Has Ed Byrd's NO2 really solved the mystery of new muscle growth? - Special Ad Supplement

Flex, Dec, 2002

"Not a Pro Hormone, Not a Supplement" but What?

Have you seen the ads for NO2? They promise huge gains in lean mass, "perpetual pumps," full-body recovery, and increased strength. Jr sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? But Ed Byrd was the co-founder of EAS[TM] and he did introduced creatine to all of us bodybuilders in 1993, so I figured maybe, just maybe, he was onto something. I caught up with Ed at his Medical Research Institute last month and grilled him with some tough Q's. After a few minutes of friendly chat, I hit him with my first one.

In all your ads and articles on NO2, you keep mentioning nitric oxide and how it unlocks the secrets of "impossible" muscle gains. What is nitric oxide, and how come I haven't heard of It before?

Nitric oxide was only discovered in the 1980's. Two researchers were investigating a mysterious, and formerly undetected, gas that seemed to be present-for just an instant-every time a muscle contracted and a blood vessel dilated. That gas was nitric oxide. Even though the scientists received the Nobel Prize, and nitric oxide won Science magazine's "Molecule of the Year" award, their discovery didn't seem to have any practical application. Mostly because nobody could figure out how to generate-and sustain-levels of nitric oxide in skeletal muscle for prolonged periods of time. So the excitement seemed to end right there.

What made you think MRI[TM] could do more with nitric oxide?

(Laughing) I did it with creatine when everybody else said it was impossible. At MRI we had two questions. One, during muscle contraction, why did the body naturally produce nitric oxide? And two, beyond dilation, what was the real function of nitric oxide? The one thing we knew for sure was with nitric oxide we were witnessing a "fingerprint" of muscle response to exercise. I mean a natural, and measured, body adaptive response to a specifically exercised muscle. We reasoned that all we had to do was keep high levels of nitric oxide in the skeletal muscle for a prolonged period of time, and we could control the construction of new muscle.

But you just said that nitric oxide only lasts for an instant, so how can you control its activity?

That was a problem. And a big one. The truth is it took us four years to come up with our extended-release delivery agent pHyser3[TM]. But once we had it, we found that we could sustain levels of nitric oxide in the skeletal muscle throughout the entire day. That's when we discovered that nitric oxide does much more than widen the blood channels (hemodilation) and increase nutrient and oxygen delivery The profound effect of nitric oxide is that it's the muscle's "cell-signaling" molecule responsible for increasing glucose, amino acid, and creatine uptake, accelerating muscle velocity, and augmenting power output. But the most mind-boggling and exciting part of all was discovering that NO2 can trigger protein-specific muscle adaptation and generate new muscle growth rather quickly.

That sounds like a steroid. What's up?

It's definitely not a steroid. But I like the comparison. In fact, my whole goal with supplements and nutraceuticals is achieving drug-like results, but without the side effects. That means significant and fast gains. That's why I introduced creatine monohydrate (CM) back in 1993. I found that creatine did just what the strength-augmenting steroids do: increase creatine phosphate levels inside the muscle cells. Now NO2 goes even further and works like the anabolic drugs to increase size, strength, and power-but safely.

Just how do you think NO2 works like a steroid?

Did you ever wonder how one injection of just 300 milligrams of an anabolic/androgenic steroid can deliver 800% more muscle-building power than 3,000,000 milligrams of even the best protein? The answer is "gene expression"-also called protein-synthesis or "protein-to-muscle conversion." These steroids lock-on to muscle-receptor sites and issue orders to keep building new muscle. We found that nitric oxide, through its powerful "cell-signaling," also turns on "gene expression" and delivers the same orders to keep adding new muscle. And it does that throughout the whole day. But without any side effects.

What about this perpetual pump you keep talking about. That's not really possible is it?

Do you know what causes rock-hard pumps? Increased blood flow. Your body responds naturally to exercise by releasing nitric oxide. Nitric oxide causes the blood "floodgates" to open, additional blood surges in (hemodilation) and you get a pump. But the exercise-induced pump is only temporary It disappears soon after the body realizes exercise has ended. But with NO2, the pumps last much longer. That's because NO2's extended-release delivery system pHyser3, forces a continuous daily production of nitric oxide. Your body gets a "continuous surge" of blood coursing through the skeletal muscle throughout the entire day. That's why your muscle becomes engorged and steel-like, and remains that way a lot longer. And by the way, the steroid pump also works through increased blood flow. Did you know in a steroid cycle the body makes extra red blood cells. In fact, a 200 pound guy can carry a whole extra liter of blood.