Beware Of Nitric Oxide Boosters

Like the title says I would like to post my experience on taking these products on and off for the past 3 years. I have taken many NO boosting products such as AAKG, citrulline, citrulline malate, arginine, and products containing a mix of vitamins+5g arginine and 1g citrulline. As you notice these are the amino acids and not the preworkout type nitric oxide boosters such as jack3d, NOxplode and other bodybuilder supplements known to cause “stim dick.” All of the products I have taken will lose its effect in less than a month with the exception of the products containing 5g arginine and 1g citrulline. Those type products worked for me for a while and all of a sudden they stopped. My EQ went way down and I developed insomnia from anything containing arginine or citrulline. I actually thought I had a venous leak because my erections stopped getting any type of firmness and would immediately go down after not touching it. Also most days I had complete erectile dysfunction. This all started about 3 months ago. I experimented on and off the supplements and I noticed that off of them I got a full night’s sleep. On the products I would average 4 to 5 hrs of sleep with some nights barely getting 3 hrs. I would just literally be laying in bed trying to go to sleep the entire time. This also increased my blood pressure. These products do work really good for muscle pumps and vascularity in the gym but the side effects they give me are not worth taking it.

I also noticed on the products my nocturnal erections would be super soft to the point that they aren’t really erections. After 2 days of not taking the products I would actually have solid nocturnal erections throughout the night. I have been doing cardio daily as well(This didn’t help at all during the time I was taking NO supplements). For the longest time I couldn’t figure out how I got these negative effects with so much positive research to back arginine and citrulline.

Finally after googling some key terms I found the reasons why these products actually lower nitric oxide production with long term use. They upregulate super oxide and arginase production which actually breaks down the nitric oxide that is being produced. After only four days of not using the supplements anymore while still lifting weights and doing cardio my eq has improved since I quit the supplements. I can get hard erections with some stimulation but they aren’t that easy to achieve just yet. I read a post that I made about 3 years ago that said I achieved rock hard erections without nitric oxide products after 2 weeks. The most important thing is to do cardio 30mins a day and weight train 3 to 4 days a week. As long as I’m not taking NO supplements only NO production will increase without upregulation of the arginase and super oxide. These things are upregulated by the body to create homeostasis. Even though these are amino acids your body will still create homeostasis so that they don’t work as well as they did when you first started taking them.

I thought a few years ago I read a study that proved they didn’t even work.

You are not supposed to take AAKG all the time. As a “muscle” supplement, it is meant to be cycled. When it loses its effectiveness (stops working), you should stop taking it for 2 to 4 weeks. Then one can resume taking it.

Of course you know your body best, so your mileage may vary.

As with hormones, my understanding is that the body eventually acclimate to the oral administration and will downregulate nitric acid production, but only temporarily. But I think I also read elsewhere that you can avoid most of the shutdown if you cycle yourself off of the supplements at the right times, and that certain other supplements can cushion or prevent the downregulation.

This may be a mismemory, but I also remember reading that vitamin C can counteract some of Arginine’s drawbacks? I wonder if it or something else can help prevent the “shutdown”.

I started taking a vasogen and cutting my pre workout dose in half because of similar issues.

Its never even been proven to work like most supplements.

I take citrulline malate as a part of my supplementation and I kind of got worried from what you’re thread title. However, when I did a bit of my own research I couldn’t find anything about what you’re claiming. Can you please post some links to support this, I want to be sure before I start cycling.

There are countless studies that back up the fact that this stuff works.

Mataxo I actually had to dig to find the negative side effects from forums and a few studies that determined that “long term” use of arginine products upregulate the bad things in your body like superoxide and arginase which destroys the nitric oxide you produce. Citrulline by itself never worked more than 3 consecutive weeks for me without losing its effect on my erection strength. It would work really good at first then go away. But the other products I took that involved a mixture of vitamins and 5g arginine and 1g citrulline worked for a long time. All of a sudden after 3 years it started giving me the extremely negative side effects like insomnia and severe ED. I tried removing everything else from my diet and lifestyle changes and it was the absolute last thing I removed and within 2 days after stopping the products my wood improved along with the insomnia. The insomnia was so bad some nights I only slept for 2 hrs and I have a pretty active job so I was pretty much just laying in bed wired trying to go to sleep exhausted. I’ve tried it on and off many times after my discovery just to be 100% sure it was the cause and it was. Tried like 3 different brands and any supplement with citrulline in it or a bunch of arginine in it causes the symptoms. But before this the products worked really good!

There are guys on bodybuilding forums that will tell you the same. Some call it “stim dick.” I thought these ingredients couldn’t cause it since they aren’t considered stimulants. But your body WILL go into homeostasis so they won’t work forever giving you the nitric oxide boost.

If there are “countless studies”, could you provide links to some? Thanks in advance.

When I get time I will post them. This is a PE forum and a good amount of people here can vouch for the effects of these products such as bigger pumps in the gym and higher EQ while taking them. If there was not a single study saying that they work it wouldn’t matter because the results speak for themselves. But long term use of them have side effects like those I have experienced.

Hey Rahman, I totally misread your post.

I mistakenly thought you wrote that there were countless studies that said AAKG —>didn’t work.<—

Sorry, not enough coffee I guess.

I too use AAKG for the gym and the side effects of more copious cum loads. Hell yeah it works. I do cycle it.

Apologize again for my misreading.

Oh ok. It’s cool.

I’ve never had any of these side effects you mention, and I have been in arginine products and more specifically citrulline malate for the last year with nothing but great blood flow and a hard cock. Within the last year, I have only cycled off of it two times for no more then two weeks.

I also eat very well and drink gallons of water a day, all which can help aid in good blood flow.

But regardless, I have never experienced any negative side effects. If you could show me an article that states exactly what your saying, I would really appreciate it.

Nice experience and also glad to know about it. Thanks for sharing.

Many such supplements work best when cycled in and out. Use for a week, off for two, use for two weeks, off for one, etc. Different cycles for different supplements.