Is nitric oxide good for men over 60?
Dr. Martin's answer is yes. Nitric oxide is the molecule that opens your blood vessels, and after 60 a man has less of it than he used to, so the blood supply to his heart, brain and the rest of his organs suffers.
He covered it when a listener asked about Navitol, the Martin Clinic pine bark formula, and his answer kept coming back to blood vessels.
What nitric oxide does
When he was in school in the 1970s, nobody had heard of nitric oxide. What doctors did know about was nitroglycerin. He remembers studying it, the same stuff as dynamite, and he remembers that even then a patient whose heart went into a spasm was given nitroglycerin under the tongue to bring them out of it. It worked because it opened the blood vessels.
What nobody knew was that the body makes its own version. That came out in the 1980s, and the discovery won a Nobel prize. He still finds it remarkable.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1674We didn't even know we made it. Fearfully and wonderfully made. Your body makes nitric oxide.
So the simplest way to think about nitric oxide is the way he puts it: open sesame. It opens the blood vessels so blood can get where it is going. If you want the safety side of the question, that is covered in is nitric oxide safe after 60.
Why it drops after 60
Here is the problem he wants men to understand. Your body makes nitric oxide, but it does not keep making it at the same rate forever. Age brings the level down, and with it the opening of your blood vessels.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1674As you get older, it goes down. Navitol pine bark extract opens your blood vessels because it elevates your nitric oxide.
That is the whole case in two sentences. Less nitric oxide means less blood supply. The blood vessels also take a beating from free radical damage, or oxidation, as the years go on, and he wants them protected as well as opened.
He cares about the small vessels as much as the big ones, including the tiny ones inside the brain. Our wider piece on how to improve circulation after 60 covers circulation more broadly.
The little blue pill connection
This is where men tend to sit up. He brought up the little blue pill himself, naming Cialis and the way it is advertised for erectile dysfunction, and asked what it actually does. His answer was short: it elevates your nitric oxide.
In other words, most men over 60 already know what nitric oxide does, even if they have never heard the name. The drug they advertise works, in his explanation, on that same pathway. His point is not really about the bedroom. His point is that nitric oxide is about blood flow, and a man over 60 already has a reason to care about it.
That is his description of how the drug works. He is not telling anyone to swap a prescription for a supplement, and if you take a medication for erectile dysfunction, blood pressure or your heart, talk to your doctor before you add anything.
"You could actually call pine bark extract, nitric oxide."
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1674Blood pressure, organs and the brain
Right after the little blue pill, he turned to everyone else in the audience, men and women, and made sure nobody heard nitric oxide as a men's only topic.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1674It's really important not only for your blood pressure in that, but it brings extra blood supply to your organs. It's so important. Nitric oxide.
Then there is the brain. He calls it headquarters, and he says it needs blood supply as much as any organ. Pine bark extract, in his explanation, crosses the blood brain barrier, protects the brain cells and the synapses, and protects the small blood vessels inside the brain. He found that brain fog got much better with Navitol, and he wrote about it.
He is open about why this matters to him personally. He sees an epidemic of Alzheimer's and dementia, and he does not want any part of it.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1674Boy, I want protection in my brain. You get to my age, you're really concerned about your brain.
He ties energy directly to that same blood supply, especially to the brain.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1674And when it crosses the blood-brain barrier guys and brings you more blood supply and elevates your nitric oxide, it's going to give you more energy.
How he raises it: pine bark extract
He has worked with pine bark extract for close to 40 years. The research on it began in the 1950s with a French researcher who studied the maritime pine, and Dr. Martin went to France to see the trees and the work for himself. He had already done some clinical work of his own with pine bark in chronic fatigue syndrome, and the French researchers explained to him why it worked so well.
He says it was big in Europe long before anyone here used it, and he has written about it in nearly every one of his books.
He sums up what it does in three points:
- A powerful antioxidant. He calls it probably the most powerful antioxidant ever discovered, and it crosses the blood brain barrier.
- It elevates nitric oxide. That opens the blood vessels, which is the part this article is about.
- It elevates glutathione. He calls glutathione Velcro. It attaches to toxins in the bloodstream, and it sinks with age and with a fatty liver.
The best nitric oxide support, in his view
If you are a man over 60 asking which nitric oxide supplement to take, his answer in this episode is pine bark extract, because it does more than one job. It raises nitric oxide, it protects the blood vessels it opens, and it looks after the brain.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1674If you want to talk about a product that is anti-aging, on the inside is Navitol.
He says tens of thousands of people take it every day, and he has taken it himself for years. Another piece on blood flow after 60 is are beets good after 60.
Common questions
Is nitric oxide good for men over 60?
In Dr. Martin's view, yes. Nitric oxide opens the blood vessels and brings blood supply to the organs, and it goes down as you get older.
Does nitric oxide decrease with age?
Yes, he says. Your body makes nitric oxide, but as you get older, it goes down.
What is the best nitric oxide supplement for men over 60?
His pick is pine bark extract, which he says elevates nitric oxide and is also a powerful antioxidant. Navitol is pine bark extract.
Do erectile dysfunction pills work on nitric oxide?
He says the little blue pill advertised for erectile dysfunction just elevates your nitric oxide. Talk to your doctor about any medication you take.
Open up the blood vessels
Navitol pine bark extract opens your blood vessels because it elevates your nitric oxide, as Dr. Martin put it in episode 1674. Navitol Ultra Strength is the formula he uses.
60-day money-back guarantee. Formulated in clinic.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.
