– Herbs that I like to use for circulation are Butcher’s Broom, and Centella asiatica also known as gotu kola. And I also like Horse Chestnuts. Specifically, for bringing circulation up the legs. For people who stand for long periods of time, the blood can go down. But what might happen is the circulation might not come back up because their veins become flacid.

– Yeah, and you will see that a lot of the times with vericosities, right. So, those purple veins in the legs or you can get venous stasis. Some of you might know or have a diagnosis of venous stasis. Yeah, so, blood return, right. Blood return to the heart, circulate through the body, and not pool in the legs.

– Obviously those are some of my, maybe my top three. How about for you?

– Yes.

– So, you know what I think about. I think about nitric oxide. So, for me nitric oxide is about basal dilation and circulation. And also, that nitric oxide when it causes that basal dilation, we’re getting oxygenation of the tissues. So I think that’s my number one. And you can get nitric oxide naturally through beets. But sometimes I’ll prescribe a supplement called citrulline.

– Yep.

– And if you have problems with the herpes virus then or if you don’t have problems with the herpes virus we’ll prescribe arginine so it’s a precursor to nitric oxide.

– Is that arginine, I believe, can convert to right? I think that might be how it goes.

– Well, yeah, I think so. But you know, I wanted to say that my favorite nitric oxide supplement is actually exercise. Our body stores nitric oxide and within the first three to five minutes of exercise your body releases all of its stores of nitric oxide so it think that the benefits of exercise really come from that release. So you basal dilate meaning our blood vessels open creating highways or interstates out of one lane roads. Right, so we just, all this blood will rush in you and when you exercise, you might notice that you might get a little tingly, you might start sweating, but things definitely get flushed. Things are definitely moving so I think opening up the blood vessels is key, right? So nitric oxide is one of my favorites. Another one I really like is well, I said beets right, so beets is my favorite. But I do like gotu kola. Gotu kola is great for circulation, and I also like hawthorn. Hawthorn is all about treating the heart and so the heart circulating this blood you wanna healthy heart so I’m always thinking about when I’m talking to patients about circulation nitric oxide is number one, we talk about heart health so hawthorn is number two. Gotu kola I really like. And then bioflavonoids, so bioflavonoids or molecules that you get from berries. So blackberries, blueberries, raspberries. There’s a great product that we carry but it’s full of these bioflavonoids and it’s really great for the blood vessels. It’s high in vitamin c and so lots of collagen, blood vessel support and then of course movement.

– You know, speaking of nitric oxide, I wanna throw one other food out there.

– Okay good.

– With nitric oxide, that I think all of you will be really happy to hear and that is dark chocolate. 30 grams of dark chocolate just a little over an ounce, not a whole lot, can actually stimulate the release of nitric oxide. It has to be 70% or greater dark chocolate. Preferably higher than 70%, 70% is kinda like just crossing that threshold. So if you can get up higher, I like the 88% dark chocolate, something like that and that can help with the release of nitric oxide as well.