How can I make more nitric oxide naturally?
You can support nitric oxide naturally by working multiple levers at once, not just taking one supplement. In this video, Dr. Kenny highlights nitrate-rich vegetables, nasal breathing, humming, exercise, antioxidant support, and protecting your oral and stomach environment, because nitric oxide depends on coordinated systems, not a single trick.
Think flow, not just a molecule
Nitric oxide matters because it helps your blood vessels relax and widen. That improves flow, blood flow, oxygen flow, and nutrient flow. The script keeps coming back to that word, flow, because it is the easiest way to understand why nitric oxide matters for circulation, blood pressure, exercise, and even brain function.
As a functional medicine practitioner, I like that frame because it pulls us away from chasing a trendy molecule and back toward what the body is actually trying to do. At Dr. Kenny’s clinic, we often ask a deeper question, not just “How do I raise this?” but “What is helping or blocking the system that makes it?”
Start with food, but do not stop there
One big pathway starts with nitrate-rich vegetables like:
- beets
- arugula
- spinach
- celery
- cabbage
- parsley
These foods provide raw material your body can use to eventually make nitric oxide. But the script is very clear here, food alone is not the whole story. This pathway also depends on the right oral bacteria and enough stomach acidity to keep the chain moving.
That is why some people can “eat all the right things” and still not feel the results they expected. The deeper question may not be whether you ate the food, but whether the whole conversion pathway is working well downstream.
Your mouth, nose, and stomach all matter
This is where the video gets especially root-cause oriented.
Dr. Kenny explains that nitric oxide production can be influenced by:
- oral bacteria, especially on the back of the tongue
- stomach acid, which helps with later conversion
- nasal breathing, because nitric oxide is produced in the sinuses
- humming, which may increase nasal nitric oxide production
That means mouth breathing, frequent antiseptic mouthwash use, low stomach acid, reflux patterns, or chronic digestive issues may all quietly reduce output. This does not mean every case is about one missing habit. It means the system is more connected than most people realize.
Movement and protection matter too
The script also points out that exercise is one of the strongest natural ways to stimulate nitric oxide production. Resistance training, interval-style work, and even short bodyweight routines can create the kind of blood flow signals that encourage your vessels to make more of it.
And once nitric oxide is made, it still needs some protection. Oxidative stress can break it down faster, which is why antioxidant nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione matter in the background. The big takeaway is simple, nitric oxide is less like a switch and more like a network. Support the food, the breathing, the movement, the mouth, and the stomach, and the pattern tends to shift more predictably.
Additional Resources:
- If your blood sugar seems high even when you are not eating much sugar, Why is my blood sugar high even if I barely eat sugar? helps explain why cortisol, poor sleep, liver output, and insulin signaling all shape the number.
- If stress seems to make cravings, weight, and energy swings worse, Can stress really mess up my hormones or thyroid? connects the nervous system side of the insulin resistance story.
- In Insulin Resistance Explained: The Root Cause & 4 Tactics to Reverse It, Dr. Kenny explains that insulin resistance is usually a mismatch between incoming fuel and your body’s capacity to use it well, not just a willpower problem.
- A 2023 study found that high insulin can show up years before glucose or A1c look abnormal, which helps explain why many people feel off before “prediabetes” is ever mentioned.
If you are tired of feeling like your metabolism is speaking a language nobody has translated yet
Answered by Dr. Kenny Mittelstadt, DACM, DC, IFMCP
Certified functional medicine practitioner specializing in advanced lab testing and personalized healing protocols to uncover root causes of health roadblocks.