There’s great news if you’re suffering from heart problems. Doctors are now saying that one all-natural amino acid can improve blood flow and strengthen your heart.

The discovery comes from Dr. Thomas Rector. He’s an investigator for the Center of Chronic Disease Outcomes Research in Minnesota and also teaches Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Now he’s completed a study – published in Circulation – that shows amino acids can strengthen your heart.

“This is the first study that investigated whether [this] supplement could improve blood flow and function in patients with heart failure,” he says.

He says the results speak for themselves. Patients walked farther during the tests and their blood flow was much improved.

The Heart of the Study

The heart-healthy amino acid is called l-arginine. We’ll tell you more about in a moment, but first we’ll look at the study that shows how it works.

Dr. Rector ran his study for 12 weeks while looking at 15 people with a history of heart failure. He gave seven of them a placebo. The other eight were given l-arginine.

After six weeks, Dr. Rector ran tests on the patients. They filled out a questionnaire and noted their response to the capsules. He recorded their walking speed, distance, and cardiovascular response.

Once it was all done, he tested their blood flow. Then Dr. Rector switched the groups around. So people taking the placebo now got l-arginine and vice versa. And he repeated all the same tests over the same time period as before.

“Blood flow increased significantly after [taking] l-arginine compared with the placebo,” says Dr. Rector.

But there was another added benefit. He also says l-arginine helped the patients exercise better.

“There was a significant improvement in the distance walked in six minutes,” he says.

It even improved cardiovascular response to stress and reduced levels of a protein called endothelin, which constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure.

Dr. Rector’s findings are not unique. Another study from Poland found that l-arginine improved patient’s ability to exercise. Those doctors concluded that it relaxes blood vessels.

It works by sending signals to the smooth muscle cells in your blood vessels. That causes them to relax so blood flows more freely.

Elevate Your Performance

L-arginine is a semi-essential amino acid that your body produces naturally. But if you have heart problems you may not produce enough of it.

If that’s the case you can get in some foods like walnuts, almonds and peanuts. You can also get it from seeds like sesame, pumpkin and sunflower. Coconuts, seaweed and eggs are also rich sources.

But the best way to get it is in supplement form. Only a few top formulas for men’s health and performance contain L-arginine. And even fewer contain the optimal doses, proven to work in clinical trials. So if you’re looking for a quality formula, be sure it has 2,000 mg of L-arginine in each dose.

To your best health,

Michael Jelinek,

Managing Editor, NHD “Health Watch”