Nearly a third of adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure, which raises the risk of heart disease and stroke. That’s why blood pressure drugs are among the bestselling medications in the country.

Unfortunately, those drugs come with significant risks, and may not entirely control the problem. In fact, about one-third of people with high blood pressure have “resistant hypertension,” meaning that their blood pressure cannot be controlled with less than four medications.

L-arginine helps regulate the production of nitric oxide, which safeguards both the heart and the blood vessels.

It is nitric oxide that signals the muscles in the heart’s arteries to relax, enabling them to widen and blood flow to increase.

This helps prevent plaque from building up on the walls of the arteries, allowing the blood to flow more smoothly and therefore lower blood pressure.