ARGININE PREVENTS HEART ATTACKS
Report #7233;
Several papers show that a single protein building block called arginine helps to prevent heart attacks.
Protein in your body is made from 21 different building blocks called amino acids that you get in the food that you eat. One amino acid, called arginine has been shown to help prevent several factors that cause heart attacks. It stops plaques from forming in arteries, it widens blood vessels and it helps to prevent platelets from forming clots that block arteries (1). Until recently, scientists couldn't figure out how an amino acid could do so many good things. A recent report shows that the amino acid, arginine, combines with hydrogen peroxide in your body to form nitric oxide that has already been shown to help prevent heart attacks (2). This month, another study from Germany shows that the inexpensive amino acid is more effective in preventing plaques in arteries than the current expensive drug, lovostatin, prescribed by most physicians today (3). At least 13 studies showing that arginine helps to prevent heart attacks.
You may be able to prevent a heart attack by taking an inexpensive protein supplement. For now, scientists have to work out the most effective dose and they have to find if it is safe to overload on one of the 21 amino acids in your body.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
1) Lancet editorial 1997(Sept 27);350:901. 2)Negase S, Takemura K, Ueda A, et al. A novel nonenzymatic pathway for the genreation
of nitric oxide by th reaction of hydrogen peroxide and D or L-arginine. Biochem Biophys
Res Commun 1997;233:150-153. 3) RH Boger, SM Bodeboger, RP Brandes, L Phivthongngam, M Bohme, R Nafe, A Mugge, JC
Frolich. Dietary L-arginine reduces the progression of atherosclerosis in cholesterol-fed
rabbits: Comparison with lovastatin. Circulation 96: 4 (AUG 19 1997):1282-1290. RH Boger,
Hannover Med Sch, Inst Clin Pharmacol, Konstanty Gutschow Str 8, D-30625 Hannover,
Germany.
Reported 9/30/97; Checked 9/5/05