Claudia von Boeselager [00:00:50]:
My guest today is Dr. Nathan Bryan, a world renowned expert in nitric oxide biochemistry and physiology. A molecule so powerful it's been called the miracle molecule for its role in cardiovascular health, metabolism, longevity and even brain function. With over two decades of pioneering research, hundreds of peer reviewed publications and multiple patterns to his name, Dr. Brian has been at the forefront of discovering how nitric oxide impacts everything from energy production to disease prevention to peak performance. As the founder and CEO of Brian Therapeutics, N101 and Brian Nitraceuticals, he's bringing science to the real world. Today we'll discuss the future of cardiovascular health, the longevity boosting effects of nitric oxide, and why so many of us are unknowingly walking around with a dangerous nitric oxide deficiency. If you're looking to improve your energy, optimize your metabolism, enhance your performance and even slow aging, this episode is a must.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:01:54]:
Listen, please enjoy. Welcome to the Longevity and Lifestyle podcast. Nathan, it's such a pleasure to have you with us today.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:02:01]:
Claudia, thank you so much. Great to be with you.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:02:04]:
Before we dive into all things nitric oxide, I understand you own an 800 acre working cattle ranch. Nathan, can you perhaps share a little bit about this? Was it a childhood dream or did you grow up there? It makes me think of Billy Crystal's City Slickers movie.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:02:21]:
You know, that's a great movie. Now I grew up in small town Texas and you know, I grew up riding horses and around cattle and so it's been part of my life for really all my life. And then you know, when I moved back from Boston, I, I trained in Boston and then when I moved back to Texas, an opportunity arose where land became for sale. So I just started buying up. You know, first I think it was 2 or 300 acres and then new plots begin to real. So now I've yeah, I got roughly 800 acres and run a couple hundred head of cattle and you know, it's a full time, it's a full time job. So I've got a staff that obviously helps me because I travel a lot. But now for me there's no other way of life.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:03:03]:
I mean because we, we grow our own vegetables, we raise our own beef and you know, I'm just extremely blessed and fortunate to be able to live that lifestyle and also provide my kids with that environment too. So we're isolated, you know, pretty self sufficient, got well water, we've got the solar, we've got generators. So we're pretty much off grid.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:03:25]:
That's amazing. What a beautiful contrast to sort of the normal running around craziness of the day to day work and then being able to step outside and being so close to nature as well. I'm very envious. So well done Nathan, for creating something beautiful. Amazing. Let's dive into nitric oxide. And you've called nitric oxide the miracle molecule for health. Can you explain why?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:03:52]:
Yeah, well, you know, probably 30 years ago it was called a miracle molecule, but today it's not. It does miraculous things, but we don't consider it a miracle because miracle implies that you can't explain what it does. Or miracle is something that you observe that can't be explained by conventional science. But you know, the nitric oxide field has been so prolific over the past 30 years, really there's now over 200,000 papers published in the, the medical and scientific literature. So nitric oxide does a lot of what would seem miraculous things, but we can explain it scientifically. We know how nitric oxide is produced, we know how it signals, we know where it goes, what it becomes and what it does. So really, at the end of the day, it's a signaling molecule. But it's primarily recognized as its role as a vasodilator, meaning that when it's produced, it dilates the blood vessels throughout the body and improves oxygen delivery, nutrient delivery, tissue oxygenation.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:04:48]:
But that's just a part of its rich signaling characteristics. But it mobilizes our own stem cells. It's the signal that tells our own stem cells to mobilize and differentiate. It prevents the ends of the chromosomes, the telomeres, from getting shorter. It signals the mitochondria to produce more energy, more efficiently with less oxygen. So everything we know about health and longevity is dependent upon the body's ability to produce Nitric oxide. So when you understand that, and then you understand a loss of nitric oxide leads to high blood pressure, sexual dysfunction, increased aging, poor energy production, poor wound repair and injury, recover from injury and shorter lifespan. Now it becomes so important and obvious that we have to focus on nitric oxide if we want to live a long, healthy life.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:05:39]:
I'm really excited to dive in because it wasn't completely on my radar. And obviously I have the pleasure of speaking to amazing pioneers like yourself, but all across the longevity spectrum. So you can imagine it's quite a, quite a breadth as well. And so I love, you know, diving deep into something that is so fundamentally important. And I wonder why do you think, obviously I know you're in the world of nitric oxide and you probably think everyone knows the nitric oxide, but perhaps there's people listening that are like, what is nitric oxide? Why should I focus so singularly on this? And you know, what are my levels? How am I supposed to find out about this? Are they decreasing? So maybe you can take us a little bit on that journey of why people listening should really be focusing on this. I know you touched on a few points, but how can they test where they are and what is happening over time as we age to our nitric oxide levels?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:06:30]:
Well, you know, you hit a very good point. The people in the scientific community been aware of nitric oxide, you know, we have international nitric oxide meetings now for the past 25 years where we bring the world's experts together. But you know, I taught in medical school for a number of years and what I quickly realized that most people in the lay public and even patients seeing physicians don't understand what this molecule is. And so really my, my objective was to bring about this global awareness. And you know, I've published over 100 peer reviewed papers in the scientific literature, I've edited and written books. But you know, no one understands what this is in the general public. And so that's why I think these conversations we're having today are so important. But now here's what the science tells us is that when you lose the ability to produce nitric oxide, that's now recognized as the earliest event in the onset and progression of chronic disease.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:07:21]:
Things like cardiovascular disease, which remains the number one killer of men and women worldwide. It's the root cause of what we call erectile dysfunction or sexual dysfunction in both men and women. Loss of nitric oxide is what leads to the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's. Nitric oxide deficiency is a symptom of our diabetes is a symptom of nitric oxide deficiency. Because we published in 2011 that nitric oxide is required for insulin to do its job and for to clear glucose from the circulation. So to answer your question, there's really. And the challenge has been how do you know if you're nitric oxide deficient? Yeah, if you go to your, your doctor, your primary care physician or healthcare practitioner, it's not like vitamin D or triglycerides or these other kind of markers you can get from drawing blood, because perhaps I failed to mention, but nitric oxide is a gas and when it's produced inside the lining of the blood vessels are in a cell, it's gone in less than a second. So it's not a number that we can pull from your blood and say, oh, well, your nitric oxide levels is this, it needs to be this.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:08:28]:
I mean, we can do this through medical devices, functional instruments that give us a sense of what we call endothelial function and flow mediated dilatation. But really what we rely on are symptoms. Because once we understand what symptoms arise when you start to become compromised in ability to make nitric oxide, then we can determine what your nitric oxide levels are and what they should be. So we follow a hierarchy of symptoms. So if you become compromised in your ability to produce nitric oxide, usually. And again, this isn't kind of a global statement, but kind of on average, it's a safe bet. But if you develop erectile dysfunction, then that's a sign of nitric oxide deficiency. Because if you can't dilate the blood vessels of the sex organs because you can't make nitric oxide, then you don't get engorgement.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:09:17]:
And that's what's responsible for erections in both men and women, by the way. Then if your blood pressure starts to increase, then that's a sign of nitric oxide deficiency. Because think about this, and it's basically simple physics. We have a finite volume of blood that we're pumping through our entire vascular cardiovascular system. And if we can't make nitric oxide now, those blood vessels become chronically constricted. So now we're pumping the same volume of blood through a smaller volume and blood pressure goes up. And two out of three Americans have an unsafe elevation in blood pressure. And I think that's probably a global statistic.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:09:54]:
And it's not just the U.S. so that's number two. Number three, you start to develop metabolic disease, things like insulin resistance, because nitric oxide is part when insulin is secreted from the pancreas, it binds to the insulin receptors and then initiates a series of intracellular signaling cascades. And part of that is activation of nitric oxide inside the cell. And if we can't make nitric oxide, then glucose isn't cleared from the circulation, so we become resistant to the actions of insulin or insulin resistant. That's number three. Then four, you become exercise intolerant. If you can't, you know, do 20 or 30 minutes of exercise without getting short of breath and, you know, tightening in chest and angina, what we call exertional angina, then that's a symptom of nitric oxide deficiency.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:10:43]:
And then fifth is you start to develop brain fog and cognitive decline, because if you can't regulate blood flow to the brain, you can't recall memory. And again, this leads to insulin resistance. Get proteins that misfold, and those are amyloid plaque and tau tangles, and that's what we call Alzheimer's. So that's just a symptom of nitric oxide deficiency. So really, all of the poorly managed chronic health conditions that at least the US doesn't do a good job in treating can all be traced back to a lack of nitric oxide production. So if we can focus on restoration of nitric oxide, we can ameliorate or mitigate a lot of these symptoms and disease processes.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:11:26]:
Yeah, because it's really sounding like such a fundamental piece across the whole system. Right. The whole human functioning system that have so many cascading effects across the board. So thank you so much for elaborating on that, because many people focus on the farther down the road. My mother, unfortunately, suffers dementia, but now we know It's a type 3 diabetes. There's a huge metabolic health role, even gut health role, that goes in there as well. But going back also to the ability of nitric oxide to support a healthy cellular function. You mentioned before, it's hard to test for it.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:12:00]:
So help. Help us understand. Help listeners understand. You know, let's say we're talking about someone who's 30 years old or 40 years old or 50, right. Like, what should they be paying attention to? I know you mentioned some of the symptoms, but maybe some women are saying, oh, I don't know, is that, you know, hormonal? I'm, you know, haven't started HRT yet. How do I know where to start? Or is there a protocol that I can already follow that will ensure my nitric oxide levels remain at the right level, whatever that is. Or is there a right level? I guess, is Another question for you too.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:12:33]:
Now there is a right level. We know how much nitric oxide you're supposed to make and we've done this through radio labeled isotope experiments. Figure out, you know, how much nitric oxide is produced in the lining of the blood vessels per day. We understand now that there's a dietary influence on the foods we eat, the presence of bacteria and the requirement for stomach acid production. So we've, we've quantified that so we know how much nitric oxide you're supposed to get in a day. And we can recapitulate that and give that back in the form of product technology now. But look, I think to answer your question, nitric oxide is foundational, but you know, it's not a panacea. It's not an end all, be all, cure all and it's not a silver bullet.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:13:15]:
It's not going to fix, you know, hormone disorders. If you have hypothyroidism, nitric oxide giving nitric oxide is not going to correct that. But what we're finding is that if you, if you start with nitric oxide and then you start to, you know, interrogate the system in personalized medicine and figure out what else may be going on and address those, then that's the best protocol. And the other thing is we find, okay, if you, if you focus on thyroid or HRT and women or men, but you don't first fix the nitric oxide, then all those therapeutic interventions aren't going to have the designed effect. Because again, if you have poor circulation and let's just say reduce blood flow to the thyroid gland or to the hypothalamus or to any endocrine organ, then you're not able to sense that, you're not able to respond to it. So we first have to dilate the blood vessels, improve tissue oxygenation, so now that those target cells can actually function. So focus on nitric oxide first and then start to do everything else. Because if you have endothelial dysfunction and your cells can't make nitric oxide and you do hormone replacement therapy, part of the benefits of HRT and even, you know, regular hormone signaling, whether it's estrogen in women or testosterone in men, it's, it activates and stimulates nitric oxide production and that explains the cardio protective benefits of, you know, premenopausal women who make sufficient estrogen or correcting and mitigating the increased risk of cardiovascular disease and hrt, we have to, you know, focus on restoring the function of the enzyme that makes nitric oxide.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:14:52]:
So now we can activate and stimulate it with estrogen or testosterone and you can focus on that. But yeah, it's not going to replace magnesium deficiency or iodine deficiency or any other micronutrient deficiency. Focus on nitric oxide, do additional testing and then figure out what you, the n equal 1 is deficient in or toxins you may be exposed to and address that.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:15:16]:
Yeah, I think that's very, very helpful to understand. So it's that foundation that you can restore essentially and then on top of it, any of the specialized issues that you are having, then you go and correct that as well. But if you don't fix the foundation, there's no point painting the house if the, if the foundation is falling apart. It sounds like, but super helpful, thank you for explaining it that way. Let's touch on a little bit more in depth heart disease. And we know it's, as you mentioned, the number one killer worldwide. What do most doctors and even cardiologists get wrong about nitric oxide's role in preventing heart disease and what should they be really focusing on instead?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:15:53]:
Well, I'm not sure they get it wrong. It's just ignorance. You know, most cardiologists aren't aware of nitric oxide or even, you know, consider nitric oxide as a part of their patient's underlying problem and diagnoses and disease. And because there's no FDA approved drugs on the market, then it's not part of their therapeutic armament. You know, that's what we're hoping to change because the problem in diagnostics or early diagnostics in heart disease or cardiovascular disease is we certainly have devices and non invasive and even invasive diagnostics. The problem is it's not always predictive and the value is prognostics and predicting disease progression and even diagnostics too. So the problem, and Again, these are US statistics, but 50% of the people who die from sudden cardiac death from an acute MI have less than 50% obstruction in the coronary arteries. When you hear this all the time, you go to your cardiologist as a preventive measure and they do exercise stress tests, they do diagnostic angiograms where they look at the patency of the coronary arteries to see if there's any obstruction.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:17:03]:
Yet we see in a lot of these less than 10, 20% occlusion of the coronary arteries. But the problem is that plaque, that underlying plaque is vulnerable and soft. So then that plaque ruptures and it causes sudden cardiac death or acute mi. And then you have other people who go in for, you know, a coronary angiogram. And they have 60, 70% occlusion of the coronary arteries, but yet they don't exhibit any symptoms because it's stable plaque. I mean, yeah, there's, there's an obstruction and a little bit of blockage going through the coronary arteries, but it's completely asymptomatic. And the risk of those patients having an acute MI or a thrombosis or an embolus is really pretty low. Just looking at the kind of the physical characteristics of the coronary arteries really provides no prognostic value.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:17:53]:
But what you have to look at is the vascular reactivity. Are these blood vessels still reactive to stimulus where they can dilate in response to increase in sheer stress upon exercise? So what we have to focus on is because, again, looking back, what starts the development of atherosclerosis and it's when we lose the ability to produce nitric oxide in the lining of the blood vessel, then you start to get plaque deposition, you get what we call smooth muscle hyperplasia, you get the plaque development. Then over time, that plaque becomes unstable, it ruptures, and that's. That explains the number one killer of men and women worldwide. But now, going back, we understand if we can prevent the vascular loss of nitric oxide production, you don't get the plaque deposition, you don't get unstable plaque, and you don't have a heart attack or stroke. So again, everything traces back to the production of nitric oxide. And so when we lose the ability to produce nitric oxide, that sets the stage right. But the functional loss of nitric oxide precedes these structural changes that you see in coronary angiograms or through ultrasound on the crowded by many years, sometimes a decade or more.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:19:05]:
So if you have an increase in your media thickness, your intima, then that tells us you've been deficient of nitric oxide for many, many years. So that's what we have to focus on. And again, there's no blood markers. We see an increase in things like myeloperoxidase and unstable plaque. You can see an increase in C. Reactive protein, this acute phase marker of nitric oxide production. And so nitric oxide has been shown. In fact, some of my patents are on a method of reducing inflammation.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:19:32]:
And we can lower C reactive protein by 37% in 30 days just by restoring nitric oxide. So again, you have to look at the entire clinical picture and don't rely on a single marker or diagnostic because really, it's the whole picture that matters.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:19:50]:
What would be some questions you would recommend people listening who potentially have family history of heart disease or potentially feel that they could be on that path? What are the questions they could ask their healthcare physician or professional around nitric oxide, knowing that potentially the person sitting across from them might not be that familiar. So what would be that conversation you would encourage them to have?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:20:15]:
Well, I think you have to do meaningful testing and really the only meaningful test that we have, a sense of nitric oxide production, is an old technique. It's called venous occlusion plethorasography. And so in these devices you can actually occlude blood flow into the brachial artery. So it's done with the blood pressure cuff. And then you occlude the blood vessel in the brachial artery for 5 minutes so your hands will get a little bit tingly because there's no blood flow. And then when you release that cuff, the normal physiological response would be to dilate those blood vessels really quick because to increase oxygen and blood supply to that part of the body that's been deficient in blood supply for the previous five minutes. So if those blood vessels can make nitric oxide, you get a rapid vasodilation. If those blood vessels don't make nitric oxide, then there's no resultant hyperemia or flow mediated dilatation.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:21:08]:
And that's diagnostic for nitric oxide deficiency. Now there's some new, newer age technologies. It's non occlusive or non ischemic pleposography where you can look at the structure and function of kind of what we call secondary arterioles and small blood vessels and how well they perform and how stiff those blood vessels are. So there's non ischemic one is called the CV profiler. There's a number of these devices now, but you have to look at functional measurements because a biomarker in the blood, a stable biomarker in the blood, really doesn't tell us anything about the function of the blood vessels. And it's the function of the blood vessels that matters most. But you can do this. And I, you know, I always encourage people to go and do an exercise stress test.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:21:55]:
If you feel you have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, whether they're symptomatic or asymptomatic, go and have them hook you up to an ekg, put you on a treadmill, increase the workload and see if you start to see changes in electrical activity, because that's a functional test. If you can't dilate, if you cannot Dilate the coronary arteries in response to increased workload, then that, and you start to get shortness of breath, chest tightening and you start to see changes in your ekg, then you have ischemic heart disease. And don't, don't let them give you the chemical based or the stress test because again, it's not, we have to look at function, functional load and the ability to dilate the coronary arteries. Or if you get, you know, just walking up a fight of steps, then you don't need, you don't need to go to a doctor or cardiologist. If you get tightness in chest or shortness of breath walking up a flight of steps, then that's cause for concern. And then really the canary in the coal mine is ed. If you can't dilate the blood vessels when you're becoming intimate and you're stimulated sexually, then that tells us you have endothelial dysfunction. And if you have endothelial dysfunction in the vascular bed of the sex organs, you have that same dysfunction.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:23:06]:
And the blood vessels of the heart, the brain, the kidney, the liver, it's a systemic disease. So ED is the canary in the coal mine.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:23:15]:
So for people listening that it's something to really get on quickly before it becomes a major issue, I guess as well. And so to have those educated conversations to point to people like Dr. Nathan as well for resources that their physician could also hopefully take the time to understand a bit better as well and to, to better help them. So thank you for sharing that. Let's have a look at nitric oxide, longevity and anti aging. So merging research suggests nitric oxide can enhance neuroplasticity, which I think is really fascinating, improve synaptic function and even slow cognitive decline. How do you see this translating into real world longevity applications?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:23:57]:
Well, I think it's, it's certainly the anti aging molecule, the longevity molecule. And I think the future of medicine is going to be dependent upon nitric oxide based therapies and nitric oxide product technology. And I call this the unified theory of aging, of the unified molecule of aging many years ago. Because if you look at the objective measures of longevity, there's really three main functions or three main kind of endpoints. We look at it's telomere lengths. So telomeres are the ends of the chromosomes that can become shorter with each cellular division. And it's very clear that the shorter the telomeres, the shorter the lifespan. Longer telomeres, longer lifespan.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:24:38]:
And nitric oxide is what activates an enzyme called telomerase that prevents the telomeres from getting shorter.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:24:45]:
They're like the caps on the end.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:24:46]:
Of the caps on the end. So it's kind of like the, the end of a shoestring. Right. They're the caps and you know, prevents the fraying, takes it.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:24:55]:
Exactly. Good analogy.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:24:58]:
If we can't make nitric oxide, we don't get telomerase activation. Our telomeres get shorter, we have shorter lifespan. That's absolutely essential. Nobel prize was awarded for this years ago. Then the other thing that I mentioned earlier was stem cells. Nitric oxide is the signal that tells our own stem cells to mobilize and differentiate. Aging is just the inability to repair and replace cells that function properly. If we can't make nitric oxide, we don't get mobilization of stem cells.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:25:25]:
We get senescent cells or zombie cells that aren't replaced and they become dysfunctional and we get end organ disease and we eventually die from them. Nitric oxide again tells our stem cells to mobilize, differentiate and repair and replace dysfunctional cells. Then number three is mitochondrial function. Every age related chronic disease is associated with lower numbers of mitochondria per cell, less efficient ATP production in those mitochondria. Nitric oxide is what induces mitochondrial biogenesis and improves the efficiency of energy utilization by the mitochondria. So if you can't make nitric oxide to get shorter telomeres, you don't get stem cell mobilization and you become energy inefficient. And to the contrary, if we can restore and reproduce nitric oxide, you get more mitochondria, more efficient energy production, more stem cells in circulation and longer telomeres. And that's the basis for longevity.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:26:26]:
So it's absolutely foundational and essential if you want to live a long healthy life free of disease.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:26:32]:
It's the foundational stone there. I had timeline, I don't know on recently discussing urolithin A's role in mitophagy or the autophagy of mitochondria. What is the correlation with I guess urolith and a nitric oxide or how's that been looked at? Urlithin A, nitric oxide and the mitophagy which is such a key component, right. To remove the senescent cells, the senescent mitochondria. Have you seen any research on that?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:26:59]:
Not directly related to your lithium A and nitric oxide. But again it's a process and it's part of cell signaling in the body. Because you know, if we, if we take up and, and kind of Self eat autophagy and mitophagy, the mitochondria, but we don't have the ability to induce more mitochondria that work efficiently, then it's really no means to an end. Right? So everything is working in synergy. And we have to be able to control intracellular signaling. You know, that's why the integrity of the cell membrane becomes so important. Because the cell, the single kind of function of life, has to be able to sense its outside environment, sense that and signal intracellularly to turn on certain things or turn off certain things. And without the integrity of the cell membrane, then we lose that signaling aspect.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:27:52]:
And that's why, you know, it's very dangerous to get your cholesterol below 200 because that affects the integrity of the cell membrane. That's why seed oils are so damaging, because they again disrupt the membrane fluidity and disrupt that intracellular signaling. So all of these kind of signals, whether it's urolithin A, whether it's insulin, whether it's, you know, other agonists, have to be able to transduce through that seven transmembrane signaling protein and then initiate intracellular signaling and cascades to induce mitochondrial genesis. Turn on longevity genes, slow down inflammation. But yeah, everything eventually is connected because it's a series of cell signaling and signal transduction that's dependent upon many, many things. Nitric oxide is just one of them. In fact, it just happens to be, in my opinion, one of the most.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:28:44]:
Important, as we mentioned before, that aging is often defined as the gradual decline of nitric oxide production. And what's the secret to maintaining nitric oxide levels as we age? Are there any non obvious habits or micro optimizations people could implement daily to sustain high nitric oxide production? Like what are some things that you do, for example?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:29:07]:
Sure. Well, you know, now that we understand how the human body makes nitric oxide, because you can't start to inform on therapies or strategies if you don't know all the ways the body makes nitric oxide. And we know what goes wrong in people that can't make it. So it's really two simple philosophies. Stop doing the things that disrupt nitric oxide production and then start doing the things that we've proven clinically to promote and sustain nitric oxide production. So we'll go through this one by one because these are very important. So number one is you have to get rid of sugar in your diet because sugar is sticky. And the analogy I like to make is if you have a soda or Orange juice or some sugary beverage, and you spill it on your countertop, you come back the next day, it's sticky, right? You can feel it.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:29:58]:
Yeah.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:29:59]:
That's what happens when we have elevation of sugar in. In our. In our body, it sticks. And glucose, which is the primary energy source or what most sugars, sucrose is metabolized to, or fructose, and we see an elevation in glucose. And glucose is, as the name implies, glue, glucose. So it glues things together, it makes proteins stick together, it makes platelets stick together. In biochemistry, enzymes have to undergo conformational changes so they can transfer electrons from one place to another. But if we have sugar stuck to it, it's locked, it's glued in a conformational state and it can't do its job.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:30:38]:
And that's sugar stuck to. Hemoglobin is what we measure in hemoglobin A1c. Hemoglobin is the archetypical protein, because to deliver oxygen, it has to go undergo a conformational change when it goes from the arteries to the veins. And if sugar is stuck to it, it can't deliver oxygen and it can't pick up CO2. So we become anoxic, we develop, you know, acidosis, and that's metabolic disease. So you have to eliminate sugar from your diet. Number two, you have to stop using mouthwash, you know, because we discovered, and others discovered, that there's bacteria that live in the mouth, on the crypts of the tongue that are responsible for the continuous production of nitric oxide. And if you kill these bacteria, you shut down nitric oxide production and we see an increase in blood pressure.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:31:27]:
So the antiseptic mouthwash, the chlorhexidine, the Listerine, the Scope, anything that's labeled as antiseptic, you must stop.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:31:34]:
Yeah. Just as a quick anecdote to that, we've had a biological dentist on as well. And I think it's so important for people to think everyone's focused on gut health, but actually, the gut begins in the mouth and it's like an atomic bomb for the mouth if you're using these Listerine products. So. Yeah, thank you for sharing. Sharing that. I just wanted to share a small anecdote.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:31:53]:
No, well, look, I mean, there's no physician in the world that would advise anybody to take an antibiotic every day for the rest of their life. Right. Because we know it. It destroys the gut microbiome and it causes systemic disease.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:32:09]:
Yeah.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:32:09]:
Because it's causing dysbiosis. So by the same argument, why would you Use an antiseptic, mouthwash, every day for the rest of your life. No one, including dentists who are up to speed with current science, would advise you to kill all the bacteria in your mouth every day, sometimes twice a day, for the rest of your life. Because here's what we know. If you do it, your blood pressure goes up. If you use mouthwash, you lose the protective benefits of exercise and it's causing systemic disease similar to the systemic effects of an antibiotic. So you have to get rid of mouthwash. We have to support the oral microbiome.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:32:45]:
We can't kill it. The other big problem, at least in the US, maybe in other countries too, is fluoride. You know, fluoride is a neurotoxin, it's a poison, it's an antiseptic, and it completely shuts down your thyroid function. You know, there was a paper published in the U.S. by the National Toxicology Program, the organization that's kind of tasked with figuring out what's the toxicity of certain environmental toxicants that we're exposed to. And fluoride has been shown to lower IQ in kids by sometimes seven points.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:33:20]:
It's wild.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:33:20]:
I heard they put fluoride in our drinking water. There's fluoride in our toothpaste. And if you look at it at the back, and you know, companies sell toothpaste all around the globe, but if you, if you use a fluorinated toothpaste, look at the back of your crest or Aquafresh or Colgate, and it'll say, only use a pea size toothpaste because that little pea sized bit of toothpaste contains about 5 milligrams, about 0.5 milligrams of fluoride. But most people put 10 times that, sometimes 20 times that. And now we're exposed to 5, 10 milligrams of fluoride. And this is a very small molecule. You don't have to swallow it for it to have toxic effects. It's, you know, molecular weight of, of 19, I believe.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:34:05]:
So it's absorbed immediately in the mucosa and it goes systemic. But if you look at the back of your toothpaste, it goes, if you swallow this, called poison control. And it gives you, at least in the US a poison control number. So they're putting poison in our toothpaste, they're putting poison in our water supply. And we wonder why we have a epidemic, a pandemic of hypothyroidism. While we have dysbiosis, while kids have learning disabilities, today, their IQ is lower than it was, you know, 70, 80 years ago before they started putting this poison in our drinking water.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:34:40]:
Yeah. Increased rates of ADHD, etc.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:34:43]:
Yeah, yeah. Fluoride in your toothpaste, antiseptics are really bad news. And then the other big contributor that leads to a nitric oxide deficiency are antacids. These, what we call proton pump inhibitors, the Prilosec, the Prevacid, the Nexiums, the omeprazoles of the world completely shut down nitric oxide production. And the consequences of that are now we're seeing a 40 increase in heart attack, stroke and Alzheimer's and people who have been on PPIs for three to five years. So these are very dangerous drugs. You know, the responsible thing to do was completely take these drugs off the market. Yeah.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:35:23]:
These are worse than the Vioxx and the Celebrex, the COX2 inhibitors from 25 years ago, causing increased heart attack, stroke. And these drugs were taken off the market for a period of time. Now, I believe they have a black box warning on them, but the same should be for proton pump inhibitors. And in fact, in the us, if you're admitted to the hospital, whether it's trauma, whether it's influenza, like illness, acute respiratory or heart attack, standard of care, no matter what you're in the hospital for, they give you omeprazole, an antacid. And yet in the us, we wonder why people that are in the hospital don't get better. You have to stay out of the hospital. This has to change the data. It's malpractice and it's negligence to continue to give patients these proton pump inhibitors.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:36:08]:
You know, it has to change 100%. And I didn't realize the statistic is so high. So 40% increase of heart attacks, et cetera.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:36:15]:
Yeah. This isn't risk. These are actual events. You know, that paper was published in 2015, I think in 2024. There was data now showing about a 40% increase in Alzheimer's. And they cause. Look at the package insert or listen to the commercials. There's already evidence that it causes kidney disease, kidney failure, they develop bone loss because without stomach acid, you can't absorb magnesium, you can't absorb calcium, you can't absorb iron, you can't absorb selenium, chromium, B vitamins, and now heart attack, stroke and Alzheimer's.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:36:51]:
What other evidence needs to be presented before the regulatory officials and even the companies that are making these do the responsible thing and eliminate them from our supply?

Claudia von Boeselager [00:37:02]:
Yeah. So here's to people listening. Hopefully someone can help to make a change. So just to recap, it was getting rid of the sugars, getting rid of the mouth wash, fluorides, not to drink the tap drinking water or use a very good filter. Careful with toothpaste, pea size or ideally there are toothpastes out there that don't actually. And antacids as well. Yeah. Just curious.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:37:26]:
I've had Dr. David Perlmutter on as well. We were talking about the difference between glucose, which I really like, it's like a glue, but that fructose can actually be more detrimental. Liquid fructose, that is from juices and things like that can be more detrimental than glucose would. Is in the case of nitric oxide, would you agree, or is it?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:37:43]:
No, absolutely. Look, David Perlmutter is a good friend and colleague and he's, you know, the world expert. In fact, he's part of our team to develop our Alzheimer's drug and get to the root cause of, of Alzheimer's. But yeah, fructose is a, is a toxin too. You know, through David's work we know that it leads to an increase in uric acid. And uric acid shuts down nitric oxide production. So there is a direct link between these. And so, you know, a good practice is just to eliminate certainly high fructose corn syrup is a toxin and that's rampant in the US And I think it's probably global now.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:38:19]:
But yeah, eliminate simple carbs, anything that causes an increase in blood glucose and eliminate soft drinks, sugar, sweetened vegetable or beverages and just exercise. So it's just really. And then if we move on to kind of now that we understand what, what you should stop doing, now you've released the brakes on the body's ability to naturally produce nitric oxide, then we can 20, 30 minutes of exercise a day or three to five minutes of high intensity interval training has been shown to improve and stimulate nitric oxide production. 20, 30 minutes of sunlight exposure a day. So if you're going to exercise, exercise in the morning, that first sunlight is very beneficial, then just throw in a few green leafy vegetables that are enriched in organic nitrate and support the microbiome so that these bacteria can convert that nitrate into, into usable forms of nitric oxide. And it's really that simple. I mean, but these are lifestyle changes. You know, most of the time it's cost savings.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:39:19]:
Right? Because if you're not using mouthwash, that's gonna, you're not gonna spend that money. Yeah, buy a fluoride free toothpaste, get off your antacid drugs that's cost savings and then you know, exercise is free, it's cheap, sunlight is free and cheap. So these are cost saving strategies.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:39:39]:
And with the green leafy vegetables, especially in the U.S. i'd say organic is very important. Avoid the glyphosate roundup that's in otherwise that. And what is your view actually with the organic? Because I've had different conversations about this. I obviously focus on buying organic as well. But speaking to people who work in farm areas and I know you have a cattle ranch, so not exactly the same, but they say yeah, but the, you know, the neighboring farm is spraying so the wind carries it over anyway. It doesn't make any sense. Is your view organic leafy vegetables are really genuinely going to be organic or it will depend the farm, the source and how well they protect it.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:40:18]:
Now look, the glyphosate kills all plants unless they're genetically modified organisms that become resistant to the glyphosate. So if you've got neighbors spraying an herbicide or pesticide, then you know those crops won't yield any, any fruit or vegetables because it'll kill them because they're not genetically modified to withstand that poison. But no, look, I think organic is good because you have to eliminate these toxins, the glyphosate, the herbicides, the pesticides that are sprayed on our food. And what you recognize is that if insects and rodents don't eat this food, then why would humans? And that's.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:40:59]:
All our animals. Exactly what are they doing?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:41:02]:
But here's the, here's kind of the caveat. Organic is good because you're not exposed to that. But what we found, and we've published this in 2015, is organically grown vegetables in the US have typically less nutrients, specifically less nitrate than conventionally grown vegetables. Because in order to get an organic label in the U.S. obviously no herbicides, no pesticides, which is good, but they put restrictions. You can add nitrogen based fertilizers to the soil now you can add manure, compost, things like that. But unless you standardize the nitrogen, you have no way of knowing what you're adding is going to repleting the soil with enough nitrogen to assimilate nitrate or assimilate other micronutrients. So what we do and we grow our own vegetables here, but I do soil samples.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:41:55]:
So I'll take, you know, soil samples all around my place and I send it to our local US Department of Agriculture and they'll do an analysis of what's in the soil, what's lacking in the soil so then we can develop a custom fertilizer that basically gives back what's missing in that soil. And every part of the country is different. I live in an area where there's what we call sandy loam. So the requirements for that are much different than people an hour north of me who have black land, really rich, fertile soil. And that's why I encourage people, you have to do soil samples and then replete what's missing from that soil in that particular environment so you can optimize the yield from your garden and your vegetables. But what I grow wouldn't be considered organic because I have to add fertilizer, nitrogen based fertilizers to the soil. But I certainly don't add the herbicides or pesticides to any of the food that me and my family are eating. So it's not considered organic but it's certainly pesticide herbicide, toxin free.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:42:58]:
Yeah. Thank you for differentiate that. I learned something new today. I love it. What should people look out for or avoid when choosing a nitric oxide product? So people wanting to supplement, what are things to look out for?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:43:14]:
Well, you know these nitric oxide supplements hit the market back in the late 90s, so Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of nitric oxide in 1998. And really that created kind of a spark in consumer products and when it was first discovered. So part of the body's ability to produce nitric oxide is dependent upon the enzyme nitric oxide synthase that converts L arginine into nitric oxide. So there's three types of nitric oxide products on the market. There's the arginine and some people are putting citrulline in products now. And I tell people those really provide no benefit. Because arginine is a semi essential amino acid. It's produced in every cell through the partial urea cycle.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:43:56]:
We get it from the breakdown of proteins, whether it's plant protein or animal protein. So we are never deficient in arginine, therefore we never need to supplement arginine. And so that's kind of basic biochemical principles. The other consideration and really a concern is that there's clinical data now showing that if you, if you've had a heart attack or if you've got peripheral vascular disease and you give arginine, it actually makes people worse. So the vintage trial in 2005 or 6 showed that if you give people who've just had a heart attack L arginine, it actually caused an increase in death in those patients.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:44:35]:
Wow.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:44:36]:
Post infarct mortality increased in Fact, the clinical trial was stopped halfway through because the steering committee deemed it unethical to give arginine because the placebo was actually performing better than the treatment group. The same thing with patients with peripheral arterial disease. Patients who got the L. Arginine actually got worse. Intermittent claudication got worse. Quality of life got worse. Just risk, benefit. There's no benefit.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:45:01]:
And there may be additional risks. You just eliminate it. Any product that contains arginine or citrulline is typically not necessary.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:45:11]:
No go.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:45:12]:
And then the other thing, in 2012, you know, beets became a hero vegetable. After the 2012 London Games, everybody was revealed that all these athletes were drinking liters of beet juice. And what we. And there was data showing that beetroot contains inorganic nitrate that produces nitric oxide if you have the right oral bacteria. And then the market's flooded with beetroot products, right? And I've tested these in my lab using analytical equipment, and we find that in about 95% of the beat, products that are on the market don't produce any nitric oxide. They provide zero nitric oxide benefit. In fact, there are some beet powders that we've used as placebos in clinical trials because they act as the perfect placebo, right? They're beets. They're desiccated beet powder, but they contain no nitrite.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:45:58]:
No nitrite. They don't promote nitric oxide. It's the perfect placebo. So beets typically, you know, again, provide no benefit. The other problem is that it's dependent upon the oral bacteria. So if you're taking beets using mouthwash or you're exposed to fluoride, nitrate is inert, right? We just. We sweat it out, we poop it out, and we pee it out. So those are kind of the two product categories to where really the majority of them provide no benefit.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:46:26]:
There are some on the market that. That do we make. We make a beet powder that's actually efficacious and promotes nitric oxide. And then the third are kind of what I termed nitraceuticals. So I trademarked the term called nitroceuticals, because nitric oxide is part of that core term. And what I was trying to do was when I started developing product technology, how does one know that this product actually produces nitric oxide? Because nutraceuticals, you know, there's thousands of products out there, and most of them, typically, in terms of the nitric oxide, don't do anything. So how do we differentiate that? So What I've done, because I know how the human body makes nitric oxide, I know what goes wrong and people that can't make it. Now we can start to develop rational therapies or product technology.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:47:12]:
So what we do is we produce nitric oxide. If your body can't make it, then we do it for you. And we do it because we're not dependent upon the bacteria, we're not dependent upon stomach acid. So if you take my products or nutraceuticals, then you know we're providing a source of nitric oxide. If even if your body can, and we understand the enzymology and biochemistry to where we can enhance your body's ability to make it on its own. But again, that requires you to get rid of fluoride, stop using mouthwash and wean off of your mouthwash. But the acute nitric oxide release from taking my products, it still works whether you're on antacids, whether you take fluoride or exposed to fluoride, or use an antiseptic mouthwash. And that's the difference.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:47:58]:
And so that's been my challenge over the past several years is how do you differentiate and educate and inform consumers to where they know they can make informed, educated decisions on which products they're buying and which may provide benefit and which may be a placebo product.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:48:15]:
So very helpful to understand that. Is there the nutraceuticals, so the nitric oxide supplementation, the products that you have that have obviously lab tested, et cetera. Coming from one of our leading experts. Is there a certain protocol you recommend for people to take? Is it not for certain candidates? Maybe you can walk us through that a little bit to understand better.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:48:35]:
Yeah. So we make what's called an orally disintegrating tablet in ODT because you have to understand nitric oxide's a gas. You see, this isn't a pill you can swallow. We actually designed this to have a resident time of five to six minutes in the mouth. So you put the lozenge in your mouth. As it slowly dissolves, this matrix falls apart and we're producing nitric oxide gas. And then it's absorbed, it recouples the nitric oxide synthase. Because it's an oral product, it's restoring the oral microbiome which is responsible for the production of nitric oxide.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:49:06]:
So, yeah, it's made in a drug manufacturer here in the U.S. so we, you know, GMP manufacturing facilities, we go through the same rigor as prescription drugs or even, you know, drug drug manufacturing. But now I Tell people there's only two people in the world who need nitric oxide. The first group are the people who are well and don't want to get sick. And the second group is those who may be sick that want to get well. So if you fall in one of those two categories, you need nitric oxide. You know, I've been taking my nitric oxide product for years and I take it not because I need it, I take it because I don't want to lose my body's ability to make it. And I think that's the strategy and the paradigm change we have to undergo is because we have to be proactive instead of reactive.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:49:55]:
You know, medicine around the world, westernized medicine, is a reactive approach. And you can only go to your doctor if you get sick or have an issue and then they put you on medication. And it's a reactive approach. We have to be proactive and take steps to prevent this age related loss of nitric oxide production. So we don't get sick, so we don't get symptoms, so we don't get diabetes, Alzheimer's, heart attack, stroke. It's a completely different way of thinking, but it's an absolute must. Or else, you know, the healthcare system is going to bankrupt the entire world.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:50:25]:
The global economy and people's health are just going to continue to go down the drain as well.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:50:30]:
Yeah.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:50:30]:
So I mean, all about prevention, stepping in on time. Is there a certain. Is it's one lozenge you take each day. Is that, that what you do? And from the age of 40, 50, 30, is there any. I know that's. Have you done trials on that or is it just for everyone? And is there a risk of overdosing? Let's say someone produces high nitric oxide.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:50:51]:
Yeah, let's take the last question first. So there's a risk of overdosing dose dictates poison. I mean, we can overdose on water. Right. You see it on the news. People drink a lot of water over a short period of time. They get volume expansion, hypotonic lysis and it's deadly. It's no different with nitric oxide.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:51:08]:
But what we look for in signs of toxicity are an unsafe drop in blood pressure and what we call methemoglobinemia. So too much nitric oxide will oxidize the iron of hemoglobin and reduce the oxygen carrying capacity of the red cell. But when taken as instructed with our products, we've never seen that. But yeah, so kind of, again, broadly speaking, it's individualized. We're in this area of personalized medicine. But one lozenge, once, twice a day, 12 hours apart, is sufficient to maintain optimal nitric oxide. But, you know, everybody's different. And in 2011 we published a paper on a pediatric patient, a 15 year old kid, who had a rare genetic disorder that resistant hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease, and prescription medications were ineffective at lowering his blood pressure.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:51:57]:
So we dosed him with a lozenge I'd manufactured specifically for that kid. And he had to take one lozenge every four hours. And he had blood pre was in the intensive care unit, blood pressure of 210 over 115.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:52:10]:
Wow.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:52:11]:
And no prescription medication would lower his blood pressure. So we dosed him the lozenge and we found with him one lozenge every four hours was necessary to normalize blood pressure. And with that dosing, we certainly didn't see an unsafe drop in blood pressure. We saw a drop in blood pressure to safe levels, but we monitored for methemoglobin levels and there was no change in his met level. So at least we know in that population, 160 pound, 15 year old kid, one lozenge every four hours doesn't lead to any signs of toxicity. But again, so I think one lozenge a day, up to at most one every four hours is extremely safe. You know, we even had a drug trial during COVID where we were dosing a more potent lozenge in our drug trial, one twice a day and really high risk susceptible patients, 50 to 80 year old African Americans with underlying comorbidities. And even that dosing, one twice a day, a higher dose, there was no safety signal in over 100, over 500 patients that we treated during COVID Amazing.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:53:15]:
And I think for my audience, we'll link to the products as well if people are interested in upping their nitric oxide levels. Now that we know how important that is as well, Nathan, I'd love to touch on performance, metabolism and brain function as well. So we know athletes are using nitric oxide boosters to enhance endurance, muscle recovery and cognitive function. What's the biggest untapped potential of nitric oxide in the world of peak performance?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:53:41]:
Well, it defines peak performance because everything we know about performance, whether it's athletic performance, cognitive performance or sexual performance, it's all dependent upon adequate blood supply, which is a vasodilating, which nitric oxide does adequate oxygen delivery, which is what nitric oxide facilitates oxygen uptake and oxygen delivery, mitochondrial function, converting that oxygen into cellular energy. Nitric oxide does that improves oxygen efficiency by the mitochondria and induces mitochondrial biogenesis. And you got to get the fuel into the cell, you got to get glucose into the cell so you can utilize that through the Krebs cycle to make ATP. Nitric oxide does all of that. And without nitric oxide you don't get that signaling cascade and your performance becomes compromised. Your cognitive performance, your athletic performance, your sexual performance. So nitric oxide is the, probably the most, well not probably, I think is the most ergogenic aid performance that we know of. And without it you're just not going to perform.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:54:44]:
Do you have a memorable client story or athlete testimonial where nitric oxide made a life changing impact on performance or recovery that you could share?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:54:53]:
Yeah, for sure. Well, I mean the obvious One was that 15 year old kid that we, we saved his life with our, with our lozenge. But the other one was you know, NBA athletes, you know, had an association or relationship with the Miami Heat and Pat Raleigh and when they go to denver to altitude 5,000ft. So Miami obviously at sea level, they go to Denver, play the Denver Nuggets at 5,000ft. They fly in sometimes the morning of and you know, as revealed that they struggle, all teams struggle at altitude. So they started taking our nitric oxide product and found that they could actually improve their performance and perform better at altitude. And once that happened, you know many most professional teams, whether it's NFL, NBA use a nitro, a nitric oxide product because it's been shown to enhance their performance specifically at altitude.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:55:43]:
So all the climbers out there looking to summit Everest listen carefully as well. And what's one thing the average person does in their daily routine that silently destroys their ability to produce? Like what is the most typical thing you see? Is it the mouthwash? Is it the glucose? Is it the antacids or the sugar?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:56:02]:
I think if you had, if you had, if I had to pick one thing, it's, it's sugar, you know, sugar, high carbohydrate, high sugar causes an increase in blood sugar, become insulin resistant, it causes hyperinsulinemia. That's the inflammatory component of diabetes. It completely shuts down nitric oxide production. So I think it's, you know, in the U. S we're overfit and not only we're overfed, we're, we're over exposed to sugar, simple carbohydrates, high fructose corn syrup and it's destroying the underlying metabolism. You know, nine out of ten Americans are metabolically unfit. And now it's become a national Security issue, because we don't even have young boys healthy enough to serve in the military. I mean, it's, it has to change.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:56:45]:
And sugar's. Sugar's the enemy.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:56:47]:
Yeah. And ultra processed food with the seed oils and causing inflammation as well. What differences have you seen between men and women and how they respond to nitric oxide optimization, whether for metabolism or exercise or brain function, Are there differences?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:57:02]:
No, there are, there are clear sex differences. In fact, there's some labs in the UK specifically that are looking at the sex differences of nitric oxide production. And we can see this through observational data. You know, premenopausal women are protected from heart attack and stroke, more so than their age matched male counterparts. However, at menopause, their risk actually surpasses that of their age match male counterparts. So we're still trying to understand that. Obviously, there's a protective effect of estrogen on activation and stimulation of nitric oxide. If you perimenopausal, premenopausal, you don't have production of estrogen, you lose the stimulation of nitric oxide production.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:57:40]:
That may partly explain it. Obviously there are many other confounding factors, but no, you certainly see. So what we do in terms of nitric oxide restoration, there's not a sex difference because nitric oxide is really agnostic to sex, to race. You produce it, it does its job.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:57:56]:
We know that nitric oxide plays a role in metabolism. Could optimizing nitric oxide be the missing key for weight loss, do you think? Some people are struggling with weight loss because their nitric oxide levels are compromised. Maybe also insulin sensitivity, you touched on before, and overall metabolic health. So is this a key component? If someone is coming from the perspective of, I'm struggling to lose weight, you know what's happening, my energy levels are low. To also really focus on nitric oxide.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:58:23]:
Levels, I think in obesity and weight, in weight loss, it's what we call an epiphenomenon. It may not be directly causal for it, but it's certainly affected because, again, you know, if you're eating too much carbohydrates, you're not burning it, you're storing it as fat. The fat becomes inflammatory, inflammation shuts down nitric oxide production and then you get poor circulation. Increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, all cause mortality in the obese. So I think you have to take a step back. And these GLP1 agonists now are remarkable drugs at lowering or losing weight in morbidly obese people where diet and exercise have typically failed them. So I think it's what we call an epiphenomenon, but again goes back to the basic principles of nitric oxide's foundational. You have to focus on other things.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:59:11]:
The GLP1 agonists are helping that process. But unless you correct nitric oxide deficiency, you're not going to be metabolically as fit as you would be.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:59:21]:
And that's an interesting point with the GLP1s for people listening who might be taking an ozempic, mounjaro, whatever. Is it complementary then to also be upping their nitric oxide levels to support the whole system?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [00:59:33]:
Absolutely. It's an absolute must because we now know that there's symptoms of gastroparesis are or gut paralysis in that nitric oxide is what we call the non adrenergic, non cholinergic mediated, that enhances gut motility. So if you're on these GLP1 agonists, you must take our nitric oxide to prevent the gastroparesis. And now there's blindness associated with these. So you know, there's associated risk with everything. And so you just have to understand again the risk benefits and understand the risk to the extent that you can mitigate those risks and prevent bone loss, muscle loss. And if you're taking these, you must take an amino acid in the morning to prevent bone loss and muscle loss. Because it's not just the fat loss.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [01:00:11]:
You're losing protein and you're losing bone mass and muscle mass.

Claudia von Boeselager [01:00:16]:
As we finish up today, I'm aware of the time and I've still got so many questions, Nathan, so I'd love if we could do a round two at some point. But a dear friend of mine has Ms. And part of it, sometimes she loses her vision. I have another friend who has type 1 diabetes losing eyesight. So is nitric oxide something that should be taken by people with these diseases, including also the type 1 diabetes because of the risk of losing the eyesight?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [01:00:40]:
Well, I think it can certainly help. It's probably not causal for that there are other toxins exposed to that maybe cause symptoms of ms, neuromuscular symptoms, but you know, the eye has to have adequate blood supply. We know in glaucoma patients, age related macular degeneration, there's a vascular component to that that's, you know, the eye is not getting profused, so it can't perform. If we give nitric oxide, dilate the blood vessels, restore blood flow, reduce inflammation, then things seem to work better.

Claudia von Boeselager [01:01:06]:
Great. Nathan, if you are looking forward to the future, what's Your vision for the future of nitric oxides. Where would you, what would you love to see in the next two to five years in terms of awareness and use across the board, from practitioners to the population, in terms of knowledge, awareness and use of nitrogen nitric oxide supplementation.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [01:01:29]:
Well, that's a perfect segue to my shameless plug of my new book, the.

Claudia von Boeselager [01:01:32]:
Secret of Amazing Now.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [01:01:35]:
But the feature is dependent upon nitric oxide. You know, we've got active drug programs for my company, Brian Therapeutics, we're developing drugs for heart disease, Alzheimer's, topical drugs for diabetic ulcers. But nitric oxide is the future of medicine. The future of our entire mankind is dependent upon global awareness and safe and effective product technology. But, you know, in this book, I tell the story of nitric oxide, how it was discovered, what led to a Nobel Prize, kind of my personal journey of discovery. And really the last chapter is what's next, where I predict and look forward to the future. So I encourage everybody to read this book. This is really the story of nitric oxide.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [01:02:12]:
It's bringing the science to life. You can find it wherever books are sold. You can go to Nathan's book. Com, buy it at Barnes and Noble.

Claudia von Boeselager [01:02:20]:
Amazon, we'll link it all in the show. Notes for people listening and watching as well, which would be great. Nathan has been such an inspiring conversation. Thank you so much for taking on the nitric oxide journey. So fascinating. For listeners who want to dive deeper into nitric oxide, there's your book. Is there any other resources or where can they find what you're up to? Maybe websites?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [01:02:42]:
Yes, I have a dedicated YouTube channel where all we're focused on is educating and bringing awareness around nitric oxide. And that's Dr. Nathan S. Brian. Nitric Oxide. You can follow me on social media. Instagram, Dr. Nathan S.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [01:02:54]:
Brian. Same for LinkedIn. Twitter, I'm @Doctor Nitrick. What else? I'm searchable. You can put me in any search engine and you'll find me.

Claudia von Boeselager [01:03:03]:
You're findable. Nathan, do you have a final ask or recommendation or any parting thoughts or message from my audience today?

Dr. Nathan Bryan [01:03:11]:
Yeah, look, knowledge is power, but only if you implement it and act on it. And so I think, you know, we've had a, you know, a decade or a generation of ignorance on nitric oxide because it's still new in the medical literature. So my only recommendation was get as informed and educated on the real science of nitric oxide. And I think that's been my motivation, is to take the latest, greatest up to date. Science and kind of distill it down into something that's digestible for, you know, the layperson, the non scientist, non physician. But, you know, it's absolutely essential for optimal health and wellness. So digest all you can on nitric oxide and implement these really simple lifestyle strategies to prevent the decline in nitric oxide production.

Claudia von Boeselager [01:03:52]:
Beautiful. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on today. Thank you, dear audience, for tuning in. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you.

Dr. Nathan Bryan [01:03:59]:
Thank you.