Complete Symptom Relief and CFS Remission Since Starting Nitric Oxide Supplement

[Sasha]

Nitric Oxide Test Strips by Berkeley Test

Looks like you can get them on Amazon.com...

Nitric Oxide Saliva Test Strips By Berkeley Test - 50 Strips
Nitric Oxide Saliva Test Strips By Berkeley Test - 10 individual sealed strips

I'm wondering if this is something a cardiologist would test for, if they had a reason to suspect it, and if they would supervise treatment.

 

[Gijs]

Putative Prophylaxes of Aloe Vera Juice with L-arginine to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Akira Yagi, Suzuka Ataka
Abstract
L-Arginine is one of the most metabolically versatile amino acids. Several in vitro/in vivo experiments have indicated that exogenous L-arginine intake has multiple beneficial pharmacological and pharmaco-kinetic effects. Such effects include reduction in the risk of vascular and heart diseases and chronic fatigue syndrome. The effects of a dietary supplementation of aloe vera juice with L-arginine to chronic fatigue syndrome were demonstrated and a questionnaire was given to adult subjects. The questionnaire included 10 points regarding their mental, circulatory and muscle functions. Table 1 and 2 summarize the most noteworthy information on supplementation of aloe vera juice with L-arginine. The demonstrated benefits of aloe vera juice with L-arginine show promises to chronic fatigue syndrome in adult subjects.
Keywords
Aloe Vera Juice; L-arginine Supplement; Bioavailability; Immune Adjuvant and Natural Killer Cells Activity; Nitro Oxide Production; Questionnaire

http://easycore.org/index.php/joghr/article/view/1646

 

[Sasha]

Putative Prophylaxes of Aloe Vera Juice with L-arginine to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Akira Yagi, Suzuka Ataka
Abstract
L-Arginine is one of the most metabolically versatile amino acids. Several in vitro/in vivo experiments have indicated that exogenous L-arginine intake has multiple beneficial pharmacological and pharmaco-kinetic effects. Such effects include reduction in the risk of vascular and heart diseases and chronic fatigue syndrome. The effects of a dietary supplementation of aloe vera juice with L-arginine to chronic fatigue syndrome were demonstrated and a questionnaire was given to adult subjects. The questionnaire included 10 points regarding their mental, circulatory and muscle functions. Table 1 and 2 summarize the most noteworthy information on supplementation of aloe vera juice with L-arginine. The demonstrated benefits of aloe vera juice with L-arginine show promises to chronic fatigue syndrome in adult subjects.
Keywords
Aloe Vera Juice; L-arginine Supplement; Bioavailability; Immune Adjuvant and Natural Killer Cells Activity; Nitro Oxide Production; Questionnaire

http://easycore.org/index.php/joghr/article/view/1646

Non-blind study with no control condition and subjective self-ratings?

 

[JPV]

Non-blind study with no control condition and subjective self-ratings?

In my opinion, a large segment of this forum's members put way too much faith in medical studies. As far as I'm concerned, many of these studies have clearly become corrupted by pharmaceutical industry interests over the last few decades.

More and more, I tend to prefer anecdotal evidence from individuals, over double blind studies, as I feel they have less of a vested interest in the outcome. I certainly don't automatically think they are any less valid than published studies...

Double Blind Studies: Are They Still Valid Or Corrupted?
Posted on March 8, 2012 by Paul Lynn MD

Double blind studies are living off their positive impressions when they were conducted in an unbiased, objective way to get after the truth. Sadly, my conclusion is that double blind studies are now more likely than not to be well planned marketing devices. Most are now designed and conducted in a focused way to create data which will allow the product to pass the FDA, or enhance sales of a product already on the market. The intent is now about as far from an unbiased search for truth [original intent] as you can get. This change of intent from an unbiased search for the facts represents a total corruption of a system which initially offered great service and gained the respect of doctors and patients alike.

The conclusion is that the days of assuming double blind studies quoted in the media are not biased are over. A few studies are still being done by the FDA directly. These by far have the least bias. Other than these, the results of double blind studies no longer can be automatically considered superior to patient and doctors doing critical vigorous observations on their own of the results of meds introduced into the marketplace. The results of double blind studies are not discarded at all, but nor are they placed automatically in a ”defining the answer position” they once had in decisions on medical treatments.

 

[Sasha]

Nitric Oxide Test Strips by Berkeley Test

Looks like you can order them from Amazon.com...

Nitric Oxide Saliva Test Strips By Berkeley Test - 50 Strips
Nitric Oxide Saliva Test Strips By Berkeley Test - 10 individual sealed strips

Someone complaining about the strips:

Updated Review - I've been asked about the reliability issue related to these strips and continue to maintain that these are unreliable at best...and a waste of money at worst. Because one of us has a chronic lung condition, we were able to correlate the fact that these tests are indeed totally unreliable as compared to the gold standard...via an exhaled NO testing in a medical setting. In fact, due to the type of lung condition, NO levels tend to be HIGHER than average (as tested and measured by eNO in a medical setting) yet these strips showed depleted time and time again. Bottom line = unreliable at best.

 

[Hip]

The product he's using is called NO2 Black, so I think that's what where the confusion might be coming from.

Yes, I saw the rather unfortunate choice of name for the product.

 

[Hip]

I'd just like to detail my own experiments with arginine/ornithine-based supplements, experiments which have included:

Ornithine alpha ketoglutarate
Arginine alpha ketoglutarate
Arginine pyroglutamate (this one crosses the blood-brain barrier the best)
Di-arginine malate

Ornithine is converted into arginine in the body.

I found that all these arginine/ornithine-based supplements all had a significant anti-anxiety effect (and in fact I have included arginine pyroglutamate in my list of anti-anxiety supplements).


This paper on L-arginine is very interesting: it finds that L-arginine potentiates GABA synaptic transmission. So I think this means that L-arginine can be classed as a GABA receptor positive allosteric modulator, like benzodiazepines are.

When I take L-arginine-based supplements for anti-anxiety purposes, I notice that a tolerance to their anti-anxiety effects builds up after around 3 or 4 days use, which is reminiscent of benzodiazepine tolerance build-up.

The above paper found that the GABAergic modulating effects of L-arginine were independent of nitric oxide. So this effect that L-arginine has on the GABA system is in addition to L-arginine's effects on nitric oxide levels.



One very interesting thing I discovered with arginine pyroglutamate is that by snorting a tiny amount (100 mg) of arginine pyroglutamate powder into the nose, this would produce the same anti-anxiety effect as taking 3 grams of pyroglutamate powder orally.

What's more, the anti-anxiety effects of snorted arginine pyroglutamate would kick in fast, within around 20 minutes. Whereas when taking 3 grams of arginine pyroglutamate orally, it would take up to 2 hours to kick in.

 

[Jon_Tradicionali]

Can someone let us know how they get on, once they've tried the product in question please.

Thanks.

 

[Hip]

By 36 hours later I was a new person....complete symptom relief.

So it just takes 36 hours of starting this "MRI NO2 Black" product to get complete remission of your ME/CFS symptoms? That is pretty fast.

Can I ask, did your ME/CFS symptoms completely disappear, or is it more like 90% disappeared? And did all your ME/CFS symptoms vanish, or are there some which were not improved by this product?

I ran out around 10 days ago and symptoms started returning promptly

Did your symptoms return roughly as rapidly as they disappeared (ie, in 36 hours) once your stopped this "MRI No2 Black"?



One thing you might like to try is taking a pure arginine alpha ketoglutarate supplement, and seeing if the benefits are maintained. If they are, then you will know that the arginine alpha ketoglutarate component of this "MRI NO2 Black" product is the one that is working for you.

Though you might have to dose arginine alpha ketoglutarate say 4 times a day to simulate the extended release tablets of your "MRI NO2 Black" product.

You can buy arginine alpha ketoglutarate powder more cheaply than your brand name product (see here).

 

[gregh286]

So it just takes 36 hours of starting this "MRI No2 Black" product to get complete remission of your ME/CFS symptoms? That is pretty fast.

Can I ask, did your ME/CFS symptoms completely disappear, or is it more like 90% disappeared? And did all your ME/CFS symptoms vanish, or are there some which were not improved by this product?





Did your symptoms return roughly as rapidly as they disappeared (ie, in 36 hours) once your stopped this "MRI No2 Black"?



One thing you might like to try is taking a pure arginine alpha ketoglutarate supplement, and seeing if the benefits are maintained. If they are, then you will know that the arginine alpha ketoglutarate component of this "MRI No2 Black" product is the one that is working for you.

Though you might have to dose arginine alpha ketoglutarate say 4 times a day to simulate the extended release tablets of your "MRI No2 Black" product.

You can buy arginine alpha ketoglutarate powder more cheaply than your brand name product (see here).

Yes from 36 hours onwards. Once the vasodilation of the small vessels start i guess the body can clear lactate pretty quickly....not.so sure about 90% or 100% because having cfs for 3-4 years it quite hard to tell what 100% should feel like because we are so unconditioned from lack of exercise. But being able to walk 5 or 6 miles a day without PEM i would say puts me in a high place on bells scale.
I didnt try to raise HR yet to 170+ ....running etc as i am in a content place now and dont want to jeopardise that.
Normally i would have felt lactic building after a few.hundred metres.....
My symptoms are mostly fatigue...so i was mostly concered about that.

The symtoms returned after 1 or 2 days..i could feel myself going downhill so to speak. I assumed lactate just started building up again as you can feel the legs and body get heavier and heavier.

 

[gregh286]

There maybe a secondary function at play also as it seems arginine has a effect on NK cell activity.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3083.1995.tb03687.x/abstract

 

[JPV]

@gregh286, have you ever read this thread?

Dr. Jay Goldstein's Rapid Remission ME/CFS Treatments.

The best way to raise your nitric oxide levels is to take nitroglycerin or one of its relatives. Nitroglycerin is converted directly to nitric oxide by the body.

At the height of my worst episode of ME/CFS, I took a 10 mg tablet of isosorbide dinitrate (Isordil), which is essentially a longer acting form of nitroglycerin. I went from being bed bound to working full time in three days. Within three more weeks, I had achieved complete remission of all symptoms, and I remained that way for almost all of the next eight years. I didn't even need the Isordil during that time.

However, as you may have gathered, I had a major relapse eight years later, a day after some minor surgery. And tolerance to nitroglycerin or isosorbide dinitrate can develop quickly; it never worked the same for me. However, some people are able to derive great benefits from it for long periods of time.

 

[Hip]

There maybe a secondary function at play also as it seems arginine has a effect on NK cell activity.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3083.1995.tb03687.x/abstract

Arginine can also improve both acute and chronic coxsackievirus B3 infections of the heart muscle (coxsackievirus B3 myocarditis), likely via its action of raising NO levels. See this mouse study.

Chronic coxsackievirus B infection of the muscles, stomach and nervous system is frequently found in ME/CFS. So arginine seems to have an antiviral or ameliorating effect in coxsackievirus B muscle infection.

What's more, this mouse study found that by inhibiting NO, coxsackievirus B3 titers actually increased, and the infection then caused more severe lesions in the heart muscle.

So in the mouse at least, increased NO definitely seems to be helpful for coxsackievirus B myocardial infections, and decreased NO makes these infections worse.

However, usually when you take antivirals for ME/CFS, it takes many months to have a noticeable effect, so I wouldn't think your very rapid remission from this arginine-based supplement in just 36 hours was due to the antiviral action. I would think it is much more likely to be due to the increased NO levels that can result from arginine-based supplements.



Dave Whitlock: Low NO Levels as the Cause of ME/CFS

Have you come across Dave Whitlock's low NO theory of ME/CFS? Whitlock proposes that ME/CFS is caused by low basal levels of NO. He points out that mitochondrial biogenesis (the creation of new mitochondria in cells) is critically dependent on NO levels.

Whitlock says that if your basal NO level is low, your cells will not be producing enough new mitochondria to replace the old decommissioned mitochondria. There is a fast turnover of mitochondria in cells, and if new mitochondria are not being created at a fast enough rate, this leads to a reduced number of mitochondria in cells.

The average lifespan of a mitochondrion in a cell is not known exactly, but thought to be around 2 to 4 weeks, although some studies indicate that mitochondrial lifespan may in fact be extremely brief, as short as a 2 days.

If the lifespan of mitochondria is just a couple of days, that would suggest that remedying low NO levels in ME/CFS patients should produce very fast improvements within a day or two, in terms of increasing the number of mitochondria in your cells — which is exactly what you found with your treatment using the NO-raising "MRI NO2 Black" product.

I like Whitlock's idea, as it would be a very elegant solution if ME/CFS were simply caused by reduced mitochondrial biogenesis due to low basal NO.

 

[Hip]

not.so sure about 90% or 100% because having cfs for 3-4 years it quite hard to tell what 100% should feel like because we are so unconditioned from lack of exercise. But being able to walk 5 or 6 miles a day without PEM i would say puts me in a high place on bells scale.

Yes, it's always hard to gauge changes in your level of severity of ME/CFS.

I tend to find the ME/CFS scale of mild, moderate and severe the most useful and simple way of describing ME/CFS. Descriptions of these three levels of severity of ME/CFS are given here.

If any treatment gets you up one level of this scale (eg, say from severe to moderate, or say from moderate to mild), then I tend to think of that as major improvement in ME/CFS.

What would you say your level of ME/CFS was before taking this "MRI NO2 Black" product, and what is it afterwards?

 

[Sasha]

I like Whitlock's idea, as it would be a very elegant solution if ME/CFS were simply caused by reduced mitochondrial biogenesis due to low basal NO.

All this stuff is way over my head but I hope those who see a coherent picture involving mitochondria and effective interventions are writing to Naviaux, Younger and the like...

 

[JaimeS]

You can buy arginine alpha ketoglutarate powder more cheaply than your brand name product (see here).

Then it'd make sense, maybe, to purchase this cheaper product first to see if it does anything. If it does, then it might be worth purchasing the more expensive product with the slow-release. If it doesn't, you'll have spent less...

 

[rebar]

Maybe Jaime, but as we know differences in products/treatments, for our group can mean a major difference in response. If Gregh's experience of 38 hours for benefit to be notice is typical then we should be hearing from others this week.

 

[Mrs Sowester]

I ordered a box from eBay, will give it a go and report back.

 

[Hip]

Then it'd make sense, maybe, to purchase this cheaper product first to see if it does anything. If it does, then it might be worth purchasing the more expensive product with the slow-release.

It is quite possible, though, that the benefits of the MRI NO2 Black supplement for ME/CFS do not come so much from its arginine alpha ketoglutarate ingredient, but more from the ActiNOS® ingredient, which the blurb says is scientifically proven to raise nitric oxide synthase (NOS) by 950%.

NOS is the body's enzyme which makes NO. The NOS enzyme makes NO starting with arginine as a raw material. So you need both arginine and NOS to produce NO.

Several body-building supplements contain this NOS-boosting ActiNOS ingredient, including these:

MRI - NO2 BLACK — ActiNOS content not given, but each 3 gram serving includes a proprietary blend of 150 mg of alpha lipoic acid + ActiNOS.

MRI - Pro-NOS — ActiNOS content not given.

Amix Nutrition - CFM Nitro Protein Isolate — contains 425 mg of ActiNOS per 100 grams of powder.

Reflex Nutrition - NOS Fusion — 1390 mg of ActiNOS per 100 grams of powder.

Pro Line Nutrition - Iso-Advanced Whey Protein Isolate — ActiNOS content not given.

Extrifit Sport Nutrition - Actinox Nitro Peptides — 1522 mg of ActiNOS per 100 grams of powder (I think).



ActiNOS is a whey-derived peptide fraction. ActiNOS was developed by a company called Glanbia Nutritionals. I think the scientific name for ActiNOS is nitric oxide peptide-47 (NOP-47). Their info page on ActiNOS / NOP-47 is here. To quote:

A research team led by Dr. Jeff Volek of The Human Performance Laboratory at The University of Connecticut, conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled study on the effects of NOP-47, short for Nitric Oxide Peptide-47, on vascular function in twenty healthy men and women.

Ingestion of NOP-47 resulted in a 28 percent increase in artery dilation measured by ultrasound and also significantly increased peak forearm blood flow. Blood chemistries also indicated that NOP-47 increased nitric oxide levels compared to the placebo.

The study they are referring to in the above quote is this one.

 

[panckage]

Then it'd make sense, maybe, to purchase this cheaper product first to see if it does anything. If it does, then it might be worth purchasing the more expensive product with the slow-release. If it doesn't, you'll have spent less...

Nope you will likely spend more. Buy the one in the OP and only if it works try the cheaper one