Joy Kong, MD, has spent 25 years studying nitric oxide, a molecule the body uses to regulate blood pressure and blood flow. Her research shows how nitric oxide production declines with age, contributing to sexual dysfunction, high blood pressure, and dementia. She's developed ways to restore it.
I spent the past 25 or 30 years on studying the single molecule nitric oxide. I got a degree in biochemistry from the University of Texas in Austin, and then I went to LSU School of Medicine, where I. Where I completed a PhD in molecular and cellular physiology. And this was in the late 90s, early 2000s, and the Nobel Prize had just been awarded. The discovery of nitric oxide, 25 years ago, we realized that it was a vasodilator, meaning that it increased blood flow and circulation throughout the entire body. But we really didn't know how to measure it. We didn't know a clear understanding of how the human body made nitric oxide. And we really didn't understand what led to a loss of nitric oxide production, which then we knew led to things like sexual dysfunction, high blood pressure, dementia, Alzheimer's. I'm proud to say, 25 years later, we've answered all those questions. We understand all the unanswered questions at the time. We know how the human body makes nitric oxide. We know what goes wrong in people that can't make it. And perhaps most importantly, we know how to restore the production of this molecule.
