Very Helpful for me

I actually bought this book quite a few years ago before I had even heard of Amazon. I had taken L-Arginine in my 30's for athletic reasons but stopped it when I had a bout of the shingles. I'm now slogging through my late 50's and this year I developed very severe hypertension. I pulled this book out again and discovered that I was similar to several case studies they mentioned. My doctor pursued conventional treatment with a calcium channel blocker which was effective in getting me out of the danger zone but not out of the long term damage zone. I can only tolerate the minimum dose of the blocker because a slow pulse (as slow as President Bush) rules out any more medicine. After two months, I had not made a great deal of progress toward normal blood pressure and the doctor assured me that it was "good enough" for my age. I'm grateful for the progress I made because I believe I was headed toward a stroke. But I wanted to see if I could do better. Over the past month, I've slowly worked up from 1 1/2 Grams of L-Arginine to slightly more or less than 6 Grams per day. After about 3 weeks, I was able to reduce the blood pressure down to an average of 135 over 84 with a pulse of 50. At that point, I felt comfortable resuming my exercise program. The only side effect I noticed was a crop of cold sores (this is explained in the book) at about 4 grams a day. I backed off for several days and then resumed. I had no other side effects. I should also say that I continue to take the Calcium Blocker, it is a very high quality medicine.

I'm not expecting miracles here. I know I'm not 25 years old and although it would be nice if my blood pressure was about 10 points lower by both measures, my family history and age are hard things to overcome. But I'll take the progress I've made so far.

The main feeling I've noticed is that I feel more warmth in my hands and feet and more strength in my hands. Also, I can't tolerate really hot water in the shower anymore.

No, this book doesn't talk about vitamin C and its dietary advice on low fat diets is conventional. Since there are many other books on those subjects, I'm not sure why a book on L-Arginine is down rated because of that.

If you want to find out if L-Arginine could help you, by all means get this book. The last chapter is very good at explaining who should not take L-Arginine.

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Useful read to learn more about L-Arginine and Nitric Oxide

The Arginine Solution is a well written book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for information on the molecule known as Nitric Oxide. Nitric Oxide is a gaseous molecule made up of one Nitrogen and one Oxygen and often referred to simply as NO. It should not to be confused with Nitrous Oxide N20 which is better known as Laughing Gas.

The Nitric Oxide story hit the front pages in 1998, when three doctors were awarded the Nobel Prize for their research into this molecule produced by the body, that helps blood flow and relaxes and enlarges blood vessels, and in doing so reduces blood pressure. Check out www.nobelprize.org and look under the Medicine prize winners for 1998 announcing the Awards to Robert Furchgott, Louis Ignarro and Ferid Murad for their discoveries concerning "nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system". The research done by these doctors led to the development of a range of drugs like Viagra which fundamentally increase the levels of Nitric Oxide in the blood stream.

Dr Louis Ignarro who shared the Nobel Prize also wrote a book called 'NO More Heart Disease' which explains how Nitric Oxide can prevent Heart Disease and Strokes, and helps with male erectile dysfunction. His was the first book that I read on Nitric Oxide, but I found it a bit hyper on the subject, although still a very interesting read. The Arginine Solution, the book that we are reviewing here, provides more depth on this subject.

I did note that some researchers at John Hopkins Medicine working with mice found that the enzymes that make Nitric Oxide could protect the heart from damage caused by heart attack or high blood pressure. However they also found that the enzymes could cause overgrowth and enlargement of heart muscle tissue which could promote heart failure. I'm not sure how comparable mice are to humans, but there are a lot of people taking the amino acid L-Arginine and there haven't been any concerns reported to date.

In summary, I am very pleased I got this book.


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Fascinating, excellent, but totally ignorant of Vitamin C

This book is fascinating, loaded with important information. But they stay single-mindedly focused on arginine and nitric oxide, no doubt wary of diluting their message with other important facts. Here's one: Chronic vascular disease is the long-term result of damaged collagen from too little Vitamin C, leading to artery lesions patched up by Lipoprotein(a) with LDL cholesterol heaped on top. Did you know that acute scurvy leads to the same result, only much quicker? The root cause of heart disease was strongly proven by a landmark guinea pig study in 1992 by Matthias Rath at the Linus Pauling Institute, replicated in a genetically-mutated mouse study in 2000 at U North Carolina. And to reverse it, you take adequate Vitamin C, lysine, and proline. Sure, it appears that extra arginine is helpful for the 100% of us who have accumulated vascular disease from a life of ignorance and malnutrition, but what if we were to totally clear our arteries? How much extra arginine would we need then? No answer -- and the question is not even asked because they don't even mention Rath & Pauling, appalling in a 21st century book on heart disease.

If you're serious about reversing heart (artery) disease, read Matthias Rath's excellent Why Aminals Don't Get Heart Attacks, but People Do. Short answer: they manufacture Vitamin C in their liver, and we don't. (Except for other high-order primates, and notably guinea pigs, which don't either.) We have to take 5-10 grams per day to make up for our limitation, and a whole lot more when we're sick or poisoned.

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