Beware Of Nitric Oxide Boosters

I take ArginMax from GNC before sexy time and it definitely gets the job done. When I cycle I usually do 4-6 weeks on 2 weeks off.

Hi Rahman810,

Have you tried something like tribulus terrestris or maca to boost your sex drive?

I am considering add citrulline and pycnogenol to my stack.

Hi Rahman810

I’ve been reading some articles about the upregulation of the arginase and the conditions that it occurs. One condition is diabetes.

A number of studies in animals and humans have found no benefit or worsening of adverse outcomes with prolonged administration of supplemental L-arginine. These negative outcomes may be related to the ability of l-arginine to induce expression/activity of arginase and reduce plasma L-arginine levels.

I know its an old thread, wanted to add that a beet root increases NO and there isnt any side effect to it.

I’ve been following the science around nitric oxide boosting and you do have to be careful and it’s getting complicated. First there are two main pathways to increase it. One is through the arginine pathway and you need an enzyme called NOS to use this effectively. As we get older we start to get bad at making Nitric oxide this way. It’s possible you might have bad genetics that influence this too. There are specific genes you can look at if you did 23andme, for example, to see if you can make Nitric oxide better than others. So, for me, i noticed citrulline and arginine worked like crazy when i was young. Now some 20 years later, they don’t have much effect at all. Still some, but if I took it now, I wouldn’t have much to say about them. As Turnau, mentioned, another pathway is through diet and our microbes in our mouth and stomach. If you eat nitrates like in beets and spinach, you will make Nitric Oxide. This pathway works great as long as you don’t kill your bacteria by using mouthwash or kill the acid in your stomach by taking antacids. Nitrates turn into Nitrite and that creates Nitric Oxide when it hits the acid in your stomach.

Someone else mentioned that taking vitamin C helps. That is spot on. Nitric Oxide can also make a lot of bad things that are effectively blunted by taking Vitamin C.

You can build tolerance to both pathways. I read somewhere that the nitrate pathway (via beet juice) is blunted after 12 hours, so you need at least a half day break. This effect seems to be helped by taking vitamin C or NAC or Curcumin based on some studies I read.

Bottom line, if you are young, citrulline works great. If you’re old make sure you eat your veggies and get off acid reducers and brush your teeth, don’t use mouthwash.

Many thanks to Rahman810 for a very helpful report.

In a less organised way, I might have experienced something similar. On the first day I tried about 10 grams of citrulline, I had great erections. Reasonable assurances of safety encouraged me to take much larger dose the next day. These amounted to perhaps 50 grams. That day and the next, erection quality was poor.

The following study suggests that there is a limit to how much arginine the citrulline can make your body produce. When that limit is reached, the unused citrulline remains in your body, waiting to be cleared. Perhaps this jams up the works in some way? At any rate, the following day, with no intake of citrulline, I was back to normal. Not the super-hard long-lasting erections I had been aiming for, but satisfactory.

Perhaps there is an optimum level of intake of citrulline for each person. The study suggests 10g per day, and I guess some might need half that, and some double. Exceed that limit, and erections will get worse. (I am guessing - the study does not say that).

I have not started to experiment to find the optimum dose for me, but perhaps others could comment.

"The present pharmacokinetic study confirms our previous
experimental data showing that CIT is an excellent ARG precursor
at the whole-body level. Finally, the pharmacokinetic
parameters suggest that saturation begins to occur at a load
of 15 g, and therefore a 10 g dose should be the most appropriate
for use in clinical practice."
Dose-ranging effects of citrulline administration on plasma amino acids and hormonal patterns in healthy subjects: the Citrudose pharmacokinetic study - PubMed

So, after coming across this thread, I started wondering about whether it is a contributor to EQ issues I’ve had for a while despite getting regular exercise. I went ahead and quit taking the following NO-related supplememts before workouts just over a week ago:

AKG 2g
L-arginine 2g
L-ornithine 2g
L-citrulline 2.4g
Pycnogenol 200 mg

This isn’t anywhere close to some of the doses I saw above (e.g., 10 g of citrulline), so I wasn’t expecting much.

Well, within a couple of days, my EQ went up, and it is easier to get and maintain an erection. The latter had been an issue during sex for a while (starting to go partially soft too soon). I’ve had sex about four times since ditching the pre-workout, and each time I had no issues going for ten to twenty minutes or more. Each time it was longer than my wife needed to orgasm, and thus I did not need to finish her off through digital or oral means.

Did the improvement have anything to do with ditching the NO supplements? No clue. Like I said, I thought I wasn’t overdoing it with the supps, but what do I know? I don’t think it was psychosomatic since I wasn’t veey optimistic it would make a difference (more just curious). It could be purely coincidental and have had more to do with finally reaping some new EQ benefits after doing PE for a few months. Then again, maybe it was something else entirely.

Well, I probably won’t know unless I start taking the supplements again and notice subsequent changes in EQ. I’ll probably stay off them for another week before cycling back on, though.

Interesting indeed. I’ve used NOxplode off and on over the years with no I’ll side effects. BSN products are actually my goto when I’m hitting the gym, and I use their entire stack. In fact, I always thought the increased vascularity enhanced my EQ, definitely didn’t kill it.

This is my 2 cents. I’ve used citrulline for around one year but I’ve taken 1 week breaks for every month of use. For me, the effects have been great both in the weight room and in the bedroom. I haven’t noticed any adverse effects. Also, I haven’t noticed any issues with my EQ. My dosage is pretty high, 10g of citrulline per day. I don’t have experience with NO agents other than citrulline. I didn’t notice any tolerance building, I’ve got the same noticeable effects such as vascularity and improved EQ since day one of citrulline use.

For me Pd5 tadalafil and some citruline help for EQ.