I am intrigued; I just ordered some.
Dr Hornig had reported that their cohort was significantly low in ADMA assymetric dimethylarginine. I do wonder about the significance of this. It may have been in their CFI funded study nothing published on this though.
Do you know what the arginine levels were? As I understand it, the issue is not so much the level of ADMA as the ratio of ADMA-to-arginine. For instance,
a 2010 review of ADMA noted that
ADMA levels were inversely correlated to the endothelial-dependent vasodilatation. Furthermore, intravenous infusion of L-arginine normalised not just the L-arginine/ADMA ratio but also normalised the endothelial function.
So although they are suggesting that ADMA is a good test for heart health, they are also saying that actually your ADMA level doesn't matter in and of itself--it only matters in relation to how much arginine is floating around.
A Bit of a Tangent Into Arginine and ADMA:
The link between arginine and "normalized endothelial function" might sound like a great reason to take a bunch of L-Arginine--and indeed, a lot of experts thought so at first. Unfortunately, the benefits didn't materialize as imagined: See
this page from UC Berkley where they say that "a study at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2006 found that arginine supplements given to heart attack patients dramatically increased deaths. The study had to be halted."
Why did L-arginine appear to increase deaths in heart attack patients? One possibility is that arginine is only dangerous for people with too much PRMT, which as people have said, is what converts arginine to ADMA using two SAMe. Since ADMA levels correlate well with risk of a heart attack we might expect people having heart attacks to have high PRMT levels or activity. (If this has been studied I haven't seen it...but I haven't looked a lot.) This might explain why giving L-arginine to people who just had heart attacks is a bad idea.
Unfortunately, there is a second possibility--one I have not yet taken the time to rule out by actually reading the positive studies. Essentially, it could be that the early studies only found benefit because they infused arginine and tested NO in somewhat quick succession. Perhaps if they had waited longer before testing the arginine would have had more time to become ADMA, in which case L-arginine supplements taken at physiologically relevant doses (that is to say, enough to feel something) might be dangerous to everyone. I am far from sure about this, but it seemed like I should mention it.
In any case I'm glad you found something that works so well for you
@gregh286 , and I'll report back when I try some.