Do you have enough NO to fight off parasites???

Definition of Nitric oxide Nitric oxide: A compound that is toxic but which, paradoxically, plays a number of important roles in the body, including the following: · Acts as a vasodilator (blood vessel relaxant). · Controls blood flow to tissues. · Regulates the binding and release of oxygen to hemoglobin. · Controls the supply of oxygen to mitochondria (cell powerhouses that generate energy). · Kills parasitic organisms, virus-infected cells, and tumor cells (by inactivating respiratory chain enzymes in their mitochondria). · Stimulates the production of new mitochondria. The 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded to Robert F. Furchgott, Ferid Murad, and Louis J. Ignarro for their discoveries of the role of nitric oxide in cardiovascular physiology. http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=22508 Scientific study: Role of nitric oxide in host defense against an extracellular, metazoan parasite, Brugia malayi http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=174228 Parasite Killing in Plasmodium vivax Malaria by Nitric Oxide: Implication of Aspartic Protease Inhibition http://jb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/136/3/329