Nitric oxide again? Yep. Now it relaxes blood vessels.

Okay, the article is actually about the role of folate (you can get in red beef, spinach, dried beans and peas) in helping lower blood pressure in younger women. It was a bit less stellar for older women.

But you hear us talk about nitric oxide all the time in this blog. So the part that attracted me was the statement that in this study of 250,000 women (that’s a significant number for a long-term study) folate reduces levels of “homocysteine,” a compound that runs around in our blood and is thought to lower blood pressure. Of course, if this compound gets too high, it reduces levels of nitric oxide–which relaxes blood vessels. So in other words, blood vessels stiffen up if they don’t get enough nitric oxide, and stiff blood vessels are much better candidates for heart attacks and strokes…

This nitric oxide is miraculous–both good and bad.

But this study says you need a LOT of folate–like 800 micrograms a day. “Folate is a B vitamin that is found naturally in leafy green vegetables such as spinach and turnip greens, fruits, dried beans and peas. To consume 800 micrograms a day, you would need to take a multivitamin plus eat three-quarters of a cup of breakfast cereal fortified with 400 micrograms of folate, or other foods. A half cup of spinach, for instance, has 100 micrograms, and three ounces of beef liver has 185 micrograms.”

Okay, but why does folate work better in younger women? And why was the study done only on women? Hmmm. Stay tuned…