Nitric Oxide — The Molecule That Keeps You Moving

August 17, 2026

There are some molecules in the body that quietly influence almost everything.

Nitric oxide is one of them.

Tiny, transient and remarkably powerful, nitric oxide — often abbreviated to NO — is a signalling molecule produced naturally throughout the body. It helps blood vessels relax, supports circulation, participates in communication between cells and nerves, and plays an important role in how oxygen and nutrients are delivered where they are needed.

It is not a vitamin, mineral or stimulant. It is a messenger.

And it is a fascinating example of how the body can take something from food and transform it into a molecule with profound biological activity.

Let's start the conversation with our belief - Skin health isn't only skin deep.

What we put on our skin matters.

What we put into our body matters.

Our microbiome matters.

Our immune system matters.

Our stress response matters.

Our environment matters.

So why are we talking about nitric oxide?

Because modern life places considerable demands on our circulatory system. Healthy circulation is an important foundation of vitality — helping deliver oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, supporting the brain, muscles and organs, glowing skin & hair growth, facilitating recovery and allowing our cells to receive the nourishment they need to function, adapt and flourish.

Modern life is moving between extended periods of sitting and often shorter / inconsistent periods of activity. We experience psychological stress. We often eat on the run and may not choose the nourishing food source well due to time constraints or availability. Sleep can be compromised. Exercise may be inconsistent. Environmental and metabolic stressors can increase our oxidative stress. 

And as we age, the vascular system naturally changes.

One of the important features of vascular ageing is a decline in nitric oxide bioavailability, associated with endothelial dysfunction, increased oxidative stress and reduced vascular flexibility. Contemporary research continues to investigate ways of supporting this important signalling system through movement, diet and lifestyle.

Vascular ageing simply means that, as we get older, our blood vessels can gradually become less responsive, less flexible and less efficient.

Think of your blood vessels as a vast network of living, dynamic pathways carrying oxygen and nutrients around your body.

When we're younger and healthy, those vessels are designed to expand and contract in response to what the body needs. Nitric oxide is one of the important signals involved in telling blood vessels to relax and widen.

Over time, several things can interfere with that process.

1. We may produce less available nitric oxide.
Our ability to generate and preserve NO can decline with age. This can mean our blood vessels don't receive the same strong “relax and open” signal.

2. Our blood vessel lining can become less responsive.
The endothelium is the delicate inner lining of our blood vessels. Think of it as the control centre of the vessel. With age and accumulated lifestyle stress, it may not communicate as efficiently as it once did.

3. Oxidative stress can interfere with nitric oxide.
Our bodies naturally produce reactive molecules as part of metabolism. Exercise, environmental exposures, inflammation, poor diet and other stresses can increase oxidative stress. When oxidative stress is high, it can reduce the amount of NO available to do its job.

4. Blood vessels can gradually lose some of their flexibility.
Healthy vessels are dynamic — they need to expand when more blood flow is required and contract when appropriate. With ageing and vascular stress, they can become stiffer and less adaptable.

We have the choice to make this timeline much more empowering.

Ageing isn't simply something that happens to us.

Our biology is continually responding to our environment and our habits. As we age, our circulatory system naturally changes. Our blood vessels can become less flexible, and nitric oxide may become less available. But our biology isn't fixed. The foods we eat, the way we move, how we recover and the lifestyle we create around ourselves can all influence the environment in which our vascular system functions.

• Movement encourages healthy blood flow and stimulates nitric oxide production.
  
• Plant-rich foods provide nutrients and naturally occurring compounds involved in vascular health.
  
• Dietary nitrate from foods such as beetroot and leafy greens can enter the nitrate → nitrite → nitric oxide pathway.
  
• Antioxidant-rich foods can help support the body's defences against oxidative stress.
• Rest, sleep, stress management and maintaining metabolic health all contribute to the environment in which our vascular system operates.

Healthy ageing isn't about trying to stop ageing. It's about giving the body the conditions and support it needs to keep functioning, adapting and flourishing as we move through life...living our best lives!

This brings us to one of the most fascinating nutritional pathways in the body:

Nitrate → Nitrite → Nitric Oxide

From food to nitric oxide

Certain plants naturally contain nitrates.

Beetroot is particularly rich in dietary nitrate and has become one of the most extensively studied foods in relation to the nitrate–nitrite–NO pathway.

Once dietary nitrate enters the body, a portion is concentrated in saliva. Here, bacteria living naturally on the tongue help convert nitrate into nitrite. The nitrite can subsequently contribute to nitric oxide formation, particularly under conditions where oxygen availability or tissue acidity makes the alternative pathway increasingly important.

This means something rather extraordinary:

Your mouth is part of the pathway.

The oral microbiome is not simply a collection of bacteria that happen to live there. Certain oral bacteria participate in nitrate metabolism and help the body access nitric oxide from dietary nitrate. Thinking of our oral health as an ecosystem is an important part of the first healthy step in supporting the digestive journey. 

This is one reason the relationship between food, microbiome and physiology is so fascinating. The body isn't a collection of isolated systems. That is central to the core belief of Mayella and our Nourish to Flourish philosophy! 

• The mouth communicates with the microbiome.
• The microbiome interacts with our food.
• Food provides biological precursors.
• Those precursors become signalling molecules eg NO.
• NO molecules influence circulation (so many signalling molecules, so many functions...our bodies are a continuous highway of communication!).
  
• Circulation influences oxygen delivery.
• Oxygen delivery influences movement, energy and recovery!  
  And all of this happens inside a body constantly responding to its environment.

The cardiovascular connection

One of nitric oxide's best-established roles is in the vascular system.

The endothelium — the delicate inner lining of our blood vessels — produces nitric oxide. NO signals the surrounding smooth muscle to relax, helping blood vessels widen and allowing blood to move more freely.

This process, known as vasodilation, is fundamental to healthy vascular function.

Research into nitrate-rich foods, particularly beetroot, has found reductions in blood pressure in a number of controlled trials and systematic reviews, although the magnitude of the effect varies between individuals and studies.

Rather than thinking of nitric oxide as something that simply “lowers blood pressure”, it is more useful to understand it as part of the body's sophisticated system for regulating vascular tone and blood flow.

Healthy circulation is the bigger story.

Oxygen, movement and endurance

Blood flow determines how efficiently oxygen and nutrients can reach working muscles.

This is one reason dietary nitrate has attracted so much interest in exercise science.

When nitrate contributes to nitric oxide production, it may improve aspects of vascular function and exercise efficiency. Meta-analyses have found evidence of improvements in exercise tolerance and endurance under some conditions, although effects are not universal and appear to depend on factors including exercise type, fitness, dose and individual response. We're going to share more later in a seperate blog, it's an exciting discussion!

Dietary nitrate may help support the body's natural systems for blood flow and oxygen utilisation during physical activity.

And what about the brain?

The brain is extraordinarily dependent upon a continuous supply of blood, oxygen and nutrients.

Nitric oxide participates in the regulation of cerebral blood flow and also functions as a signalling molecule within the nervous system.

This has naturally led researchers to investigate whether increasing dietary nitrate might support cognitive performance and healthy brain ageing.

The science here is particularly interesting — but also more nuanced.

What we can confidently say is that nitric oxide is important to healthy cerebral circulation and neuronal signalling.

That alone makes it an important molecule to understand as we think about healthy ageing.

Nitric oxide and sexual vitality & reproductive health

Blood flow is fundamental to sexual physiology for men & women too.

Nitric oxide is a central signalling molecule in the vascular mechanisms involved in erectile function, where it contributes to smooth-muscle relaxation and increased blood flow. This also includes the clitoris - a woman's "little penis" NO also participates in neural pathways involved in sexual motivation and behaviour.

While nitric oxide is often discussed in relation to erectile function, NO signalling also occurs throughout the female reproductive system, including the blood vessels and tissues of the vagina, clitoris, uterus and ovaries.

The clitoris

The clitoris is highly vascularised erectile tissue. Just as nitric oxide contributes to the relaxation of smooth muscle and increased blood flow involved in penile erection, NO participates in the vascular processes involved in female genital arousal.

When sexual stimulation occurs, signalling between nerves, blood vessels and surrounding tissues contributes to increased genital blood flow.

Nitric oxide is one of the molecules involved in that communication.

In simple terms:

stimulation → neural signalling → nitric oxide → vascular relaxation → increased blood flow

That increased blood flow contributes to the physiological changes associated with female sexual arousal, including clitoral engorgement and genital tissue responsiveness.

The vagina

The vaginal tissues are also highly responsive to changes in blood flow. During sexual arousal, increased pelvic and genital circulation contributes to vasocongestion — the filling of blood vessels within the genital tissues — which supports lubrication, tissue swelling and physiological readiness.

Nitric oxide is one of the signalling molecules involved in regulating this vascular response. This is why the broader relationship between vascular health and sexual health is so important.

Sexual vitality isn't happening separately from the rest of the circulatory system.

It is part of it.

The uterus

The relationship becomes even more interesting when we look at the uterus. Nitric oxide is involved in the regulation of uterine blood flow and smooth-muscle activity. Research has identified NO signalling within the uterus and reproductive tract, with roles that vary according to hormonal state and stage of the reproductive cycle.

This is particularly interesting because the uterus isn't simply a static organ. It is a highly responsive, vascular tissue whose physiology changes dramatically across the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause.

And circulation is fundamental throughout those transitions.

Fertility

This brings us to fertility. Nitric oxide has been investigated in relation to ovarian function, follicular development, ovulation, implantation and placental blood flow.

There is evidence that NO signalling participates in several stages of female reproduction, including regulation of blood flow within reproductive tissues and communication between cells. But this is an important place for scientific nuance.

We shouldn't translate that into: “More nitric oxide = greater fertility.”

Human fertility is vastly more complex than that. Hormones, ovarian reserve, egg and sperm quality, age, genetics, metabolic health, uterine health, inflammation and many other factors are involved.

What we can say is that nitric oxide is one of the biological signalling systems involved in healthy reproductive physiology.

And that is fascinating in itself.

And then there is the male–female connection

There is something quite beautiful about the NO story. The same fundamental signalling molecule participates in vascular processes throughout the body — including sexual physiology in both women and men.

In men, NO-mediated smooth-muscle relaxation is central to erectile physiology.

In women, NO participates in the vascular and neural mechanisms underlying genital arousal and reproductive tissue function.

Different anatomy.

Different physiology.

But the same fundamental language of blood vessels, nerves and signalling molecules.

Where healthy blood flow matters, nitric oxide matters.

To the heart.

To the brain.

To working muscles.

To the skin.

And yes — to sexual and reproductive tissues.

This is why nitric oxide is such an interesting molecule in the conversation around healthy ageing and vitality.

As women move through different stages of life — from reproductive years, through pregnancy and postpartum, peri-menopause and menopause — the hormonal environment changes dramatically.

Those hormonal changes also influence vascular function, genital tissues and sexual wellbeing. Again, the broader principle is beautifully simple:

Where healthy blood flow matters, nitric oxide matters.

The ageing connection

Nitric oxide production and bioavailability are influenced by many factors, including endothelial health, oxidative stress, physical activity, metabolic health and age.

As we move through midlife and beyond, the vascular system becomes increasingly vulnerable to oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction, while NO bioavailability can decline. Recent research continues to identify reduced NO signalling as an important feature of cardiovascular ageing.

This is why nitric oxide belongs in a conversation about active ageing and pro-ageing.

Not because we need to “fight” getting older.

But because healthy ageing is about maintaining the body's capacity to circulate, oxygenate, move, repair, adapt and communicate.

Enter Mayella Acai Berry Beautiful

This is where the Mayella formulation becomes particularly interesting.

Acai Berry Beautiful is not simply about Acai.

It is a carefully composed blend of complementary plant foods, each bringing its own nutritional character.

Among its ingredients is beetroot — a naturally nitrate-rich food source that provides the nutritional precursor for the nitrate–nitrite–nitric oxide pathway.

Alongside it are vibrant berry and botanical ingredients including acai, Kakadu Plum, mango, blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, strawberry, pomegranate and Manuka honey.

This creates something we love about Mayella formulations:

one ingredient is not doing everything.

Instead, a balanced whole-food formulation brings together multiple sources of polyphenols, antioxidants, vitamins and plant compounds that support different aspects of physiology, naturally in sync with Mother Nature's wisdom.

The beautiful relationship with Vitamin C

Kakadu Plum brings another fascinating element to this formulation: naturally occurring Vitamin C.

Vitamin C is a powerful water-soluble antioxidant and research has explored its relationship with endothelial nitric oxide availability.

One proposed mechanism is through protection of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH₄), an important cofactor for endothelial nitric oxide synthase. Oxidative depletion of BH₄ can impair normal NO production, while ascorbate may help maintain BH₄ in its reduced state and support endothelial NO signalling.

This gives us a scientifically interesting example of nutritional harmony & the positive & proactive cascade effect that is possible when all the ingredients are present.

The nitrate pathway provides a dietary precursor. The body and its oral microbiome participate in converting that nitrate through nitrite toward nitric oxide.

And antioxidant nutrients such as Vitamin C may help create a biological environment that supports NO availability and endothelial function.

This relationship is exciting to continue exploring — and it is precisely the kind of nutritional interconnectedness that makes our whole-food formulations so fascinating.

Your daily NO environment

Perhaps the most important takeaway worth repeating, is that nitric oxide is not something we need to think about in isolation.

Our daily habits influence the environment in which nitric oxide is produced and used.

Movement stimulates endothelial NO production.

A diet rich in plant foods provides nitrate and polyphenols.

The oral microbiome participates in the nitrate–nitrite pathway.

Antioxidant protection may help preserve NO bioavailability.

Sleep, metabolic health, stress and physical activity all influence vascular health.

It is another reminder that the body does not work in compartments.

Everything is connected.

A Mayella perspective

At Mayella, we have always been interested in the intelligence of plants — not simply what one isolated compound can do, but how a whole collection of naturally occurring constituents can contribute to nourishment.

Our Acai Berry Beautiful is a delicious example.

It brings together colour, flavour, polyphenols, Vitamin C and plant nutrients, with beetroot providing a naturally occurring source of dietary nitrate.

It is not a nitric oxide supplement, it is a food. And that distinction matters.

We love to honour the gifts of Mother Nature in her completeness in our formulations and what is possible to provide in our daily menu. To consider, perhaps the most beautiful way to support our wellness through nutrition, is not always to chase a single molecule, but to nourish the systems that allow our own body to create, regulate and use the bioactive ingredients that is found in our food sources.

Nourish to Flourish.

We're not adding nitric oxide to the body. We're nourishing the biological pathways through which the body makes and regulates it. And sometimes, the smallest molecules are part of the biggest stories. 

Nourish the pathway.
Nourish the circulation.
Nourish the whole woman, man, child

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