Research

Hormonal

Elevated plasma levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) impair endothelial function by competitively inhibiting nitric oxide synthase, leading to reduced vasodilation in hypercholesterolemic individuals.

If you have high cholesterol, your body may produce more ADMA, a substance that blocks blood vessel relaxation. This happens even before symptoms appear. Administering L-arginine can reverse this blockage and restore normal blood flow, suggesting that managing cholesterol is critical to preventing this specific biochemical imbalance.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) is an endogenous competitive inhibitor of nitric oxide (NO) synthase... ADMA levels were significantly elevated... in HC subjects compared with NC adults... ADMA levels were inversely correlated with endothelium-mediated vasodilation
Rainer H. Böger et al. · Circulation · 1998

Why this rating

Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in humans with clear biochemical and functional endpoints.

Source

Asymmetric Dimethylarginine (ADMA): A Novel Risk Factor for Endothelial Dysfunction

Rainer H. Böger et al. · Circulation · 1998

DOI 10.1161/01.cir.98.18.1842

crossover · n=80Cited 1,198×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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