Has anyone ever heard of NO2 by Medical Research Institute? It supposedly creates a continuous supply of the “cell-signaling” molecule nitric oxide present in the skeletal muscles. I am curious if anyone has tried it or heard anything about it.
That’s rather humorous, since the cell signalling molecule nitric oxide is NO. NO2 would be nitrogen dioxide, I believe. Also, a continuous supply of “NO” may not be of benefit to muscle growth. Nitric oxide is a hot area right now, and everybody is trying to find a role for it in every cellular process you can think of, but if I recall correctly, Anderson has argued that continuous (constituitive) levels of NO inhibit muscle growth. Large bolus release of NO though are responsible, in part, for satellite cell activation seen in response to exercise or muscle injury.
Nitrogen dioxide is a very harmful gas. Don’t confuse this with the nitrous you breath in at the dentist’s office. NO2 is not meant to be good for us. It is amazing what people ill do to make money though.
In my opinion many of the things in the
advertising for this product sound highly
suspect at best, but nonetheless I don’t
dismiss the product. I don’t think it works
in the manner or according to the reasoning
they give for it but it still may be of value.
The reason I say this is back around 10 years
ago, ornithine AKG and also I believe (if I recall correctly) arginine AKG were being tried in weightlifting. I used ornithine AKG myself. At least twice I seemed to have
excellent results from it, but then at least
once after that it seemed to do nothing. It
was an extremely expensive product to use at that time, so I discontinued its use. I also knew several other lifters that were impressed: some with intermittent apparent results such as I had, and one with consistent apparent results.
This was on much lower dosages: about 5 grams
once per day if I recall correctly (which I admittedly might not.)The dose recommended for this
new product (somewhat more than the label dose) is 6 grams twice per day.
I’d suppose that what has happened is that
the cost of producing the material has
dropped dramatically compared to 10 years
ago, now making an arginine AKG product a practical
proposition.
It is not incredible that a product which
appeared hit and miss at 5 grams once per day,
might be good at 6 grams twice per day (yes, I’m aware that there’s also the the matter of it being arginine AKG and ornithine AKG but I think both were around before and seemed to act similarly.) It’s also possible that the first time around with this product was simply illusion, in which
case increasing the dose won’t help.
Time will tell. This is one of those new products that I feel has a reasonable chance
of panning out, based on inconclusive but
suggestively promising past results at lower
doses.
the compounds in the product mentioned have NO EFFICACY data in any published study to date
Anyone try it yet? Results? The only thing I would worry about is if the nitric oxide would dramatically drop blood pressure. I am already on a blood pressure medication. Any commentS?
I have used NO2 and I can tell you that this stuff works (I’ll avoid the use of B. Phillips’ over used “BIG TIME!”, but it would apply). Muscles got much fuller and the pumps were incredible - I’ve used steroids before and believe me that the pumps resembeled the infamous “steroid pump”. Now I’ll be the first to tell you that we’re selling NO2 over on our website (or at least trying to as it has yet to come in yet). We’re also huge supporters of Biotest so hopefully you’ll get an idea that we try to carry only “the best of the best”. NO2 worked great for me on all kinds of levels (from the gym floor to the bedroom - yes it really does increase penile rigidity!) and I highly recommend it.
How about an opinion from someone who doesn’t have an economic interest in the product?
I’m got to believe the product name is to use the analogy to nitrous for a muscle car. You have a link to the product? I doubt in actually contains NO2. Anything that creates a continuous supply of NO is false advertising since NO is continuously produced anyways in most cells. Additionally, low arginine rarely contributes to low NO production in vivo in healthy persons and decreased NO availability is usually due to oxidant radical scavenging of NO, hence one benefit of anitoxidants. Although NO may contribute to muscle hypertrophy (JAP:92 2005, 2002), to explapolate this to young men resistance training would be premature.
I work in a Supplement store and carry that particular product, and the feedback from the product has been nothing but fantastic, it is however a little pricey, so does the cost outweigh the benefit? Only time will tell
i wonder why they use arginine alpha ketoglutarate instead of the usual OKG orginine alpha ketoglutarate. most studies use OKG. laters pk
It could have another benefit of rasing GH levels. Especially when taken with acetyl-l-carnitine
I’ve been a Competitive Natural Bodybuilder for over 3 years now and I’m currently in “Off Season Training Mode”. I tried the product (as directed) for 30-day’s and feel it was a waste of time and money. I often try new products and seem to always return to Creatine, L-Glutamine, Flax-oil, and a good Protein Supplement. I’d suggest trying it for yourself.
i tried the no2 and it did nothing,no pump or anything. this product is a scam.the special delivery system is a joke.
Assuming arginine AKG has value (which it may or may not and I’m open to the idea it may) I don’t think it is via the mechanism claimed by this company. The mechanism claimed previously for it was GH increase.
Now, there is reason to think a GH spike
is possible from these compounds.
A friend, a Greek physician of considerable
note in sports, suggested that simply because
a GH spike occurs from any of various compounds that can induce this, this does not mean that total GH release for the day must be more. It could be that one simply gets what one would be getting anyway, sooner. And this clearly would not be of much value.
This seems a reasonable possibility, and could
explain why GH releasers have generally been dubious at best.
If ornithine AKG really was of value back when it was being used by a number of people about 10 years ago (was never really popular) I still have trouble seeing it as a GH related phenomenon, since injecting GH at moderate doses e.g. one or two IU per day
or even for that matter higher doses like 4 IU per day does not seem qualitatively similar to the apparent effect from ornithing AKG: which was strength increase with less mass increase than you’d expect from the strength increase, and no particular tendency towards fat loss.
All in all, I’d have to say that if ornithine AKG or arginine AKG is of value, I certainly don’t know why and I don’t think anyone does (and there’s also the consideration that they may not be of value.)
This all falls into the category of, if it’s something someone is interested in trying, on the understanding that it is unknown and there’s surely no guarantee, and they can readily afford to do so, it’s one of the more interesting things to try I think.
Would that Greek Physician be Filipidis?
NO would cause a tremendous decrease in blood pressure due to perepheral vasodialation. Anyone ever heard of nitroglycerin used in angina? Works through the same mechanism. I would also imagine some big time headaches as a side effect, and a rebound tachycardia. May explain the pumps people are getting… I wouldn’t touch the stuff personally though.
GR, nope, Alexi isn’t a physician, though
he certainly is very knowledgeable regarding
both training and ergogen use.
Bill, your reply that you mention the Greek physician was one of the best “I am not sure if this stuff works” kind of answers that I have seen in a long time. One can tag the AKG or the OKG to follow its metabolic routes and physiologic impacts if one owants to see what it does in the body under athletic circumstances. Simply tag it with D3 leucine or radiolabeled glycine as in other protein tracer studies.
I didn’t take NO2 in the hopes that it would boost GH - I don’t think there’s anything on the market that sufficiently does this (except for GH itself). NO2 is a hemodilator - it forces blood into the spaces between mucles cells. This creates a hard, vascular look (as opposed to the “puffy” look associated with creatine). NO2 supplies your body with a continuous source of nitric oxide, a compound that shows scientific evidence for increasing blood flow, oxygen delivery and glucose uptake, boosting muscle velocity, augmenting power output, activating protein-specific muscle adaptation, and generating new muscle growth.
It was created by Ed Byrd (the same guy who co-founded EAS and brought creatine to the market). So it’s not just another supplement company trying to market a gimmick with no scientific basis.
Chuck and Joe, I’m not sure why NO2 didn’t work for you. If you were taking the recommended dosage and not taking in an excess amount of ephedrine (which can hamper NO2’s effectiveness), it should have worked - at least to some extent. I have noticed that some users experience more endurance while others experience more of the pump. My guess is that it depends on the rest of your lifestyle and training regime. Of course it’s possible that this supplement, like most, won’t work for everyone…