 Our understanding of nitric oxide has come a long way since it was named Molecule of the Year, 1992, and won some folks a Nobel Prize in 98. It is a key biological messenger within the body, and its message is open sesame. It's released by the lining of our arteries to tell the muscle fibers within the walls of our arteries to relax, so our arteries open up and let the blood flow. That's why when people are having a heart attack, they are given nitroglycerin, which our body converts to nitric oxide, to open up our arteries. In fact, that's how Viagra works. It boosts nitric oxide signaling, which leads to dilation of the penile arteries. The ED we really need to be concerned about, though, is endothelial dysfunction. Dysfunction of the lining of all our arteries, considered a first step towards atherosclerosis, are leading cause of death. Here's what happens. NO nitric oxide is produced by an enzyme called anosynthase. If you have a lot of free radicals in your body, though, they come in and not only gobble up the NO, they hijack this enzyme. They hijack anosynthase, take it over, and have it instead start making more free radicals. So our arteries become dysfunctional, they don't relax when they should, and that can contribute to the hardening of our arteries. If, however, we flood our body with antioxidants by eating healthy foods, it should quench those free radicals and let NO get back to its job. So recently, for the first time ever, researchers studied the effects of eating high antioxidant foods on NO activity. We saw what choosing higher antioxidant plant foods did to inflammation. What effect does it have on our arterial function? We can hook people up to a device that measures the dilation of their arteries and blood flow through ultrasound. In the study, people started eating their normal, miserable diet, then switched to an even more miserable diet, and their arterial dilation capacity dropped, though not significantly. They started out eating a pretty crappy diet to begin with, which they then let people get back to, and so their NO activity came back to baseline. Then they had these people eat the higher antioxidant foods, like berries, and within a period of just two weeks, a significant jump in their arteries' ability to relax and dilate normally. This is where they should have been in the first place, or even higher. This study suggests that choosing antioxidant-rich plant foods can improve blood flow to all parts of our bodies.