Uncovering the Potential of Nitric Oxide in Treating Erectile Dysfunction, with Dr. Nathan Bryan

Hello there. I'm Dr. Anne Truong, and today I'm going to talk to the expert about nitrous oxide. And nitrous oxide is essential for all blood flow through your body, especially for the bedroom functioning. So stay tuned. We're going to dive into what is nitrous oxide? Why do we need it? Why is it critical for blood flow optimization? I'll see you in the episode. This podcast is for you. The modern man. I'm Dr. Anne Truang, your host. I'm an intimate health medical doctor and bestselling author of the book Erectile Dysfunction Fix. I'll do a deep dive into sexual health and performance and how it affects men of all ages and backgrounds. So let's get started and be sure to visit my website@sexualhealthfulmenpodcast.com for more information and resources from the show. See you on the inside. Well, hello there. Hello there, modern Man. I would love for you to stick around this episode because Today I have Dr. Nathan Bryan. He is a PhD, he trained at University of Texas, and he is one of the pioneer for nitric oxide. And as to you, if you've been listening to me, I've been talking about nitrous oxide for a while now, and he is one of the pioneers and he also commercialized a product on nitrous oxide as well. So I'm so excited to have him here. And I was actually researching about him and I reach out and ask him to be on the show and he said yes, and I'm so excited that we are having this conversation. So welcome, Dr. Brian.

Thank you very much, Dr. Trunk. It's great to be here.

Great. I got tons of questions to ask you, but let's get to know you a little bit. So what, how did you get involved with nitric oxide research?

Well, you know, I've always been interested in science and medicine. I had a degree from biochemistry and biochemistry from the University of Texas, and then I HD program in molecular and cellular physiology at LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport. And it was there where I was introduced to this whole science of nitric oxide. A Nobel Prize had just been awarded for its discovery. You know, so we knew the scientific community knew it was important, but there were still a lot of unanswered questions, like how the body produces nitric oxide, what goes wrong and people that can't make it. What are the clinical consequences of such. And then, you know, at that time, there were really no safe and effective therapies or technologies to recapitulate and restore nitric oxide production. So for me, it was really an exciting area of research. My PhD advisor was a pharmacologist that had been in the nitric oxide field for the previous 15 years. And so it was just an exciting time in science and medicine.

So you. So you were there at the right time, at the right moment, and had the right mentor at the right time. And we're glad that you are here. So let's dive into what the heck is nitrous oxide? Can you explain that for. For my audience to understand? What is it?

Sure. Well, it's what we call a signaling molecule. So it's how cells in the body communicate. But the interesting thing about this cell signaling molecule is it's a gas. And it's a gas that's produced by certain cell types. And once it's produced, it's gone in less than a second. So when it's produced, it activates a number of second messenger systems. It regulates a number of biological responses. But it's mostly known for its role in the cardiovascular system. So it's a vasodilator, meaning that when it's produced, it causes the blood vessels to relax and dilate. So you get more blood flow, more better circulation, better oxygen delivery. So it's. The Nobel Prize was awarded primarily for its discovery in the cardiovascular system. But now, fast forward, you know, 30 or 40 years, we now know that it's involved in, you know, our immune system. It's how our body fights off invading pathogens from viruses and bacteria. It's a neurotransmitter transmitter in the central nervous system, and it controls protein structure and function. So one of the. Now what we know, one of the most important effects of nitric oxide is oxygen uptake and oxygen delivery. And as you know, as a physician, the past three years, we've experienced these chronic conditions of hypoxemia from. From COVID patients. And so that's really the. The end problem of the COVID is the loss of blood, oxygen saturation, hypoxemia, and then eventually death. And it's nitric oxide that controls not only the oxygen uptake and oxygen delivery, but the vascular inflammation that occurs from the spike. Prote.

Okay, yes. So the main thing about nitrous oxide is that holds the oxygen, Is that what you're saying? And how do we conceptualize, how does nitrous oxide involve in the blood flow? That's why I like to kind of separate. Is it part of absorbing the oxygen or is it part of helping the blood vessel dilate?

Well, it's Both, and I guess they're two completely different mechanisms. So in terms of improving blood flow and circulation, you know, our blood vessels are kind of compliant and vasoactive, meaning that when nitric oxide is produced, you can dilate the blood vessels. Then obviously you get better blood flow and circulation. If you've got, you know, constricted blood vessels, then your blood pressure goes up, you lose the regulation of blood flow. So that's on the vascular control of things. But in terms of oxygen delivery, we know that for oxygen to come off hemoglobin, and this is a very complicated biochemical process called the Bohr effect. But when we breathe in oxygen, it binds to the iron of hemoglobin in our red blood cells. And then when that red blood cell goes from the arteries to the veins, it releases oxygen, picks up carbon dioxide, then we exhale the CO2, we pick up oxygen. This is the cardio respiratory cycle. But if nitric oxide is not bound to hemoglobin, oxygen does not come off. So it's part. Now, the cardiorespiratory cycle is now considered a three gas system. So unless you have ample nitric oxide production and the signaling aspects of nitric oxide on hemoglobin, you can give 100% oxygen. You can put people on a mechanical vent. And we've seen that that's not always sufficient for raising their blood oxygen saturation. You have to restore the functionality of nitric oxide.

Okay, so we need nitrous oxide that if we don't have nitrous oxide, we die, right?

No, that's exactly right. Your cardiovascular system fails, you get inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune dysfunction, which are hallmarks of every chronic disease. And you cannot deliver oxygen. And obviously, if you don't understand how important oxygen is, try holding your breath for six minutes.

Well, I was sick with COVID in 2020, and I was hospitalized, and I was on 80% high oxygen flow. So I know all about hypoxia and Covid. So why do we have less nitrous oxide as we get old? Are.

Well, to answer that question, we first had to understand how the body produces nitric oxide. And today, we know that there's two primary pathways for the production of nitric oxide. One is through an enzyme found in the lining of the blood vessels and what we call the endothelial cells. And these endothelial cells line all blood vessels on the arteries, the veins, the lymphatics. And so it's the nitric oxide that's produced through an enzyme called nitric oxide. Synthase. And what we've learned is the older we get, and a lot of this is dependent upon diet and lifestyle, the function of that enzyme becomes compromised. So we lose about 10 to 12% of our endothelial function per decade. So by the time we're 40 or 50 years old, you know, we have only about 50% of the nitric oxide we had when we were younger through that pathway. And, you know, and I think it's around 40 or 50 that people start to feel the effects of aging. And as you know, 50% of the men over the age of 40 self report some degree of erectile dysfunction. And now we know that erectile dysfunction is really a symptom of insufficient nitric oxide production. So you cannot overcome ED without first fixing the production of nitric oxide.

Absolutely. And that's the one reason why I'm big proponent of nitric oxide discussion and understand the physiology of it. Let's backtrack a little bit and talk about what is an enzyme and how does this nitrous oxide synthase become dysfunctional? Because of what factor?

Right. Well, without getting too technical, this enzyme. So an enzyme is just a protein that performs a biochemical reaction. Right. And so this nitric oxide synthase enzyme was discovered to convert L arginine, which is an amino acid, a semi essential amino acid, into nitric oxide gas. And then you get L citrulline, which is another amino acid, as a byproduct. And this is a very complex, complicated five electron reaction that's both energetically and kinetically unfavorable. Which means, you know, you're pushing a lot of things uphill to make nitric oxide through this pathway. And so there's a number of things that cause uncoupling of this nitric oxide synthase. So for instance, a high glycemic diet, you can get sugar attached to the enzyme, similar to sugar attaching to hemoglobin that we measure as hemoglobin A1C. Sugar sticks to these enzymes and makes them dysfunctional. We have oxidative stress due to an inflammatory diet or just inflammation from normal occurrences in the environment that cause oxidation and cofactor called Tetrahydrobiopterin or BH4. And so all this leads to nose uncoupling and insufficient nitric oxide production. And we call this endothelial dysfunction. Right. So endothelial dysfunction is now known to precede most, if not all, chronic diseases. Endothelial dysfunction, insufficient nitric oxide production precedes the structural changes we see in the vasculature by many years, sometimes decades.

Wow. Wow. So it's a bad diet and oxidative stress, which then affect the function of the enzyme nitrous oxide synthase. Right, and so, so what you're saying that you can actually improve the function of the nitrous oxide synthase if you control your diet, if you eat a better healthy diet and a better lifestyle modification to decrease the oxidative stress. Is that possible?

Well, no, it is. You know, the standard risk factors we know for cardiovascular disease and even erectile dysfunction, whether it's, you know, obesity, poor diet, smoking, chronic alcohol use, sedentary lifestyle, all of this leads to endothelial dysfunction and the uncoupled nitric oxide synthase. So simple diet and lifestyle in most cases can overcome that and restore the function of the enzyme. But I think it's important to point out there's some genetic issues, what we call single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, in certain enzymes that are put people at increased risk of nitric oxide deficiency. So, obviously, if you have a SNP in the ENOS enzyme, then you're not going to get nitric oxide. The one that's most prominent that most people don't recognize is an enzyme called methyltetrahydrofolate reductase, or the MTHFR snp. And that enzyme is involved in detoxification. It provides methylation to detoxify certain things, but it also is the enzyme that's responsible for the reduction of biopterin to tetrahydrobopterin. Then that feeds into nitric oxide. So if you've got a patient with an MTHFR snp, then their definition, nitric oxide deficient, and they have endothelial dysfunction. So that's a little bit more difficult to overcome because it's a genetic problem. So now we have to be able to overcome that genetic problem and provide a source of nitric oxide that the body's otherwise unable to produce.

All right, so if they have a MTHFR deficiency, so you're talking about more homozygous rather than the carrier. Right. And so they can't make nitrous oxide, but they can be supplemented, right? Through a supplement?

Yeah. In some cases, you know, it's very difficult to ascribe a one size fits all because, you know, every person's different, people's genetics are different, their diet and lifestyle is different. So now we really have to dig a little bit deeper and figure out, okay, what's going on in this particular patient, and then how do we Custom tailor a technology that's going to work in this patient, because most supplements do not work in terms of promoting nitric oxide production. And so now we understand the enzymology and the biochemistry of the nitric oxide synthase enzyme. And as you know, there's, since 1998, there's been hundreds of nitric oxide products on the market. Supplements that are providing arginine, citrulline, and these products do not work in patients with endothelial dysfunction. So there's never a condition where we're deficient in these essential amino acids, except one, which is an inborn air metabolism called arginocynic acid urea. But in the general population, this never occurs. We're never deficient in arginine, so it never makes sense biochemically to supplement arginine. Our body makes enough through the urea cycle, we get enough through the breakdown of proteins into amino acids that there's never a need to supplement. And in fact, there's two clinical trials that were published that if you give arginine to a post infarct patient, and these are patients that have just had a heart attack, it caused higher mortality than the placebo. This was a 2006 clinical study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. So arginine should be contraindicated in people that have had a heart attack. And they repeated that study in patients with peripheral artery disease and found that arginine actually made these patients worse. Intermittent claudication got worse. Quality of life for these patients got worse. So now we understand mechanistically what's happening. If you give arginine or citrulline to a patient with endothelial dysfunction, that is Erectile dysfunction, you actually, actually exacerbate the condition. So you actually generate superoxide instead of nitric oxide. You're increasing oxidative stress and you're making the patient worse.

I see. So if someone is going on the Internet and they type in nitrous oxide and the Internet says, okay, this will raise your nitrous oxide, but if it says l arginine and L citrulline, it is not going to raise your nitrous oxide, is that what you're trying to say?

Yeah, no, that's, that's exactly right. In patients with an uncoupled nausea, I. E. Endothelial dysfunction, the arginine and citrulline can actually do more harm than good. And so, you know, there are a number of companies out there, and most of these companies have no science to back their products. They're just looking at the literature, following the latest trends, and then putting these ingredients, a laundry list of ingredients in there. So I'm not saying these products aren't good because some of these can have some good ingredients, but they're not nitric oxide products. And buyer beware, because if these companies don't know what they're doing and certainly don't understand your unique condition, it could do more harm than good. And so, you know, that's kind of my passion now is to go out and kind of help educate and communicate the true science of nitric oxide so consumers can be educated and avoid those products that could cause more harm and really be directed toward products that are safe and effective in nitrocarboxide production.

All right, I definitely want to pound on that because I see that all the time. And even in the supplement that are, you know, supposedly, you know, pharmaceutical grade, doctors approved, it will say on the nitrous oxide, it'll just say, you know, L arginine, L citrulline. So if you have ED or have heart disease and you want to increase your nitrous oxide, do not take a supplement that has L arginine or L citrulline in it. Because when you do take it, it will cause more inflammation on your blood vessel lining. Right. And cause more we call radicals, which then in the end hurt your blood flow problem more than you're actually trying to help it right now. Why is it when you take the supplement L arginine, L citrulline, it doesn't increase nitrous oxide?

Well, because the problem in these patients is that the enzyme that converts arginine to nitric oxide is broken. It's uncoupled. So taking arginine with a patient with endothelial dysfunction is like putting gas in a car with a blown up engine. Right? You're not out of fuel. You've just lost the ability to utilize that fuel. And the other important consideration is, you know, the body always responds to what it's given. And when you take arginine, it basically upregulates the expression of an enzyme called arginase, which diverts the arginine away from nitric oxide and then excretes it through the urea cycle, through ornithine and urea. Again, biochemically, this has never made sense to me because there's never a condition where we're deficient in arginine. The problem is the engine or the enzyme that converts arginine to nitric oxide is dysfunctional. It's uncoupled we have to recouple that enzyme. Then we published a Nature medicine paper in 2005, I think it was 2007 or 2008, where we discovered that the arginine that's used to make nitric oxide is through an intramolecular, intracellular shuttling through the urea cycle. So the cell doesn't use extracellular L arginine to make nitric oxide, so it uses what's recycled through the urea cycle. So, again, another point of evidence that it doesn't make sense to give arginine and citrulline. You know, I've never understood this because citrulline is a byproduct of nitric oxide production. And so through normal biochemical reactions, there's always feedback inhibition that controls the output and the regulation of nitric oxide. So citrulline is like two electrons away from arginine away from nitric oxide. So, again, these are people, these are companies that are completely naive and ignorant in nitric oxide biochemistry, and they're just throwing ingredients together in a capsule, charging an absorbent amount of money and really duping consumers. And, you know, for me, it's deceptive trade practice, it's deceptive marketing. And so we have to get the record straight and educate consumers so they can make informed decisions.

Right? Great, great. And so the bottom line is L arginine, our body makes plenty of it. There's no need to supplement it. And. But arginine goes to nitrous oxide, and nitrous oxide go to citru. No reason why you should be buying L arginine. L Citrulline. Hear that loud and clear. All right. Hear that loud and clear. And if you are buying it, it's like Dr. Brian said, it's like putting gas on a car that the engine doesn't work. You're just wasting your money and wasting your time. So I. I want to go. I want to go back to the other pathway, how to make nitrous oxide. And then I want to touch upon. So what's a good product that, you know, we. We need to. That the audience need to understand? It will really help supplement the nitrous oxide o. The other pathway.

So the other pathway, you know, there's enormous redundancy in the human body, and nitric oxide is such a critical, important molecule that our body wouldn't be designed to have a singular pathway. So the other compensatory kind of backup pathway, if you will, comes through our diet, and that's through what we call nitrate nitrite. Nitric oxide. So you get nitrate from your diet, and it's found primarily in green leafy vegetables. Things like spinach, arugula, kale, beets are a popular item now. And then when we ingest these foods, 90 minutes after we consume these foods, the nitrate is taken up in our proximal gut, the duodenum, and then that nitrate is concentrated in our salivary glands. So now for the next 8, 10, 12 hours, we're secreting nitrate in the saliva, and that's providing the bacteria that live in the. In the crypts of our tongue a substrate to Respira. And then these bacteria reduce nitrate to nitrite and nitric oxide. And then when we swallow our own saliva, you know, we get a burst of nitric oxide gas in the acid environment of the stomach. So there's three things that must happen for this pathway to work. Number one, we must get enough nitrate from our diet, and we know the standard American diet is deficient in nitrate because we're not eating enough green leafy vegetables. Number two, we must have the right oral bacteria. So people who use mouthwash, people who use fluoride in their toothpaste or are on antibiotics for an extended period of time, disrupt this oral microbiome, shut down nitric oxide production. And then the final step in this pathway is we have to have sufficient stomach acid production. And we know that There are over 200 million prescriptions written for antacids every year. This shuts down nitric oxide production. Clear evidence now that people who have been on PPIs, a specific form of antacids, for three to five years have about a 40% higher incidence of heart attack and stroke. So all of this, all of these steps are disrupting nitric oxide production. So now we have to start, okay, interrogating your patients. Do you use mouthwash? Are you using fluoride in your toothpaste? Are you on antacids? Whether it's prescription antacids or over the counter, you know, these antacids were never approved for chronic use by the fda. They're only approved for acute use for gastroesophageal reflux disease. But yet you've got patients that are taking these, been on these for 10, 12, 20 years. And the consequences are tragic. I mean, increased deaths from heart attack and stroke.

Okay, so the second method of getting nitrous oxide is through the diet and through eating green leaf vegetables, which we know that men doesn't like to eat anything. Like my, my husband, he's, you know, red meat, steak and Potatoes, french fries and so forth. Even my son, you know, I give him broccoli, spinach, arugula, gross, you know, got the problem there. And then, and then once you eat the food, it, you said once you eat the food, digest it, and you said that. How does it go to the saliva? You eat the food 90 minutes later, it goes to your saliva glands.

It does. So it's taken up across the gut. There's a specific transporter that takes up nitrate, and then it's taken up in the blood. And then there's a transporter in the salivary glands called the silent transporter and that binds nitrate from the blood supply and concentrated in our salivary glands. So the, the concentration of nitrate in our saliva is typically 10 to 100 times higher than what's in our blood. And the same thing with, with nitrite, provided we had the right oral bacteria. And so, you know, there's been a huge amount of research over the past 20 years on the microbiome, right? The bacteria that live in and on our body outnumber on human cells 10 to 1. So years ago, people were focused on the gut microbiome. We started focusing on the oral microbiome and trying to figure out what are these bacteria, what are present and what is their major metabolic function. And what we discovered was that these nitrate reducing bacteria are the only mechanism to metabolize nitrate. Because humans cannot not metabolize nitrate. We're 100% dependent upon the oral bacteria. So if you're doing anything that disrupts the diversity of the oral microbiome, you're shutting down nitric oxide production. And now we and others have published that if you use mouthwash, you disrupt the microbiome, your blood pressure goes up, you lose the protective benefits of exercise, and you start to develop erectile dysfunction. So, as you know, as a physician, there's a reason we don't take an antibiotic every day for the rest of our lives, right? There are known side effects of disrupting the gastrointestinal bacteria. So why on God's green earth would we take an oral antiseptic to disrupt the oral microbiome? And now there's clear evidence that if you do that, you become nitric oxide deficient, your blood pressure goes up, and now you're on a very slippery slope for the onset and progression of cardiovascular disease, right?

So if you're taking mouthwash, that kills the bacteria in your saliva gland, which help you make nitrate, right? So the food give you nitrate, and then the saliva, not the saliva gland, the actual Saliva itself. Right. Really, the bacteria in the saliva process the nitrate to nitrite and then the nitrite goes to the stomach and the stomach acid then convert nitrite to nitric oxide. Nitric oxide.

That's exactly right. So we have to have all those processes intact in order for this, this process to work. And that's why, you know, we, I developed in 2010 these saliva test strips. So it's a good way you can actually measure your salivary nitrite. So now we can tell if you have the right oral bacteria. So if you, if you're lighting up that test strip with and it turns bright pink, then that tells us that. Or it can tell us that you have nitrate reducing bacteria, present infections, provided you don't have an active oral infection. So there are some false positives on that test strip that people need to be aware of, but there are no false negatives.

Okay, so if you do the strip and it lights up if you're deficient, what does that tell you?

Well, it tells us that there's no nitrite in your saliva. And that's basically all it tells us. So then you got to kind of ask some questions of why is that? Is it because you have endothelial dysfunction and your nose enzyme is uncoupled? Is it because you're not getting enough nitrate from your diet, or is it because you're eating a lot of vegetables but you don't have the right oral nitrate reducing bacteria to convert it, then you're nitric oxide deficient. So these are all questions you have to interrogate. But basically all it tells us that test strip tells us is that you have very little or no nitrite in your saliva. But the consequences of that tell us that your nitric oxide deficient. And typically these people are, you know, have E.D. they have high blood pressure and they're on a very slippery slope to developing chronic disease.

Sure, sure. Right. What does strip reflect? How, how far back of what you've been doing, like what you've been eating and your exercise that more in the last 48 hours, 24 hours or I.

Mean, typically this process, from the time you eat your vegetables to you, this shows up in the saliva is about 90 minutes, and then this will continue to be increased for, you know, 6, 8, 12 hours. So this is a kind of a time release and that's why, you know, this process is so important and really a beautifully designed process by the human body to create this time release of nitric oxide through the enterocalivary circuit. Activated by the bacteria generate no gas in the lumen of the stomach, provided you can make stomach acid.

I see. Got it, got it. So is nitrite also a gas itself?

No. Nitrate and nitrite are anions, meaning that they're found naturally in nature, but in solution, they circulate as anions.

Okay, gotcha. So you need the bacteria in your mouth to help you convert from the food to nitrite. You need the acid in your stomach to help you convert the nitrite to nitric oxide. So therefore, if you use mouthwash and if you take antibiotic or if you take acid inhibiting antacid, like protonic or, or prevacid pilosec, dexalan nexium, which I have to say, a month ago I was taking that because I was having some reflux from all the jovial holiday food and consumption. I had to pop in some omeprazole myself to control my indigestion. So all that is not good because you're inhibiting the nitric oxide production in your body. So I'm gonna ask this question that. So when we get older, we have less nitrous oxide, Is it because of these lifestyle factors that we do with the mouthwash, the medication, the poor diet and not exercise? Is it a secondary effect or is it just happened because we're just, you know, self synolytic?

Well, I think there's a number of things that contribute to that. So most of it is from diet and lifestyle. And it, for me, it's like the perfect storm. So. So the older we get, you know, depending upon diet and lifestyle conditions, the NOS enzyme becomes uncoupled. And as long as we're getting nitric oxide from our diet, that can fully compensate for endothelial dysfunction. So one can compensate for the other. But when you lose the ability to make nitric oxide in the endothelium and through the diet, then that's what creates the symptoms of erectile dysfunction, of high blood pressure, of mild cognitive disorders, and even Alzheimer's. It disrupts insulin signaling. You become insulin resistant, diabetic, you develop exercise intolerance. So all of these things contribute. You know, there's not, I wouldn't say there's a single thing that contributes to. There are many things that contribute to nitric oxide deficiency. But the problem is most Americans have multiple things of this. You know, there's 200 million Americans that wake up every morning, use mouthwash, and there's 200 million Americans have an unsafe elevation in blood pressure, temperature. I don't think this is coincidental. It's causal. You know, 200 million prescriptions written for antacids every year. Poor diet, poor lifestyle, sedentary lifestyle. All these things contribute to nitric oxide deficiency. And it's clear. All you got to do is look at the general population, and there's very few healthy people anymore. You know, 70% of the people around the globe are living with a chronic disease that's poorly managed.

All right, so we discussed about the two ways your body makes the nitrous oxide and how you become deficient. And we were alluding to. Okay, so what is a good supplement? Let's say your natural oxide synthase is not working. Well, you do the strip, and the strip shows you you're deficient and you're trying to eat your leafy green. But, you know, we lead busy lifestyles, and you're still deficient. So what's a good supplement that somebody can feel to know, okay, this is a good supplement. You know, when you're investigating, because we know that type in nitrous oxide on. On Google there, you know, 10,000, you know, searchers that shows up. What. What's a good supplement? Which one do you recommend?

Well, you know, I'll have to qualify that statement by saying I've. I've developed a number of products that have been on the market. I have, I don't know, two or three dozen issued patents. And so we've commercialized a number of products. But, you know, I think I tell people that to increase nitric oxide production, you got to do two things things. Stop doing the things that disrupt it and start doing the things that promote it. So we've talked about the disruptors. If you're using mouthwash, you have to stop. If you're using fluoride in your toothpaste, you have to get rid of fluoride. Fluoride's an antiseptic. It kills your thyroid function. It's a neurotoxin. And then if you're on antacids, you have to figure out somehow, work with your physician and get off these antacids. So now once you do that, you can. Modern physical exercise is effective. Throw in some more green leafy vegetables, infrared saunas, or 20, 30 minutes of sunlight a day, all of these promote nitric oxide production. But what I've learned over 25 years in, in science is by human nature, that people want a quick fix, right? Most people aren't willing to change their diet and lifestyle. They want to take something. So we created some. Some nitric oxide products over the past decade or so. And so again, nitric oxide is a gas. And you know, this is based on, on over a hundred peer reviewed publications that have, in the medical literature. So our prevailing principle and guideline is if your body can't make nitric oxide, then we have to do it for you, right? So just similar to testosterone, if you have low testosterone and your gonads aren't making testosterone, then you have to give the body testosterone because otherwise it's not making it. It's a very similar principle in nitric oxide. If your body can't make nitric oxide, we have to do it from, for you. But we also, the thing that we did that take goes the extra mile is now we understand why, why you're deficient in nitric oxide. And we can correct and restore the function of the nitric oxide synthase enzyme and restore the body's ability to make it on its own. So we've done that through my latest product. This is a lozenge. And I think it's very important for your listeners to know nitric oxide is a gas, right? So it's not a pill you can swallow, it's not a liquid you can take take. What we do is, is unlike anything that's ever been done in nitric oxide field or really in the history of medicine. My claim to fame is I was the first to make a solid dose form of a bioactive gas, right? So we make a lozenge. You put that lozenge in your mouth, it's designed to dissolve over five to six minutes. And as this lozenge is dissolving, it generates nitric oxide gas, about 20 to 30 parts per million billion. So we can quantify it, we can verify the nitric oxide coming off as the lozenge is dissolving. We can see dilation of the carotids within usually 10 or 12 seconds. You know, so it's, we're generating nitric oxide gas, it's vasoactive. But then about four hours later, if you measure endothelial function, or what's called flow mediated dilatation, we see about a 15% improvement in erect or in endothelial function function. So now we, we know how to recouple the enzyme. We prevent the oxidation of tetrahydroboptrin. And now we're improving the body's ability to make nitric oxide in the endothelium. So those two things have really never been done before and we have the only product technology that does that. So the lozenge, it's no 2U. We also create, you know, beets have been a popular item for the past, you know, 10 to 15 years. I've tested all the beet products on the market. 99% of the beat products, products don't do anything in terms of nitric oxide. They're, they're what we call dead beets. You know, they turn your pee and your poop pink and cause a lot of anxiety, but they do not generate nitric oxide gas. So most recently we brought to market a product called no Beets where we ferment the beets, we take the oxalates out of the beets. You don't have to worry about kidney stones. We take the beet pulp, the beet color, the beet taste out, we add electrolytes because most Americans are, are dehydrated at the cellular level. And then we add mitochondrial ATP. So this, this product is a powder. You put it in water and as soon as it gets into solution, we start generating nitric oxide gas. So this is designed to be taken as a shot, put it in water, mix it up and then take it immediately. And then we're generating nitric oxide throughout the entire body.

Awesome. So Dr. Brian, generous enough that will give us, the viewers a discount code. So you check out the link in the show note. I will put a link in the show note for this product for a 10% off of these products that you try out. His lozenge, which is N2 no N O2U. Largin. Right. And the other one is no. B. Now when do you take the beet powder versus when do you take the no. 2U lozeng?

It's a very good question. And they have completely different applications. So the, the lozenge is meant to be taken as a daily nitric oxide support product, right? Similar to a daily vitamin C, daily vitamin D. This is your daily nitric oxide support. Usually one in the morning, one in the evening. 12 hours apart is sufficient for daily nitric oxide support. The beet powder, the no beats, we positioned as a pre workout or as an energy drink. The global market for these really unsafe, dangerous energy drinks like the Monster, the Red Bull, the five hour energy drink. You know, what we do is we provide a natural energy source. We improve circulation, we improve mitochondrial energy production. And so we hope and we feel that this is a great replacement for the caffeine stimulant ridden energy drinks that most people are taking out there. And people can feel the effects of nitric oxide almost immediately upon taking. So for me personally, I Take the lozenge first thing in the morning. I usually work out and go to the gym in the afternoon or the evening. So I'll take the beef beads, you know, as I'm walking into the gym, because it's rapid acting. And then, you know, another lozenge before bed. Or sometimes I just take one lozenge in the morning, take the beet powder, and that's sufficient for me. But, you know, everybody's different and everybody has to kind of custom tailor their own regimen. But, you know, just like anything, you can take too much nitric oxide. So I caution people, you know, only use these products as directed because they're very potent gluten. And if you take too much nitric oxide, you can get an unsafe drop in blood pressure. And in worst case scenario, you'll get methemoglobinemia.

Oh, so what, what is that latter condition? What's the methemoglobinemia?

Methemoglobinemia is a condition where you take too much nitric oxide or too much nitrite that then oxidizes the iron of hemoglobin and you're, you lose your ability to carry oxygen. So you become cyanotic. You know, your lips will turn blue, flu, you'll get pale and you become hypoxic.

Oh, my dear. Okay, so do not take more than you need. So, you know, we're human, but we're like, oh, you know, we're gonna chug it in. Oh, the magic the better. So you shouldn't be taking more than two lozenges a day. And then can you add an extra beet powder on top of the two a day? And, and what's the maximum, what's the maximum amount you don't want to go over?

Yeah, just don't take either the lozenge or the beet powder within three to four hours of one another. So I think as long as you do that, you know, this is extremely safe. We've got, you know, Drugs in phase 3 clinical trials now for Covid for ischemic heart disease, for ischemic non obstructive coronary disease. We've got a drug program around Alzheimer's, transient ischemic attacks. So we're taking our core nitric oxide technology and now putting this into FDA clinical trials to where hopefully, and I'm confident we'll have nitric oxide based therapies, not just over the counter products, but approved FDA drugs for the treatment of many chronic diseases in the future.

Well, that's awesome. This just seemed to be like miracle supplement, it's not even a drug. It's a critical gas that our body needs to survive. And now we can get it through a lodging or a powder. And it's even better than taking, you know, calcium channel blocker or you know, a prescription medicine really. Right. I mean that's what anti blood pressure medicines are, is to really, you know, open up your blood vessels and, and dilate your blood vessels. So and of course you got to couple that with lifestyle modification. So how much is too much? Let's say if a person buy this, so how much shouldn't they take? If they take two of the no. 2U lodging and then one no beat a day, what's too much? You don't want to take more than that.

That. Well, I think, you know, always encourage people to consult with their physician because if, you know, these are dietary supplements not intended to treat, cure, prevent or mitigate any disease process. But I think what we've learned is that working with your physician, you can now start, for I think the first time in the history of medicine, start to have a discussion of how do we get off drugs.

Right?

Because if you fix the body's own biochemistry and physiology, there's no need for drug therapy. Therapy. And you make a very good point. You know, if you have high blood pressure, they put you on a calcium channel blocker, an ace inhibitor and ARB. But yet 50% of the people that are on prescription medications don't have managed blood pressure. And that's because none of these drugs are affecting nitric oxide production. The reason most people get high blood pressure is because they've lost the production of the main vasodilatory molecule, nitric oxide. So if we're restoring the production of the majority major blood pressure regulator, then you can start to work with your physician and wean people off of ACE inhibitors, ARBs, calcium channel antagonists, beta blockers, these drugs that really make people feel awful and contribute to a lot of other symptoms, unintended consequences.

Not only that, those blood pressure medicine will also affect your bedroom performance as well too.

You know, absolutely most of them, especially the beta blockers. The number one side effect is erectile dysfunction.

Right.

So just to answer your question, in, in 2012 we published a paper in the American Journal of Human Genetics where we had a 15 year old patient with uncontrolled resistant hypertension where all prescription medications were ineffective at normalizing his blood pressure. So we gave him our Lozenge in a 15 year old kid and we were using blood pressure as an as Kind of the, the dosimeter for, for how much of the product he would take. And so this particular kid had to take one lozenge every three to four hours. He was taking five a day to manage his blood pressure. So I'm not saying this, this kid had a rare genetic disorder, an orphan disease called asa. So that's not the general population. So again, you have to custom tailor this. But I wouldn't recommend taking more than one lozenge every three to four hours because these products are so potent, potent that when used at the right dose at the right time, that's all you need. So in this case, more is not always better, right?

Absolutely.

Take it as indicated.

Right. Because if you take more, listen carefully, you take more, your blood pressure will decrease and then you will have less oxygen in your blood and then you'll actually will be more short of breath and you'll put your heart more stressed. You don't want to do that. Now if you take the nitric oxide lodging, when do you see an improvement in the, the live or strip measurement?

Well, in terms of, I'll kind of expand upon that. So when you look at the physiological effects of the lozenge, there's certain things you can do. So for one, if you have normal blood pressure, it's not going to lower your blood pressure. And that's, that's a very important safety consideration because you don't want to lower someone's blood pressure with a normal or already low blood pressure. So for instance, my blood pressure runs between usually 118 over 78. I take a loss of it doesn't drop my blood pressure. Right. So that's very important. But if you have a blood pressure of say 140 over 90 and you take that lozenge within 15 or 20 minutes, you'll start to see the blood pressure come down and normalize. Right. So we can support healthy blood pressure with that lozenge. In terms of the salivary strip, you know, our lozenge is not dependent upon the oral bacteria. So we pre convert the nitrates and nitrite. So we're not dependent upon the bacteria. Bacteria, because if we did that, then, you know, 50, 60, 70% of the general population wouldn't have an effect from that lozenge because we're finding most people don't have the right oral bacteria. So what we do is we do it for you. We pre convert it. So now every time you put that lozenge in your mouth, we generate the exact same amount of nitric oxide in every single person that takes it. And again, that's unlike any other product technology.

Oh, so that way you don't have to worry about the, the bacteria saliva gland, you don't have to worry about the antacid as well do.

No, that's right. And we don't even use the test strip anymore because for us we don't, we don't have to overcome that challenge. We do it for you. If your body can't make nitric oxide, we do it for you. If you don't have the right nitrate reducing bacteria, we've done it for you. We've pre converted.

I see. I gotcha. Gotcha. If you take the lodge and it goes straight to nitrous oxide, period.

Right.

Straight from the saliva. The saliva goes into your bloodstream obviously. Now how did the beat does that? Because you're saying that you can't inject natural oxide. So when you take the beet. The beets, it's more in its organic form then you. Is that right? And then you ingest it and.

Well, no, again, it's similar to the lozenge, but when you put it in water, it starts to generate nitric oxide gas. So that's why as soon as you put it in solution, you have to take it. So now when you swallow that, we're generating nitric oxide gas in the lumen of the stomach. You can actually detect nitric oxide coming out of the exhaled brain breath. And then that nitric oxide is taken up, it binds to glutathione, it's circulated at that nitroso glutathione. And so the, the vasoactivity, the biological activity of nitric oxide extends from 1 second out to tens of minutes and hours.

Okay. So the beats go straight to be nitric oxide, not nitrite. Gotcha. So it was the same way make a.

Ready to drink. Yeah. That's why you can't package this in a liquid. Because if you put that in a liquid, it's generating gas inside that container, it builds up pressure and you actually have a very unsafe product. So any liquid nitric oxide product or any liquid product that's marketed as nitric oxide out there, if it actually worked, it would be a bomb. Right. Because you're building up pressure inside that container that when you released it, it would come out. So that's why no liquid nitric oxide product product or any liquid product that's marketed as nitric oxide doesn't work and can't work. If not, it would be an unsafe product.

Right, right, exactly. And I Can't tell you how, how often I see that in the market where it says, you know, what about just beet juice? You know, beet juice alone?

Yeah. Again, you know, most of these beet juices don't, don't do anything. But if they do have something in there, it's just a form of nitrate, which nitrate is inert and stink stable. So if you don't have the right bacteria, you can take that beet juice and you're just excreted out through your urine, through your feces or through your sweat. It's never metabolizing the nitric oxide.

Right, Right. But, but if you have the, the right bacteria, then you could process it. But like you said, most of us don't have, don't have enough bacteria. So is there a way that we can test to see if we have the right bacteria in our salivary glands?

Yeah, that's really, I think the only are one of the main benefits of the test strips. So what I tell people, and that's the common question, how do I know if I have the right bacteria? So if you test your saliva first thing in the morning, that's kind of gives you kind of your basal levels. And if you're low, then at lunch go eat some arugula or spinach or kale. And then 90 minutes after you consume that meal, retest your saliva. And now if that salon turns pink, then that tells us that your body, number one, you had enough nitrate in the meal you ate. And number two, you have the right oral bacteria that convert the nitrate to nitrite, which we're testing with the test strip. But if you don't, after eating, you know, some green leafy vegetables, then it tells us one or two things. Number one, you may not have the right oral bacteria, or number two, there wasn't enough nitrate in that vegetable for the body to convert to nitrite that we can take detect, right?

Absolutely. So if you eat arugula or spinach, test it 90 minutes later. So it tells you, hey, you got good salivary microbiome that will convert it to nitrite, but it doesn't tell you whether your nitric oxide synthase is working in the endothelium.

That's exactly right.

It doesn't tell us, it doesn't tell you that. It just really tells you what's going on because you're really testing for nitrite, not nitrite. Yeah, so I've been testing myself and I've been deficient. So the strip is showing me that I'M deficient. So that means that I don't have the right microbiome and that I need to. So let's recap. So I love what you say, stop doing what is decreasing production and promote increased production. So to recap, stop taking mouthwash and fluoride toothpaste, Stop taking antacid. Try to get more sunlight, infrared after sauna. So to promote, promote it, you know, eat a healthy diet, like Mediterranean or dash diet. Do you recommend?

Yeah, I'm not, I'm not a big fan of these extreme diets like one way or other, straight vegan or straight carnivore. I think we as humans get our nutrients from a diverse supply of food. So for me personally, I eat more of kind of a ketogenic diet. A lot of protein, vegetables, salads. I try to avoid simple carbohydrates, processed foods, sodas. I don't drink sodas. I typically just drink pure purified water without any chloride or fluoride in it. And then, you know, that's typically that night, you know, also work out every day. I travel a lot. So it's not always easy to eat a healthy meal. And I think that's why, you know, these supplements are so important, because if we're not able to exercise or eat, eat a healthy meal, then this provides kind of that source of nitric oxide that we aren't getting from daily activities.

Wonderful. And yeah, I wanted to ask you this. How does infrared sauna or infrared light and the sun help promote more natural dioxide?

Well, there's certain wavelengths and frequencies, so both from the UV side and we use this in the research lab. You can actually use ultraviolet light to cleave nitric oxide. That's bound to a cysteine thio. So when nitric oxide is produced, it reacts with sulfur compounds on proteins or on glutathione and binds to it. So UV light will actually liberate that nitric oxide and make it vasoactive. And then the infrared side, when nitric oxide is produced, it can bind to metals also. So the frequency of the energetics of infrared and it's really full spectrum infrared will knock nitric oxide off of metals. Metals. So, but the problem is if you're nitric oxide deficient, you have less of these photo label stores of nitric oxide to be liberated by the sun or infrared. So I'm a big fan of infrared saunas. I have one in my house. But before I go into the sauna, I take nitric oxide. So now that red light therapy is actually more effective at liberating nitric oxide. And you're going to get more therapeutic benefits of the infrared light therapy.

All right, for the infrared light therapy, the same thing with the sun. The sun, that's right, about 20, 30 minutes in the sun. So you don't have an expensive infrared light therapy to go out in the sun. All natural sun. Right. But the sun natural is best. And, and the sun is also will reset your circadian rhythm as well. So I always advocate first thing in the morning, go out in the sun for about 20 minutes because, you know, you have that photo biology stimulation within. That's exactly reset your circadian rhythm. And now we know that it can also, you know, unbind the nitric oxide as well too.

Well, that's clear evidence. Evidence, you know, both epidemiologically and observational studies that, you know, sunlight and infrared can lower blood pressure and that's a nitric oxide effect, you know, in epidemiologically. We know that, you know, people that live in Scandinavia and the Northern hemisphere have higher blood pressures as a population than people who live near the equator. You know, it's, it's the time of, you know, exposed to sunlight and liberating nitric oxide. Obviously there are a number of other factors that contribute to that, but that's just a very important observation.

That is why, you know, you feel better when you're out in the sun. You feel happier. And maybe that's why I like to be at the beach so much and I like going to the south, like, particularly like in Florida. I'm on the east coast, you're in Central. And favorite place of mine is in Texas because most my kids were delivered in Houston, Texas. And it's a special place for me. So we cover a lot of air. Where do we get it from? Why are we deficient? And so what's the difference with taking the nitrous oxide supplement compared to taking it from food? People would say, well, I eat healthy, I can get this from food. So how much do you have to really eat of the kale, the arugula, the spinach to really supplement?

Well, you know, you have to have the processes intact in order to extract nitric oxide activity from foods. So number one, you have to get enough nitrate from your diet. We published in 2015 that they're regional differences. So you need at least 300 to 400 milligrams grams per serving. And if you lived in New York, you know, compared to the celery you would buy in Dallas or Los Angeles, you know, you would need to eat 60, 70 stalks of celery in New York versus, you know, five or six stalks of celery in, in Dallas. So there are regional differences in the amount of.

Why is that? Why is there a regional difference?

Well, it's a difference in farming practices. It's, you know, there lightning fixes nitrogen in the soil. So in areas where there's a number more lightning storms, you have the, the soil is more enriched in, in nitrogen in the form of nitrate, the time of harvest, the type of vegetables. So there are a number of variables in, in, in what's required for nitrogen assimilation in the plants. And so number two, you got to have the right oral bacteria so you could eat a good diet. But if you're using mouthwash, you eliminate the benefits of the diet. Diet in terms of nitric oxide, same thing with antacids. If you're on antacids, you can't break down proteins into amino acids. You shut down nitric oxide production so you can get it from the diet. But it's very difficult and almost impossible to know if you're getting enough nitrate from the diet and if your body's able to utilize that to make nitric oxide.

Gotcha. So is the night, if you eat like the food and it's convert to nitrite, is that any different than if you're going to get the, you know, nitric oxide from the losing. Is it the same in the body?

Well, what we've tried to do is everything we do is called restorative physiology. Right. And we try to recapitulate nitric oxide based signaling. And so that requires us to deliver the right amount of nitric oxide at the right time at the right dose. And so I think, you know what we've, you know, We've had almost 20 years experience in this, that what we deliver in that lozenge basically does everything that nitric oxide would do do whether it's endogenously produced or you're getting it from your diet.

Gotcha. And, and how much optimally do you need to have nitrous oxide in a day for healthy, you know, for someone that has a good saliva microbiome, have good stomach acid production and you know, eat well and so forth. How much did you opt?

Yeah, yeah, so it's, I mean it's, that's, that's very difficult to quantify. Right. Because it depends upon how much nitrate you're getting, the activity and functionality of the bacteria. But in terms of how much is produced by the enzyme, years ago you can do Radio labeled isotope experience where you can take radio labeled arginine and then look at how much of that radio labeled arginine is converted to citrulline. Now through those radio labeled isotope studies, we know the flux of nitric oxide. We know how much nitric oxide a healthy person would make in 24 hours. Hours. And for us in the research lab, that was kind of the basis of what we needed to produce in the form of a technology. Because you never want to give the body more than what it's designed to experience under normal metabolic processes. So that's kind of been our guiding principle is let's generate that same amount over a certain period of time through that laws.

Gotcha. And yeah, you shouldn't be taking the lozenges more than between every four hours at this time. Now you also mentioned one of your webinars that organic food has less nitric oxide. Why is that? I find that very interesting.

Well, that was a shocker. You know, we compared conventionally grown vegetables to organically grown vegetables and find that organically grown vegetables have on average about five to ten times less nitrate. And when you understand what organic means, you know, most consumers have no idea what organic means. They've just been taught in the media that organic is healthy. Well, there's certain aspects of organic that obviously you can add herbicides or pesticides to organic vegetables, but the other restriction is nitrogen based fertilizers. There's restrictions on adding standardized nitrogen to the soil of organically grown vegetables. But yet if these soils are deficient in nitrogen in the form of nitrate, then these organically grown vegetables have less nitrate to assimilate. So then those organically grown vegetables have less nitrate when we consume, consume them. We typically don't get enough nitrate from organically grown vegetables.

Oh, that is very. When I heard that, I was like, what? I buy organic all the time. So yeah, so then, so then what does that mean? If I buy my leafy greens, I should be buying organic, right?

Well, I think it's a balance, right? I mean, organic is good because you don't want to be exposed glyphosate or any herbicides or pesticides, you know, because those are toxic, really damaging chemicals on our food, in our food supply. So I think you have to tailor that the best for me. You know, I'm fortunate. I live on, you know, seven or 800 acres in Texas. So we grow our own food, I raise my own beef, we grow our own vegetables. So I think the best approach is if you can find, you know, a farmer's market that, you know, uses, you know, kind of some common sense approaches where you're adding nutrients to the soil soil, but yet you're not adding herbicides or pesticides to your crops. So buy local, you know, don't buy vegetables that have herbicides or pesticides on them, but you have to have nitrogen in the soil in order to get enough nitrate to generate nitric oxide gas.

Okay, so buy local farmers market. Go visit the farmer's market. Not only is it you're getting vegetables with good nitrous oxide, but you're also supporting local farmers and local business as well. And I love the farmers market. Well, right now it's too cold for the farmer's market, but it will resume and I will definitely be there. I wanted to add a little bit on stress. And we know that stress increase inflammation and therefore affect the endothelium. Stress and sleep. How is that indirectly related to nitrous oxide or directly?

Well, I think it's a two way street. Right. So nitric oxide helps control the secretion of certain hormones like cortisol and epinephrine and norepinephrine. It certainly regulates the autonomic nervous system system. But increased stress, increased cortisol levels shut down nitric oxide production. So that we know that, you know, chronic stress, chronic elevated cortisol levels, people develop vascular problems, high blood pressure, you know, it's multifactorial. But certainly there's a role for nitric oxide in that. And then sleep is critically important. You know, it's sleep, it's during sleep that we heal, we regenerate our stem cells, go to work. But in people that don't get sleep, sleep or who mouth breathe, you know, the mouth breathers are disrupting the oral microbiome. They become nitric oxide deficient. You know, oxygen is needed to make nitric oxide and if we're not getting oxygen delivery, if we have sleep apnea, then nitric oxide production during sleep doesn't occur. We don't mobilize stem cells, we don't heal, we don't regenerate and we wake up tired and we, we, we basically wear ourselves out.

Right, Wonderful. So, you know, I've recently been doing boto dysfunction and I find out that it's, it's been working wonderful and they've been getting result earlier and that the improvement for ED is lasting more than just three months. Because we know that Botox is about every three months that, you know, if you use Botox for wrinkles, you have to get a re injection every Three months because the effect wears off. But we find that when we do it for ed, Botox alone, it lasts about nine months. Months. And Botox with platelet rich plasma injection is lasting a little bit longer to about a year, perhaps a year and a half. And I was doing research on it, in fact, that Botox would actually will affect the nitrous oxide system through tapping to the Enos system. What are your thoughts on that?

Well, I don't, I'm not familiar with the research on Botox and, and ed, this is news to me, but I, you know, I trust to use your medical judgment and these are important observations, but for me, it's all about blood flow. So if you can open up the blood vessels of the sex organs in both men and women and allow for the engorgement, I mean, that's what allows for erections in both men and women. It's penile engorgement and clitoral engorgement. And for women to have an orgasm or men to have orgasm, you've got to maintain the engorgement of that. And so it's all about blood flow, flow and all that blood flow and increase in pressure is due to the production of nitric oxide. So if you can restore the function of nitric oxide, then the symptoms of erectile dysfunction physiologically and biochemically should be resolved.

Absolutely. And I just got a great idea talking to you. So before you have sexual activity, maybe 60 minutes before, 90 minutes before, take the lozenge. What are your thoughts on that? Would that increase?

Yeah, it's. I mean, these lozenges are quick acting. I mean, you could do it 5, 10, 15 minutes before sexual activity because we see peak plasma concentrations within 15 or 20 minutes of taking the lozenge.

Oh. So peak concentration, five to 15 minutes. So would the lozenge be better or would the beet powder be better?

Either. Either is going to be very effective because they're both rapid onset, rapid action. So, you know, five, 10, 15 minutes before, for sexual activity, take the lozenges, take the beads. We're going to dilate your blood vessels and improve circulation and blood flow and improve your performance on all levels.

Oh, my God. We just found out a way now to really accentuate the sexual experience. Not only, you know, lifestyle modification and treatment with PRP if needed, but just take the lozenge and I'm going to put the link down below in our shore note and you can get 10% coupon off of the product and it's called N O2U. And also no beach product. Product. And again, take these products with the advice, talking with your doctors as well. Because if you're on multiple anti hypertensive or blood pressure medication, you really do need to watch because you don't want to have a rapid decrease in your blood pressure and also causing less oxygen as well. Always discuss with your doctor about this. So before we go, any latest research that's come out about nitrous oxide and what would be your recommendation for like I either a morning routine or a biohack to increase nitric oxide?

Well, I think for me the most exciting thing is our drug discovery program. You know, we've just finished a phase three clinical trial for Covid. The most important thing from that is this drug is extremely safe. You know, there were no, we treated over 600 patients, not a single adverse event or side effect, not even a headache. So now the FDA has allowed us to go straight into phase three clinical trials on all our other drug programs. So for ischemic heart disease. So for me, you know, I'm trained as a drug discovery chemist and we've been very successful at bringing to market nutritional products and skin care products and dietary supplements. But for me, the way we transform healthcare and really leave a lasting legacy on medicine is develop safe and effective drugs that physicians can now use to treat their patients for a number of different chronic conditions. And I think nitric oxide will be the way we treat patients for the next hundred years. So for me, that's the most exciting thing coming out of research for, for biohacking. You know, you, you, that's a hot topic now. And people are doing these biohacks for me. This my own personal routine. I do a 16 hour fast every day. So I eat my last meal of the day at 5 or 5:30 in the afternoon. I don't eat again until noon the next day. Day. I think the scientific evidence is clear that intermittent fasting and caloric restriction improves longevity, improves quality of life. I have a hyperbaric oxygen chamber in my home. I use hyperbaric two to three times a week. I sit in an infrared sauna every day that I'm home. Or if I'm traveling, I try to find a hotel or a spa that has infrared saunas. And then I exercise, I move. I live on a working ranch, I work cattle, I ride horses. Autism. Always active. And then I try to eat sensibly, you know, not overeat, but eat a balanced diet in moderation.

Okay. Wow. Yeah. So it's really back to the basic, back to the basic diet. You Know what I call eat what the earth gave you? Right? Yeah. I tell my patient the earth didn't give you crackers in a, you know, in a bag or eat what the earth give you. Eat the caveman diet, right?

That's right.

And exercise and even just walking an hour a day and be outside. Outside, right. Be outside in the sun and doing walking. And I love the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. I was kind of checking that out. Why do you use that?

You know, especially, you know, I travel a lot. I'm on an airplane every week for the past three years. And so especially during the, the height of COVID we had 26 clinical sites around the US so I was in and around COVID patients. But I never got Covid. I never got sick from COVID In fact, today I still haven't been sick from COVID And I don't wear a mask. I refuse to wear masks. So it's not that I've not been exposed to Covid, it's just that my body knows how to deal with it. But when, you know, we have to listen to our body. So when I feel that my body's becoming compromised, then I take proactive approaches. So I'll go sit in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, fully oxygenate. I take the nitric oxide prior to the oxygen chamber to dilate the blood vessels. So now you get better delivery, more efficient delivery, delivery of the high pressure oxygen. And it's good for recovery. You know, if you overdo it in the gym, you get in there, you can oxygenate tissue and you know, lead to better recovery.

Absolutely. Yeah. So that's a nice basic routine. I really like that. Not complicated. I don't like biohacks that are like doing 10 different things, you know. And it just makes it so complicated that it almost, you have to be almost, you know, compulsive to do this full time job. You have to be compulsive to do this every day. So having said that, I think we cover all the major points. So if somebody like to connect with you, what, what would be a good way for them to connect with you? Dr. Brian, you know I.

My job is to provide education and information. It's not to sell you products. I send them to my website, DrNathan S. Bryan.com. you can follow me on Instagram, same handle. Dr. Nathan S. Bryan. I'm on Twitter @Doctor NY Nitric. And then you know you can, I'm searchable so you can search me. I ask people to go to PubMed, look for published papers look for the real science. Peer reviewed articles on nitric oxide biochemistry. But yeah, you can, you can find me, you can email me. My email is on my website. But I encourage people, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. I'll always respond. Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to respond. I get hundreds of emails every day, but I'll always respond.

Wonderful, wonderful. From what I'm hearing, nitrous oxide may be the miracle natural supplement. I don't like to call it drug because it's really not a drug. You know, as I'm going to med school and I'm going back again to read actually physiology book that I've learned 20, 30 years ago. Actually I started med school in 1990. No, that was residency. I thought med school in 1988, but I started residency in 92. So what I've learned is that the body doesn't recognize lisinopril. The body doesn't have, you know, you know, you know, medicine like protonic and so forth. Your body needs potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, you know, and organic electrolytes and minerals that how it functions. It doesn't need a drug for it to start working. So if your body's dysfunctional, that means that it needs these ingredients to start working. And so what the whole thing is like if you're, if your car is acting up, you want to make sure you find out the source of it and not just put in, you know, oil if you think that it may need it.

That's right.

You know what I mean? So my, my whole point is why are we treating this with drugs when we should really go back to the basic and the basics. It's like maybe nitrous oxide and go out in the sun, exercise, go back to nature food again.

Yeah. I tell people what I've learned in 25 years of academic medicine and basic science research is that people get sick for two reasons and two reasons only. The body's missing something that it needs or it's exposed to something and body doesn't need. So if you address those two facets in human physiology, the body heals itself. And as you pointed out in that model, there's no need for an HMG CoA reductase inhibitor to inhibit cholesterol production. There's no room for lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor and arb. You give the body what it needs, the body heals itself. So it's really that.

Yeah, that's a very, very good way. I love the way you said you give the body what it needs. It will heal itself. So if you're not performing well in the bedroom, it's Viagra or Cialis is what your body needs. I've been like you, and I'm a big proponent of using those medications to help with your performance because I correlated almost to taking opioid pain medication for pain. It's a band aid, it's a short term benefit, but in the end, it put you in a big black hole and it gives you more problems than you want to start with. And now, you know, I love to explore more nitrous oxide and love working with you in the future to how we can, you know, really improve, improve the health of people and our patient and educate them about our body, that our body needs, you know, to heal and stop giving it toxic stuff, stop giving, feeding it Red Bull.

Yeah, well, I think that's, I think that's the only way this works. You know, I think it, it's a collaboration between basic scientists and physicians, because my basic science discoveries mean nothing if we don't get it in the hands of the physicians on the, the front of online who are treating the patients, interacting with the patients. And I think it's the same thing. You know, the physicians and the healthcare practitioners have to be aware of emerging science, that they can use their best medical judgment and now integrate that into their patient care. So these collaborations like this are what transforms medicine.

Right on. I'm right with you there and I hope that we'll be able to do that. So having said that, thank you for being with me here today. I've learned a lot and I thought I knew enough and that I've been following him and I hope that I was able to summarize for our audience the main point of nitrous oxide. And I will put that in the show note, but for you to follow and the link to order the nitrous oxide product. And again, take this with under a doctor's supervision. Having said that, thank you for being with me today, Dr. Brian and Monument. I will see you in next episode. Take care.

All right, thank you.

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