Nitric Oxide / L-Arginine supplements

T

tganani

New Member
Hello distinguished experts,

I've been having a hard time finding reliable research on the effectiveness of NO/L-Arginine supplements in promoting muscle growth. How much backing is there for advertised claims of "perpetual pumps" and anabolic properties? Any particular products that are more effective than others? Are they worth the high cost?

Thanks in advance,

- tal
 
L-arginine Search results for L-Arginine, nothing specifically related to muscles that I can see.
Nitric Oxide Search results for Nitric Oxide. There are clustered results under "smooth, muscle" and "mediated vasodilation," which I guess would indicate that there's research concerning the effect of NO on a person's vascular system. I haven't read the abstracts myself, don't have the time right now.
For anyone who likes those search results, use www.vivisimo.com as your search engine, and you can run the search through PubMed for whatever you want, or do the whole web as well. The tool bar is very useful too, and free.
 
Dear tganani,

The short of it is, the NO/L-arginine supplements are a load of nonsense. Interestingly, AKG and even, OKG were once touted as GH releasers sometime in the late 80s to early 90s. Now, AKG is making a comeback but for a different reason...

As for NO, if you really want something that has anything to do with NO, there are several prescription drugs for angina that do work in vasodilation. Even a glass of red wine can cause vasodilation...

A recent paper had indicated that short-term use of NO donators led to cartilage catabolism. Imagine long term use by cardiac patients... will find the title of that paper. It's sitting on the desk at work - just got it yesterday ;)

In short, NO supplements just do not work - they don't survive first past digestion. The NO medications that work has been shown to be deleterious to one's articular cartilage. AKG also is a scam.

In fact, I find that the best thing for a good pump is to have sufficient carbs. When carb depleted, I can't get a burn, I can't get a pump, and this is most frustrating but easily remedied by having 50gm or so of carbs the night before my workout.

Godspeed, and happy HSTing :)
 
You're most welcome :)

Cake MA, Appleyard RC, Read RA, Ghosh P, Swain MV, Murrell GC.
Topical administration of the nitric oxide donor glyceryl trinitrate modifies the structural and biomechanical properties of ovine articular cartilage.

Division of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Murdoch University, WA, Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of topical administration of glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), an exogenous nitric oxide (NO) donor, on the structural and biomechanical properties of uncalcified articular cartilage (UCC) in aged ewes. DESIGN: Twelve ewes were used for this study. Six of these were treated with 2% GTN ointment (0.7 mg/kg) twice per week (GTN), and the remaining six were used as normal controls (NOC). After sacrifice at 26 weeks, dynamic biomechanical indentation testing and thickness determination (by needle penetration) were performed on tibial plateau articular cartilage at 18 locations. Using histological sections prepared from the lateral and medial femoral condyles (LFC, MFC) and tibial plateau (LTP, MTP), the thickness of UCC, cartilage proteoglycan content (intensity of toluidine blue staining; LFC, MFC only), and collagen birefringence (LTP, MTP, LFC only) were quantified by computer-assisted image analysis. RESULTS: Phase lag of tibial plateau cartilage was reduced in GTN sheep relative to NOC (mean of all testing locations 11.0+/-1.9 degrees vs 12.1+/-2.3 degrees; P=0.0001). GTN treatment also globally reduced UCC thickness across the joint (ANOVA for all measured zones, P<0.0001). UCC thinning was most pronounced in the MFC (P=0.025) and LTP (P=0.0002). Proteoglycan content was reduced in the MFC(P=0.019), while collagen birefringence was increased in superficial cartilage zones of the LTP. CONCLUSIONS: NO donation via topical administration of GTN to normal ewes reduced the thickness and phase lag of femoro-tibial articular cartilage, suggesting a disturbance in chondrocyte metabolism. Regional alterations of collagen organisation and proteoglycan content were consistent with this interpretation.

Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2003 Dec; 11(12): 872-8.
PMID: 14629963 [PubMed - in process]

This is the paper that I was talking about. It basically reports that short term use of a nitric oxide donor commonly prescribed for angina confers atrophic effects to cartilage. I can't imagine long term use by cardiac patients - how would their cartilage be? And if the NO-type supplements on the market actually work, will they not have the same effect on cartilage simply because they, like such angina medication, also are nitric oxide donors?

Godspeed, and happy HSTing :)
 
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