Thread: Caffeine boosts Nitric Oxide

Caffeine boosts Nitric Oxide (*study)
by Anthony Roberts

This probably won’t be earth shattering information for a lot of my regular readers, but one of the lesser known effects of caffeine is its ability to elevate Nitric oxide levels. So that cup of coffee before your morning workout is actually a well established and time-tested Nitric Oxide elevator. But while caffeine has been proven to enhance performance, I’ve never heard anyone rave about “the pump” that a good cup of coffee gives them. The more I research this category, the more I’m convinced that so many things are NO elevators, it’s unlikely that a NO elevating supplement, taken prior to a workout, is going to do anything to increase the pumped feeling that the entire product-category seems to be predicated on.

Int J Vasc Med. 2010;2010:834060. Epub 2010 Aug 25.

Caffeine’s Vascular Mechanisms of Action.

Echeverri D, Montes FR, Cabrera M, Galán A, Prieto A.
Source

Laboratorio de Investigación en Función Vascular, Departamento de Investigaciones, Fundación CardioInfantil-Instituto de Cardiología, Carrera 13b no. 163-85, Torre A, Piso 3., Bogotá, Colombia.

Abstract

Caffeine is the most widely consumed stimulating substance in the world. It is found in coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate, and many medications. Caffeine is a xanthine with various effects and mechanisms of action in vascular tissue. In endothelial cells, it increases intracellular calcium stimulating the production of nitric oxide through the expression of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase enzyme. Nitric oxide is diffused to the vascular smooth muscle cell to produce vasodilation. In vascular smooth muscle cells its effect is predominantly a competitive inhibition of phosphodiesterase, producing an accumulation of cAMP and vasodilation. In addition, it blocks the adenosine receptors present in the vascular tissue to produce vasoconstriction. In this paper the main mechanisms of action of caffeine on the vascular tissue are described, in which it is shown that caffeine has some cardiovascular properties and effects which could be considered beneficial.

http://www.anthonyroberts.info/2011/...c-oxide-study/