The 5 Biggest Mistakes Secretly Destroying Your Arteries (& Spiking Your Blood Pressure)
In a Nutshell
The five habits destroying nitric oxide and raising blood pressure are antibacterial mouthwash (up to 90% reduction), broad-spectrum antibiotics that kill mouth bacteria, gut lining damage triggering immune overactivation, blood sugar spikes causing oxidative stress, and processed meat nitrates that promote inflammation. Nitric oxide from vegetables, exercise, and nasal breathing is beneficial for arterial health, but the immune-system version becomes harmful when chronically overactivated. Ray Peat's warnings apply only to the immune version, not the vascular and neural forms that protect against hypertension.
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There are five daily habits that are destroying nitric oxide and spiking blood pressure. Researchers, cardiologists, and exercise scientists consider nitric oxide one of the most beneficial substances for the body. In contrast, Ray Peat, a physiologist who spent 40 years studying cellular biology, stated that nitric oxide is one of the most damaging things mitochondria can be exposed to, as it suppresses the thyroid gland, drives inflammation, and depletes cellular energy.
This represents conflicting data with two opposing opinions. The missing element in this conversation is that there are three versions of nitric oxide: one that works on the inside of blood vessels, one that targets neurons in the brain, and one primarily involved in the immune system.
In the first factory, nitric oxide relaxes arteries, and when signals are gone, arteries stiffen. Arteries constantly produce nitric oxide throughout the day. Viagra works by increasing nitric oxide in genitalia, and people take it because nitric oxide decreases with age. By age 40, individuals have only 50% of the nitric oxide they produced at age 20.
The second factory produces nitric oxide in the brain as a signal between neurons. The third factory relates to the immune system, firing up by a factor of a thousand times when the body faces a threat, then normally shutting off.
Ray Peat documented for 40 years what happens when factory number three runs continuously for years instead of 48 hours. He correctly identified mitochondrial damage, thyroid suppression, energy drainage, and the inflammation loop. However, he went wrong by not differentiating factory number three from factories two and one, considering all nitric oxide dangerous.
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