NO (Nitric Oxide) & Eye Whitening, Circulation, Bloat, Stimulant Risk Mitigation, & Basically Everything

[ogu]

Nitric Oxide
(NOTE: NO = Nitric Oxide from now on)
DISCLAIMER: This thread does not talk about crazy supplements. its just some general knowledge that you should know to lead a healthy life, and is probably one of the softest of softmaxxing threads out there. much of the information listed in this thread should already be common knowledge. ​

Many of u guys might have at least heard the mention of nitric oxide the nitric oxide pathway, and that's because its the particular pathway thats mainly targeted by viagra. So already off the rip you can tell that influencing the nitric oxide pathway should be somehow related to blood vessels, thus impacting the eyes. This thread is also important for those who are using stimulants such as Adderall/Vyvanse, since your blood vessels are impacted heavily by these drugs.

So what is it?​

Nitric oxide is a gas your body produces to tell blood vessels to relax and dilate. When NO signaling is good, blood moves through tiny capillaries, including the ones in your eyes and facial skin.​

​

You ever realize how some people wake up and already, without any routine, their eyes are already clear, with a warm face and good toning before food/drinks? It should go without saying that circulation is indubitably one of the most important softmaxxes to just unlock your baseline level of looks. People who look good without doing anything have a fully functional vascular signaling profile, one which isn't shut down by stress and posture.​

In the eye​

Nitric oxide is a literal gas in your endothelium that tell blood vessels to stop being so rigid and to actually open for blood to go through. Nitric oxide has been scientifically shown to regulate the baseline level of blood flow in the choroid and retina, which should sound familiar if your eyes have a "dead" look.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11587919/

Figure 1. Doesn't actually mean that much, just goes to show how many vessels are underneath your eyes, all of which are very small and delicate. Protect them at all costs

And no, it's not just the flow but actually also the regulation. nitric oxide is essential in something known as autoregulation, meaning that the eyes and face, making places on the body very sensitive to changes in pressure/posture and stress. If this system is already shit (waking up puffy or red), it takes half the day to normalize and look regular again - if it ever does lmfao https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17337232/

So this is why siting all day actually wrecks your face. You have no shear stress on the eyes, signal, dilation, and your vessels actually stay slightly constricted all the time. This reduces the overall flow in your body.

The goal isnt to actually how to increase NO, but actually how to force the body into certain states where producing NO should be the only response. This is why walking works, but not in the beta sense of just walking 10k steps, but actually its more about the sustained rhythm of movement. When you walk for around 10-15 minutes before lifting, you're just pushing blood through larger vascular beds in a non-chaotic way, with shear stress telling the endothelium to release NO.

1. Breathing​

This actually matters a bit, nasal breathing is mechanical. The crazy part is the nasal epithelium itself literally produces nitric oxide, and exhaled NO is actually measured as a clinical physiological marker. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12556406/
Many of you guys know already that mouth breathing is bad, but this actually cements it scientifically as something that you should not do. By breathing through your mouth, you're actually just skipping an entire NO related pathway that makes the vessels stay rigid, preventing proper flow.

SIDE NOTE: Humming
LMFAO For once this isnt actually cope. Albeit weird, I'm not telling you to start maasai jumping or some shit. Humming actually does play a role in NO. Nasal and sinus NO production actually spikes during humming due to oscillatory airflow (basically the vibrations that you make during humming influence the air that your sinuses get). You don't have to go full berserk monk mode, u actually just have to have a few minutes of low frequency (low pitch) humming. Make sure to really feel the vibrations through the nose, do it before sleep or after waking and it should theoretically stimulate NO. It doesn't hurt to try.

2. Diet​

Honestly not that important. Just eat your vegetables like arugula or some shit, since the nitrates from your diet converts to nitric oxide. many of you guys i assume already eat enough vegetables

3. Posture​

Gets kind of schizo, but should be obvious if you think about it for a little more than 5 seconds. Your face is the only body part that is above the heart. Microvascular perfusion is very sensitive to pressure, so if you wake up folded like a pretzel with your neck cranked forward and immediately wake up to be slumped again over a phone, your blood distribution will be bad. This is given, and it shouldn't take this thread to tell you that fixing your posture is much better for you than just circulation.

EXOGENOUS METHODS​

Ok here's what you guys have been waiting for. Just open up an amazon tab and start ordering shit but this doesn't mean that you should just ignore the previous methods. Supplements just tilt existing pathways, so if the base system is dead, then all the money you spend is just released via piss straight into your toilet where you can then flush your wallet goodbye

1. L-arginine & L-citrulline.
Somebody at some point in your career have told you to take these probably without understanding what it actually does, but the eNOS literally uses L-arginine as a substrate. Citrulline works upstream by recycling back into arginine in the kidneys, and is a very basic and established pathway.
NOTE: Taking these while living sedentary have literally no effect. The enzyme still needs shear stress in order to have an effect, so you still have to be active.

Figure 2, The red arrows mean inhibition, for those who do not know. Smooth muscles, aka the muscles that line your arteries, is shown to be enabled by L arginine and L citrulline working in harmony. Pretty beautiful side effects are also noted, which are collagen synthesis and cell proliferation, all relatively beneficial.

2. Polyphenols (esp. cocoa flavanols)
It should be noted that these don't actually make NO, they are just responsible in the pathway that produces it. Nitric oxide is very chemically unstable, with oxidation "killing" it very fast. Cocoa flavanols in specific have been shown to improve endothelial function and dilation of flow mediators. The longer than NO sticks around in your body, the longer than vessels stay open. This is especially helpful for those who are chronically stressed or those who are prescribed (or abuse) stimulants. Without antioxidants, NO is neutralized before it can actually do anything. This is especially important for adderall heads.

Figure 3. Couldn't find any other graph that shows how polyphenols interact with NO, but this is just a graph that shows the exact pathway in how polyphenols produce NO and thus lead to vasodilation. Keep in mind that there are many more functions to NO, which not only enables cGMP.

3. Vitamin C
Sounds boring, is boring/ Vitamin C stablizes something known as tetrahydrobiopterine (BH4), which is a cofactor of eNOS, meaning that eNOS essentially needs it to function properly. When BH4 is low, eNOS is uncoupled and produces a lot of oxidative shit instead of nitric oxide. This literally means that without sufficient vitamin C (which is more prevalent than you may think in the general population), your NO deadass turns evil and harms you. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33940170/

Figure 4. Here you can see how both the vitamin c and dietary nitrate inputs affect EF. Also includes L-arginine. Oh yeah everythings coming together

IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE: THINGS YOU SHOULD AVOID​

I'll be a bit more brief, since many of these are fundamental habits that are kind of hard to change, especially because of addiction.

Avoid:​

1. Caffiene
2. Nicotine
3. Slamming supplements - You have to make a clear distinction between inflammatory NO (iNOS) and eNOS (good). Doing so many supplements can push you towards oxidative stress instead of the goal, which is better circulation. NO is a very double edged molecule since it serves many functions, and having too much because of exogenous impact will negatively impact you.

 

[Micrognathic]

dnr
edit: did read, pretty good thread
could've gone more into detail and included the dosages, for example, L-citrulline 6-7g per day
Also, polyphenols are dose-dependent. The amount you'll get from diet alone is suboptimal, especially for someone with high oxidative stress due to stimulant usage.
Keep in mind that a person's capacity to synthesize and stabilize NO varies based on their genetics and their age.
For example, someone with baseline endothelial dysfunction from smoking will experience a more drastic improvement than someone with normal NO signaling.
@ogu, overall this thread is pretty good, and sorry for the dnr

 

[Bishoplol]

dnr, why are we becoming biology experts while being sub3

 

[ilovearcherqueen]

BOTB incoming. Good effort

 

[leaks]

good thread. i've consistently taken adderall for the better part of a year, and would recommend anyone else doing so looks into ensuring proper blood circulation. a lot of the newer stimulant users like to direct all their newfound energy and focus into an anti-physical activity such as gaming rather than using the drug as physical motivation. you will look like shit if you sit on your ass doing nothing all day, especially if you're on amphetamines.

 

[ogu]

good thread. i've consistently taken adderall for the better part of a year, and would recommend anyone else doing so looks into ensuring proper blood circulation. a lot of the newer stimulant users like to direct all their newfound energy and focus into an anti-physical activity such as gaming rather than using the drug as physical motivation. you will look like shit if you sit on your ass doing nothing all day, especially if you're on amphetamines.

can definitely vouch lmfao

 

[ilovearcherqueen]

good thread. i've consistently taken adderall for the better part of a year, and would recommend anyone else doing so looks into ensuring proper blood circulation. a lot of the newer stimulant users like to direct all their newfound energy and focus into an anti-physical activity such as gaming rather than using the drug as physical motivation. you will look like shit if you sit on your ass doing nothing all day, especially if you're on amphetamines.

Have you ever received any side effects to be worried about?

 

[ogu]

Have you ever received any side effects to be worried about?

for me, not really. if ur looking into it i would just recommend u to start small and then adjust it to what you think is right for you. honestly stims are not revolutionary at all

 

[Whatsamaxilla__]

good thread. i've consistently taken adderall for the better part of a year, and would recommend anyone else doing so looks into ensuring proper blood circulation. a lot of the newer stimulant users like to direct all their newfound energy and focus into an anti-physical activity such as gaming rather than using the drug as physical motivation. you will look like shit if you sit on your ass doing nothing all day, especially if you're on amphetamines.

how is adderall taken?

 

[leaks]

Have you ever received any side effects to be worried about?

you won't eat anything. at least for me, when i try to force myself to eat on adderall, i will literally throw up. on top of that, your body will use much more water than before, so you need to drink a lot or you'll be dehydrated. honestly, though, it's really an upside if you're on a cut. that's about it.

TL;DR you need to drink more water and you'll have zero appetite

 

[leaks]

how is adderall taken?

orally, in capsule/pill form. i take orange 30mg XR capsules.

 

[Whatsamaxilla__]

Nitric Oxide
(NOTE: NO = Nitric Oxide from now on)
DISCLAIMER: This thread does not talk about crazy supplements. its just some general knowledge that you should know to lead a healthy life, and is probably one of the softest of softmaxxing threads out there. much of the information listed in this thread should already be common knowledge. ​

Many of u guys might have at least heard the mention of nitric oxide the nitric oxide pathway, and that's because its the particular pathway thats mainly targeted by viagra. So already off the rip you can tell that influencing the nitric oxide pathway should be somehow related to blood vessels, thus impacting the eyes. This thread is also important for those who are using stimulants such as Adderall/Vyvanse, since your blood vessels are impacted heavily by these drugs.

So what is it?​

Nitric oxide is a gas your body produces to tell blood vessels to relax and dilate. When NO signaling is good, blood moves through tiny capillaries, including the ones in your eyes and facial skin.​

​

You ever realize how some people wake up and already, without any routine, their eyes are already clear, with a warm face and good toning before food/drinks? It should go without saying that circulation is indubitably one of the most important softmaxxes to just unlock your baseline level of looks. People who look good without doing anything have a fully functional vascular signaling profile, one which isn't shut down by stress and posture.​

In the eye​

Nitric oxide is a literal gas in your endothelium that tell blood vessels to stop being so rigid and to actually open for blood to go through. Nitric oxide has been scientifically shown to regulate the baseline level of blood flow in the choroid and retina, which should sound familiar if your eyes have a "dead" look.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11587919/
View attachment 4529098
Figure 1. Doesn't actually mean that much, just goes to show how many vessels are underneath your eyes, all of which are very small and delicate. Protect them at all costs

And no, it's not just the flow but actually also the regulation. nitric oxide is essential in something known as autoregulation, meaning that the eyes and face, making places on the body very sensitive to changes in pressure/posture and stress. If this system is already shit (waking up puffy or red), it takes half the day to normalize and look regular again - if it ever does lmfao https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17337232/

So this is why siting all day actually wrecks your face. You have no shear stress on the eyes, signal, dilation, and your vessels actually stay slightly constricted all the time. This reduces the overall flow in your body.

The goal isnt to actually how to increase NO, but actually how to force the body into certain states where producing NO should be the only response. This is why walking works, but not in the beta sense of just walking 10k steps, but actually its more about the sustained rhythm of movement. When you walk for around 10-15 minutes before lifting, you're just pushing blood through larger vascular beds in a non-chaotic way, with shear stress telling the endothelium to release NO.

1. Breathing​

This actually matters a bit, nasal breathing is mechanical. The crazy part is the nasal epithelium itself literally produces nitric oxide, and exhaled NO is actually measured as a clinical physiological marker. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12556406/
Many of you guys know already that mouth breathing is bad, but this actually cements it scientifically as something that you should not do. By breathing through your mouth, you're actually just skipping an entire NO related pathway that makes the vessels stay rigid, preventing proper flow.

SIDE NOTE: Humming
LMFAO For once this isnt actually cope. Albeit weird, I'm not telling you to start maasai jumping or some shit. Humming actually does play a role in NO. Nasal and sinus NO production actually spikes during humming due to oscillatory airflow (basically the vibrations that you make during humming influence the air that your sinuses get). You don't have to go full berserk monk mode, u actually just have to have a few minutes of low frequency (low pitch) humming. Make sure to really feel the vibrations through the nose, do it before sleep or after waking and it should theoretically stimulate NO. It doesn't hurt to try.

2. Diet​

Honestly not that important. Just eat your vegetables like arugula or some shit, since the nitrates from your diet converts to nitric oxide. many of you guys i assume already eat enough vegetables

3. Posture​

Gets kind of schizo, but should be obvious if you think about it for a little more than 5 seconds. Your face is the only body part that is above the heart. Microvascular perfusion is very sensitive to pressure, so if you wake up folded like a pretzel with your neck cranked forward and immediately wake up to be slumped again over a phone, your blood distribution will be bad. This is given, and it shouldn't take this thread to tell you that fixing your posture is much better for you than just circulation.

EXOGENOUS METHODS​

Ok here's what you guys have been waiting for. Just open up an amazon tab and start ordering shit but this doesn't mean that you should just ignore the previous methods. Supplements just tilt existing pathways, so if the base system is dead, then all the money you spend is just released via piss straight into your toilet where you can then flush your wallet goodbye

1. L-arginine & L-citrulline.
Somebody at some point in your career have told you to take these probably without understanding what it actually does, but the eNOS literally uses L-arginine as a substrate. Citrulline works upstream by recycling back into arginine in the kidneys, and is a very basic and established pathway.
NOTE: Taking these while living sedentary have literally no effect. The enzyme still needs shear stress in order to have an effect, so you still have to be active.
View attachment 4529172
Figure 2, The red arrows mean inhibition, for those who do not know. Smooth muscles, aka the muscles that line your arteries, is shown to be enabled by L arginine and L citrulline working in harmony. Pretty beautiful side effects are also noted, which are collagen synthesis and cell proliferation, all relatively beneficial.

2. Polyphenols (esp. cocoa flavanols)
It should be noted that these don't actually make NO, they are just responsible in the pathway that produces it. Nitric oxide is very chemically unstable, with oxidation "killing" it very fast. Cocoa flavanols in specific have been shown to improve endothelial function and dilation of flow mediators. The longer than NO sticks around in your body, the longer than vessels stay open. This is especially helpful for those who are chronically stressed or those who are prescribed (or abuse) stimulants. Without antioxidants, NO is neutralized before it can actually do anything. This is especially important for adderall heads.
View attachment 4529180
Figure 3. Couldn't find any other graph that shows how polyphenols interact with NO, but this is just a graph that shows the exact pathway in how polyphenols produce NO and thus lead to vasodilation. Keep in mind that there are many more functions to NO, which not only enables cGMP.

3. Vitamin C
Sounds boring, is boring/ Vitamin C stablizes something known as tetrahydrobiopterine (BH4), which is a cofactor of eNOS, meaning that eNOS essentially needs it to function properly. When BH4 is low, eNOS is uncoupled and produces a lot of oxidative shit instead of nitric oxide. This literally means that without sufficient vitamin C (which is more prevalent than you may think in the general population), your NO deadass turns evil and harms you. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33940170/
View attachment 4529182
Figure 4. Here you can see how both the vitamin c and dietary nitrate inputs affect EF. Also includes L-arginine. Oh yeah everythings coming together

IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE: THINGS YOU SHOULD AVOID​

I'll be a bit more brief, since many of these are fundamental habits that are kind of hard to change, especially because of addiction.

Avoid:​

1. Caffiene
2. Nicotine
3. Slamming supplements - You have to make a clear distinction between inflammatory NO (iNOS) and eNOS (good). Doing so many supplements can push you towards oxidative stress instead of the goal, which is better circulation. NO is a very double edged molecule since it serves many functions, and having too much because of exogenous impact will negatively impact you.

if i only took one of the l citrulline and l arginine which would be the better option ?

 

[ogu]

you won't eat anything. at least for me, when i try to force myself to eat on adderall, i will literally throw up. on top of that, your body will use much more water than before, so you need to drink a lot or you'll be dehydrated. honestly, though, it's really an upside if you're on a cut. that's about it.

TL;DR you need to drink more water and you'll have zero appetite

is it fr that bad for you? I feel like I can still eat a little on adderall, though sometimes i literally forget and by the time it wears off it feels like my soul has been reaped from me.

 

[ogu]

if i only took one of the l citrulline and l arginine which would be the better option ?

l citrulline. more reliable for actually supporting eNOS activity

 

[ogu]

orally, in capsule/pill form. i take orange 30mg XR capsules.

i hate taking XR ngl i cant sleep off them bitches

 

[leaks]

is it fr that bad for you? I feel like I can still eat a little on adderall, though sometimes i literally forget and by the time it wears off it feels like my soul has been reaped from me.

yes, it is that bad for me. if i force myself to eat more than, for example, a single banana i'll get sick to my stomache. i always eat a large meal before i take adderall and after it wears off so i don't feel like shit throughout the day.

 

[ogu]

dnr
edit: did read, pretty good thread
could've gone more into detail and included the dosages, for example, L-citrulline 6-7g per day
Also, polyphenols are dose-dependent. The amount you'll get from diet alone is suboptimal, especially for someone with high oxidative stress due to stimulant usage.
Keep in mind that a person's capacity to synthesize and stabilize NO varies based on their genetics and their age.
For example, someone with baseline endothelial dysfunction from smoking will experience a more drastic improvement than someone with normal NO signaling.
@ogu, overall this thread is pretty good, and sorry for the dnr

thanks for changing ur mind. my first post since like fucking forever lol i can't believe the slop threads i used to post i used to think i was so high iq and whitepilled

 

[leaks]

i hate taking XR ngl i cant sleep off them bitches

the common rule is that you shouldn't take xr after 11:00 am or else you won't be getting to sleep that night.

for me it's 12:00 pm, as i've developed a mild stimulant tolerance.

 

[ogu]

yes, it is that bad for me. if i force myself to eat more than, for example, a single banana i'll get sick to my stomache. i always eat a large meal before i take adderall and after it wears off so i don't feel like shit throughout the day.

i usually buy pedialyte and eat a lot of carbs and fats before adderall. not sure what pedialyte actually does but i think the placebo effect reassures me more than it actually helps lmfao

 

[LegendaryKennen]

disagree on polyphenols