Nitrogen oxide - a natural remedy

Breathe through your nose! This applies to everybody, everywhere and at any time. There are numerous reasons for this, but here follows a physiological and very tangible explanation.

In 1998 the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to three American scientists for their discovery of nitrogen oxide's ability to expand blood vessels. This phenomenon is called vasodilatation. Nitrogen oxide (NO) simply makes the blood vessel walls relax thereby increasing blood flow.

They found that NO is formed and released in human sinuses. Further they showed that the NO concentration in the nasal cavity increases as much as 15 times if you make a "buzzing sound", because it creates vibrations, which mixes air from the sinuses with nasal air.

Blood is oxygenated 10-15% more when you breathe through the nose compared to breathing through your mouth. When you breathe through your nose, NO flows with the inhaled air into the lungs where it makes the blood vessels in the alveoli expand. This allows a greater volume of blood to pass, whereby more oxygen can be taken up. When NO was given to those who breathed through the mouth, the same effect was registered. This showed that it is actually NO which mediates the marked rise in oxygenation.

NO is also one of the active ingredients of nitroglycerine that is used as a heart medicine because it causes the blood vessels of the heart to relax and expand.

Antibacterial
In addition, it should also be mentioned that NO has many other ben­eficial effects. It has a strong antibacterial effect, and can kill both bacte­ria and viruses. Studies have shown that NO successfully elimi­nates bacteria such as Salmonella and Shigella as well as other bacteria that often affect patients with pulmonary diseases caused by smoking or cystic fibrosis. Thus, the effect is not limited to an improved oxygena­tion of blood: the immune system is also spared and strengthened.

How to increase NO

Humming: To further in­crease the concentration of NO – and thus the dilation of blood ves­sels – humming sounds during nose breathing can advantageously be employed. This rather special kind of breathing is beneficial because the buzzing sound has been shown to increase the concentration of NO in the nasal cavity up to 15 times, since the air in the nose more readily mixes with NO-rich air from the sinuses.

Valsalva maneuver, pressure equalizing:  This maneuver presses air from the lungs to all the cavities in the skull, around the nose and forehead. During a cold or if you have swum under water with a blocked nose, you may have experience a marked pain in the sinuses. The Valsalva maneuver is easy to perform and everyone can perform it right away, because it requires no prior knowledge. Close your mouth, pinch your nose shut and push air up in your head using your diaphragm and abdominal muscles. You may be able to hear air whistling through the eustachian tubes to the eardrum (psssttt).

The technique is widely used in diving, flying, mountain driving or in any instance where you need to equalize the pressure in your ears. If you maintain the air from the lungs in your head for 20-30 seconds after the Valsalva maneuver, a substantial amount of NO is added to the air, which can then be drawn into the lungs.