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Perhaps you, or someone you love, are now suffering from some kind of broken part. Maybe you've been diagnosed with coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, adult-onset diabetes, impotence, or any one of a long list of terribly common health problems. There is nothing like the loss of good health to compel a keen interest in doing everything possible to foster its return.

On the other hand, perhaps you are now in nearly perfect shape, free of any major physiological disorders and totally committed to staying that way. You take seriously the constant drumbeat of caveats and public health advice.

You eat a wholesome diet low in fat and high in fruits, vegetables, and fiber.

You exercise most days of the week, and include both aerobic and strength training in your regimen.

You've quit smoking, or better still, you've managed to avoid ever having suffered an addiction to this most ruinous witches' brew of cynically tailored toxins.

You sleep at least six to eight hours each day.

If you drink alcohol, you do so in moderation.

And to manage the inevitable stresses of life better, you take time for yourself each day to meditate or use other techniques to elicit the relaxation response proven so beneficial in moderating stress hormones.

Perhaps, too, you have also been impressed with the accumulating evidence supporting the health benefits of nutritional therapy-“nutraceutical agents” like vitamins E, C, and the carotenoids; the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids found in cold water fish; the isoflavones in soy; and a host of other foods, from oat bran to garlic to olive oil, increasingly linked to good health. Other therapeutic agents, especially botanical remedies, are receiving unprecedented scientific study-and being em braced more and more by clinicians and patients alike because of their powerful healing properties.

We will be showing you how a long- and well-known nutrient, the amino acid arginine, is fast emerging as one of the most potent nutraceuticals yet described. It works, when the body breaks it down, in the process releasing a simple gas called nitric oxide, or NO, a substance formerly best known for its presence in smog. In the body, however, NO is hardly a pollutant. Over the last decade, researchers have made a series of truly revolutionary discoveries about the critical functions NO plays in an astonishing array of bodily systems. Indeed, so momentous have these discoveries been, and so far-reaching their implications for bettering human health, that the most prestigious of all scientific awards-the Nobel Prize for Medicine-was bestowed upon three pioneering American NO researchers on October 12, 1998.

Already the work of the three Nobel laureates-Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro, and Ferid Murad-has inspired a legion of pharmacologists searching for new cures for ancient ailments.

Case-in-point: the bestselling anti-impotence drug Viagra, which arguably could not have been invented without an understanding of nitric oxide's key role in relaxing the smooth muscles of blood vessels. A wide range of other investigational drugs-designed to treat everything from atherosclerosis to septic shock-may soon hit the market, thanks to the NO discoveries.

Tags: Nutrition, Heart Disease, Vitamins

About the Author

ROBERT FRIED, PH.D., is the director of the Stress and Biofeedback Clinic at the Albert Ellis Institute, New York City. He is also a senior professor of biopsychology at Hunter College, CUNY.

About the Author

WOODSON C. MERRELL, M.D., is an assistant clinical professor at Columbia University Medical School, an executive director of Beth Israel-St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospitals' new Center of Integrative Medicine, and a board member of New York State's Office of Professional Medical Conduct. He also maintains a private practice in Manhattan.

About the Author

JAMES THORNTON has contributed to The Physician and Sports Medicine and Men's Journal. He received a 1998 National Magazine Award for his health writing, and his articles have been published in magazines and newspapers around the world.