You know the feeling you get when you learn something new about a health problem you've

been trying to reverse, maybe high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease.

Well, there's nothing I like better than bringing you the information that will help you

do just that.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Today we continue our series on Downscraping.

First up, we look how the practice can boost our cardiovascular health.

The human mouth is an important habitat for microbes harboring up to 10 billion bacteria

and no wonder it's a warm and moist providing a suitable environment for bacterial growth.

Some of which are actually beneficial.

For example, it's widely recognized that dietary nitrate affords cardiovascular protection

by turning into nitric oxide.

And guess what contributes to the generation of nitric oxide?

Our oral microbiome.

First we treat nitrate-rich vegetables like dark green leafy synthetes.

The nitrate is then absorbed into our bloodstream.

Our body then pulls it out of circulation to be concentrated in our cellar very glands

and secreted back into the oral cavity.

Why?

Because our body knows there are good bacteria on our tongue to tweak it, eventually resulting

in the synthesis of the artery protecting nitric oxide.

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