The benefits of L-Arginine on your heart
- sandrine Giacobino
- May 28
- 2 min read
L-arginine is an amino acid necessary for making proteins which are essential in all the key building functions of the body. It is considered a “semi-essential acid” in the sense that, as children, we need it to grow but once an adult it is only essential in specific conditions. It can be taken as a supplement but is also available through food sources. It is found in poultry, meat, but also in some vegetarian/vegan’s options like soybeans, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, spirulina and some legumes (ref 1).
When this amino acid enters the body, it is converted into a chemical called nitric oxide. Nitric oxide improves blood flow by widening and relaxing the arteries and blood vessels. The benefits of L arginine don’t stop here. Inflammation is improved, brain health improves due to better blood flow, it would support detoxification, speeds up healing and support the immune system (Ref 4). For the rest of this article, we will focus though on the heart health.
As written above nitric oxide helps widen the blood vessels which will support blood flow and therefore be helpful in conditions like high blood pressure, especially in pregnant women who could suffer from preeclampsia. It will help reduce the pain caused by angina when the pressure in the heart isn’t enough and might help men suffering from erectile dysfunction by supplementing it with some other medications. (Refs 2.3). It will also support plaque prevention and clot formations by signalling blood vessels to relax and let blood through (Ref 4). Your heart is an organ but also a muscle that starts beating on day 19 of conception until you take your last breath. The heart is constantly pumping blood around the body so when seeing it from that perspective anything that would improve the blood flow would be of benefit to this amazing organ!
As with everything a word of caution. If you are on heart medication, check with your doctor that by adding L arginine in a supplemented form it won’t interact with the drugs and in some cases create hypotension. Check also with your doctor if you have a viral infection as it might not be recommended to add it at that stage. Some side effects can be experienced if taken at too high doses like abdominal pain, nausea, insomnia, low blood pressure.
Food as ever is our best bet and the variety of foods containing this amino acid are numerous, so enjoy the bounty of nature, choosing organic when possible.
Wishing you good health.
References.
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