Is used as a signal molecule in your brain and immune system Vasodilating (vessel widening) compounds also release nitric oxide to help relax muscle cells in your veins, and endothelial cells lining your blood vessels produce this gas to help support healthy blood flow.

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