90% of high blood pressure is the ones with unknown etiologies and they believe that various unhealthy lifestyle habits could be the triggers. Smoking, stress and cold weather which make blood vessels constrict are the main factors to be blamed. When blood vessels are constricted tightly, the blood flow will slow down considerably. To try to let the blood flow smoothly, your heart needs to work even harder to push blood away which makes your blood pressure higher.

In 1998, three American pharmacologists who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine found that nitric monoxide dilates constricted blood vessels effectively and stimulate the blood flow of the whole body which leads to lowering the blood pressure.

Nitric monoxide is produced in your endothelial cells of the wall of blood vessels. When nitric monoxide is released into the blood, it makes vascular smooth muscles relaxed and dilated. As a result, the blood flow increases and the blood pressure lowered.

However, when blood vessels are forced to constrict repeatedly by smoking, stress and cold weather, the blood has to force its way through narrow blood vessels. It could damage wall of blood vessels with red blood cells and platelets, which could slow the nitric monoxide production process and there will be not enough nitric monoxide in your blood vessels. As a matter of fact, higher the blood pressure he/she has, lower the amount of nitric monoxide in his/her blood.

Now, how can we increase the number of nitric monoxide in our blood? There are four suggestions:

1. Aerobic exercise
2. Bathing
3. One nostril breathing
4. Bitter melon

1. Aerobic Exercise

2. Bathing

3. One Nostril Breathing

To keep producing nitric monoxide, it is also important not to smoke, not to drink too much alcohol, to sleep well and eat healthy food. Unfortunately, nitric monoxide is very fragile and easily changed into nitrogen dioxide when it meets active oxygen. Well, nitrogen dioxide does not have the same effect as nitric monoxide. So, we need to focus on how we can keep nitric monoxide within our blood vessels long enough to work effectively.

4. Bitter Melon

Bitter melon is rich in special amino acid called citrulline which can increase the number of nitric monoxide, and vitamin C (76mg/100g) which can eliminate active oxygen quickly to keep nitric monoxide longer in the blood vessels. Bitter melon is also known for its effect to lower the level of blood sugar, therefore it is said to be good for diabetics.

Once citrulline is taken into our body, it goes to the liver and then when citrulline is accumulated enough in our liver they change into the amino acid called arginine. After that arginine is changed back to citrulline within the liver by the enzyme called PADI4 (Peptidyl Arginine Deiminase, TypeIV). This process is repeated again and again within the liver, and nitric monoxide is produced as by-product of this process.

As it is very hard to synthesize citrulline within the body, we need to take them from our food, such as bitter melons, nuts and water melons. Bitter melon is also rich in kalium which is known for lowering blood pressure as it encourages sodium emission. Kalium is found in most of fruits and vegetables however kalium in bitter melons (260mg/100g) is more than double amount of the one in apples (110mg/100g).