Most people think aging is just an unavoidable decline — fatigue, brain fog, and reduced performance.
But according to Dr. Nathan Bryan, global leader in molecular medicine and nitric oxide research, the
truth is far more empowering. Your biological age isn’t just about your birthday — it’s about your
biochemistry.
In this episode, Dr. Bryan reveals why nitric oxide is the “holy grail” of longevity and human optimization,
and how leaders, athletes, and high performers can use it to extend their health span, sharpen their
focus, and boost daily energy. From uncovering lifestyle habits that deplete nitric oxide, to practical steps
you can take today to restore it, this is a masterclass in living and leading at your best — at any age.

Melissa Aarskaug (00:01.512)

Most of us are taught that aging is inevitable, that fatigue, brain fog, and decline just come with a territory. But what if your real biological age isn’t tied to your birthday, but your biochemistry? Today, we’re joined by Dr. Nathan Bryan, a global leader in molecular medicine and nitric oxide research. We’re talking about how you can extend your impact.

upgrade your performance and possibly add a decade or more to your health span all by getting your chemistry in check. Welcome Dr. Nathan.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (00:39.952)

Wow, thanks, great to be with you.

Melissa Aarskaug (00:42.444)

Now let’s start with your journey. What led you to dedicating your life to nitric oxide research and why is this such a game changer for human health?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (00:54.852)

Well, I think God has a sense of humor. You know, I got a degree from biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. And once I got a degree, I swore I’d never want to deal with nitrogen-based chemistry again. Then fast forward 30 years and here we are, we’re still deep in the research of nitrogen-based chemistry, specifically nitric oxide. But no, I was a student in LSU School of Medicine. I was working on a PhD in molecular and cellular physiology and a Nobel Prize had just been awarded for the discovery of nitric oxide. And I was introduced to this

new science. mean, we knew it was important. You know, had a chance to interact and meet the guys who won an Nobel Prize for the discovery of micrococci as a signal molecule. And just, you know, back then we knew it was an important molecule. And so there was, we knew a lot, but there was still so much that we didn’t know. Like how does the human body make it? Once it’s produced, where does it go? What does it become? How does it signal? And then perhaps most importantly, how do we restore the natural production of micrococci? And

One of the Nobel Prize winners told me that if you can figure that out, you’ll change the world. You’ll change the landscape of medicine and healthcare.

Melissa Aarskaug (01:58.476)

I love it and God does have a sense of humor. That is for certain. If you would have told me 10 years ago, I’d be living in Texas, I would have laughed at you. But here I am, an official Longhorn and loving every minute of it. So let’s talk nitric oxide and the rapidly aging executive that is burnt out, stressed out, all the things.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (02:11.341)

Here you go.

Melissa Aarskaug (02:22.444)

Tell me a little bit about how nitric oxide levels relate to aging and what does that mean for high performers under ongoing never stopping constant stress?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (02:36.09)

Well, look, nitric oxide controls and regulates everything we know about longevity, health, human optimization. And so when you look at what this molecule is and does, I mean, it’s a gas that’s produced by the lining of the blood vessels, it’s produced by our immune cells to kill off invading pathogens, and it’s a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. So if you lose the ability to produce nitric oxide, you have poor mitochondrial functions, your energy production capacity of the cell decreases.

We have less stem cells in circulation, so we don’t heal, we don’t repair and replace dysfunctional cells. And then our telomeres get shorter, and we know that shorter telomeres equals shorter lifespan. So we have to be able to maintain adequate nitric oxide production to live longer, healthier lives, and optimize our performance at any age.

Melissa Aarskaug (03:26.604)

Yeah, and I have to believe that there’s a major link between stress, inflammation, and how we’re depleting our energy and immunity, and probably mental clarity these days when we’re constantly on and never stopping.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (03:41.753)

No, that’s right. Look, there’s a clear connection between stress, nitric oxide deficiency, and the hallmarks of chronic disease. So when we’re stressed, we’re always in this fight or flight mode, and we don’t rest and digest and balance our autonomic nervous system. We get an upregulation of cortisol. We balance out that cortisol curve, and it leads to inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune dysfunction. And we know that when you become nitric oxide deficient, if you look at

For instance, dementia, mild cognitive impairment, even erectile dysfunction. When we talk about performance, cognitive performance, sexual performance, or even athletic performance, we have to have adequate blood supply. We’ve to be able to dilate the blood vessels of the brain or the sex organs or skeletal muscle or a heart if we’re to exercise. We have to be able to deliver oxygen to individual cells. We have to optimize mitochondria so the mitochondria can take that oxygen and make cellular energy or ATP.

And so then we’ve got to suppress the inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune dysfunction. And nitric oxide does all that. Dilates the blood vessels, improves tissue oxygenation, induces mitochondrial biogenesis, improves the efficiency of oxygen utilization in the mitochondria, it mobilizes stem cells so we’ve got more stem cells in circulation and inhibit oxidative stress. And then it corrects the immune dysfunction that we see in chronically ill patients. So it really is the holy grail.

in medicine, in longevity and human optimization.

Melissa Aarskaug (05:13.94)

Now, I’m curious, what is the biggest myth about longevity that you wish people in leadership, heavy leadership roles or the C-suite really understood?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (05:27.406)

The biggest myth is that if you’re a for-profit company, if you’re driven strictly by profits, you’ve missed the mark. And I think successful companies should not focus strictly on profit. That’s why I turned from a research scientist, a professor of molecular medicine, into a founder and a CEO and executive. Because I’d been in really bad organizations where the leadership was strictly defined.

and motivated by profits? And how do we make more money? And I think, you you lose your purpose. And I think what I’ve learned from that is let science lead the way. You know, when you’re an executive in a company, number one, you have to develop a strategy and a mission. And you have to bring people together that, you know, drink the Kool-Aid. They believe what you’re doing. You know, they bought in. And then you’ve got to put the right people in there to execute your strategy. And for us,

Nitric oxide is the guiding principle and we develop products that, number one, if your body can’t make nitric oxide, we’d do it for you. And so our products work. And so we’re not driven by profits. We’re driven by constant innovation, delivering products that work. And number one, our main motivation was to maintain the integrity of the field. Because there’s these companies out there who are selling so-called nitric oxide products.

And I get emails and phone calls and texts every day from people who buy those products and go, Nathan, we hear you talking about nitric oxide all the time for the past decade, but you know what? I’ve been taking a nitric oxide product and it hasn’t helped me. So nitric oxide doesn’t work for me. And I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, that’s a very dangerous interpretation. Nitric oxide always works. Now what doesn’t work for you is that company. What doesn’t work for you is that product.

If you take a product that generates nitric oxide, or we naturally improve your ability to produce nitric oxide, you will see the effect. You will perform better cognitively. Your brain will be on. You’ll perform better sexually when dilating the blood vessels improves sexual function. If you’re a high performing athlete, you’re gonna be more well-trained because nitric oxide optimizes the efficiency of oxygen utilization so you can go longer, stronger, faster. So everything we know about that.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (07:48.453)

You know, what my philosophy is and our philosophy at Bryan Therapeutics is look, just do the right thing. If you do the right thing, the cash register rings. people get stressed out about profits, especially publicly traded companies who are, you know, always constantly figuring out how do you, you know, maintain shareholder buy-in and maintain good share prices. And that’s why, you know, I’ve avoided private equity, I’ve avoided venture capitalists, and, you know, I don’t suffer from those same type of stresses or pressures.

Melissa Aarskaug (08:16.418)

Yeah, I love what you’re saying. was thinking about, you know, I’m an athlete. I always looked for my competitive edge that I could find with when I was running competitive leaders, playing sports. But let’s talk about like stamina recovery. How does nitric like what is the how behind it? Like how does nitric oxide give leaders an edge in, you know, decision making and their focus and their performance? What’s the how behind that?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (08:45.786)

The hell is early perfusion. So for any organ to work properly, including the brain, we have to adequately perfuse certain readings of the brain, right? So our executive function, our memory recall, our cognitive function, when we’re on, we’ve got to dilate blood vessels and recruit capillaries and perfuse certain readings of the brain to allow us to be on. And that’s dictated and controlled by the production of nitric oxide. And you can see this in…

you know, any patient with a neurological disease, whether it’s ADHD, know, obsessive compulsive disorder, addictive disorders, dementia, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s, that the common denominator in all those is there’s a lack of regulation of blood flow. We call it focal ischemia or hypoxia in the brain. We’re not dilating the blood vessels. We’re not fully oxygenating that part of the brain, and it doesn’t function. So then we lose our cognitive ability. And in the earliest stages of that through

know, spec scans or functional MRIs looking at cerebral blood flow, that’s really the first indication. That’s why we call it vascular dementia at later stages because it’s a vascular disease and it’s a metabolic disease. And nitric oxide controls the vascular and the metabolic aspects of cognitive performance. And really that’s how we…

those are the high performers, the ones that can adequately produce nitric oxide and can profuse the brain and get glucose into the cell and their mitochondria work to produce cellular energy. Those are your high performance. And it’s not just the executives, it’s the athletes and anyone that’s considered high performing in any industry.

Melissa Aarskaug (10:23.502)

I’m curious with, you know, I’ve seen a lot of younger people having heart attacks or strokes, and I’m curious for say a 45 year old CEO, what’s the difference between health span and lifespan and why should CEOs care about that right now?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (10:45.122)

Look, for me personally, we have such a short time on earth, right? So every day I want to wake up and be better than I was yesterday and just really do the best I can to leave a lasting impact. But if I stress about things and I’m not healthy, I’m not going to be able live in my full potential. And so you’re seeing these people who don’t know how to deal with stress and number one, they’re overweight, they’re metabolically unfit. Nine out of 10 Americans are metabolically unfit and two out of three Americans have an unsafe elevation in blood pressure.

And so again, if you lost the ability to produce nitric oxide, you can’t dilate blood vessels, you become hypertensive, you can’t get glucose into the cell, you develop insulin resistance, and then platelets become hyperactive, your blood vessels start to clog up and the platelets or the plaque ruptures and platelets clot and you develop a heart attack or stroke. So that entire sequence of event which puts people at risk for heart attack and stroke,

because they have underlying cardiovascular disease that may be symptomatic or asymptomatic in some cases, can all be mitigated by focusing on nitric oxide. Stop doing the things that disrupts its production and then start doing the things that we’ve proven to clinically activate and stimulate and restore nitric oxide production.

Melissa Aarskaug (11:58.294)

I love it. think of, and maybe this is just how my brain works. I think of my health like a hamster wheel and each one of those reels is something like sleep and nutrition and exercise. I’m curious about, you know, what are professionals doing wrong? I know it’s not just sleep. It’s just not diet. Like where are we missing the mark and where is the real room for improvement today as far as

lifestyle, the lifestyle equation, I guess is what I’ll call it.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (12:32.516)

Well, I think the American lifestyle is probably the most, well, not probably, it is the most unhealthy. I mean, we have the sickest people on the planet. We’re the most advanced nation on Earth, and yet we have the sickest people. we may not be, we’re living longer, I think, but the quality of the life, even extending life, and I think probably over the past 30, 40 years, I’ve seen data where we’re actually not living longer. In fact, this may be the first generation where we’re not going to live, you know, where our kids aren’t going to live longer than us. We’re on a negative

We’re on a decline here. But I think there’s a look. We live in a toxic world. The food we eat is depleted of any nutrients. We’re exposed to toxins. And then we don’t get enough exercise. We stress too much. We don’t get enough sleep. And everything that I’ve just talked about depletes the body’s ability to produce nitric oxide. And that’s the earliest event in the onset and progression.

of chronic disease. But it starts in the mouth, fluoride in your toothpaste, anything that kills the microbiome. Two out of three Americans use mouthwash every day, destroying the microbiome, the oral microbiome, decreasing nitric oxide production. We see their blood pressure go up. And then things like antacids. People who are eating, especially business executives, they eat on the run, develop heartburn, take proton pump inhibitors, your Pylosec, your Prevacid, your Nexium.

And those drugs completely shut down nitric oxide production, leading to a 40 % increase in heart attacks, stroke, and Alzheimer’s. That’s indisputable data that was published over the past five years. And then sedentary lifestyle, too much stress, not getting enough sleep. I mean, it’s a recipe for disaster. So for me personally, I’ve made a conscious decision. I don’t worry about things I can’t control.

And then I try to get a good seven, eight hours. Nine hours is optimal for me. If I can get eight hours, I’m pretty good. But, you know, wake up in the morning, start my day in prayer and gratitude and, you know, I’m in infrared sauna to detox, develop my strategy for the day, make sure that my day is completely planned. And I go about my day, but that’s every day, you know, my creature of habit. But I do those same things. And it’s, you know, it hasn’t failed me in 51 years now.

Melissa Aarskaug (14:43.214)

love it. And I love that you mentioned that because I think that’s such an important. Man, that it’s an important nugget because most busy executives, they wake up, they grab their phone, they react right away. Every single day. It’s like, I have 20 emails, I have a global company, you know, I got to hit this time zone first before they go to bed. And, and so I love what you said, I just have to reiterate that because

Dr Nathan S Bryan (14:57.52)

you

Melissa Aarskaug (15:12.148)

I started that practice, I would say about five years ago where I wake up without my phone, I lay in bed, I work my plan, I set in gratitude and prayer, I exercise, I work my day versus my day working me. And I find that I’m less stressed. Now, flipping that upside down, when I travel for work,

and I’m away from my process. I’m waking up and I’m on my phone. I’m reacting to the day. I’m eating more, I’m sleeping less. I may be drinking more. And so I think there’s so much wisdom behind that, really working your day, getting it organized, setting in gratitude. Like I do three things I need to accomplish today. Three, not 500. And three things I’m grateful for. And simple things like,

Dr Nathan S Bryan (16:05.136)

That’s great.

Melissa Aarskaug (16:10.688)

eight hours of sleep or my when my husband brings me morning coffee. I’m always grateful for that when I don’t even have to ask. And so I think there’s so much beauty in that. It’s simple, but it’s so true. So I want to pivot a little bit and you know, markers are everything these days. So are there any specific biomarkers at home tests? Like what’s the secret on where executives

Dr Nathan S Bryan (16:18.202)

with that.

Melissa Aarskaug (16:39.872)

and what executives should be monitoring to track their longevity.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (16:45.828)

Well, specifically as it relates to nitric oxide, we know there are biomarkers, there are symptoms that show up or manifest as a result of loss of nitric oxide production. And there’s a hierarchy. So number one, you start to develop erectile dysfunction. If you can’t dilate the blood vessels of the sex organs, you can’t get engorgement. And that’s both in men and women, for example. So we call that the canary in the coal mine. If you’ve got endothelial dysfunction in the vascular bed of the sex organs or the pelvic region, then you’ve got endothelial dysfunction. It’s a systemic disease. Number two, your blood pressure starts to go up.

Because if you’re not dilating the blood vessels through the production of nitric oxide, you’ve got that same volume of blood going through smaller pipes and simple laws of physics tell us the pressure has to come up. And so two out of three Americans have an unsafe elevation of blood pressure. Number three, you start to get insulin resistance because you need nitric oxide to get glucose into the cell when insulin binds to the insulin receptor. And nine out of 10 Americans are metabolically unfit.

Number four, you start to develop exercise intolerance. If you can’t walk up a flight of stairs or do 20, 30 minutes of moderate physical exercise without getting winded and chest tightening and that, then you’re nitric oxide deficient. And then…

you start to lose your mental edge. You develop mild cognitive impairment. You’re not as sharp as you were. You’re making poor decisions as an executive. And eventually, if not corrected, then that’s dementia and eventually Alzheimer’s. So those are the physical symptoms that we keep an eye on. In terms of biomarkers, blood biomarkers, we see C-reactive protein go up. We see triglycerides go up. We see ferritin levels go up.

and we see glucose and insulin on the rise. And so all of those metabolic biomarkers or biomarkers of inflammation cannot be corrected by restoring the natural production of nitric oxide. In fact, one of my patents, two of my patents, one is on a method of reducing inflammation, 37 % reduction in C-reactive protein after 30 days, and the other is lowering triglycerides, 27 % reduction in triglycerides in patients who have triglycerides greater than 150.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (18:47.12)

just in 30 days. So if we’re restoring nitric oxide production, you know, we’re balancing our metabolism, we’re overcoming insulin resistance, we’re normalizing blood flow, blood pressure, reducing inflammation. I mean, all the good things that we look for in longevity and human optimization.

Melissa Aarskaug (19:05.066)

It’s interesting. think about inflammation and I think, I mean, I’m no doctor. I’ll have to ask you these questions, but it seems like most of the disease is all centered around inflammation and our body. think of all the, you know, even acne, right? Even all of them that I can think of as we’re talking, they all seem to come from inflammation. So you’d think if you can decrease the inflammation, you could easily increase your health, I would think.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (19:35.441)

For sure. Now look, inflammation is necessary. If we get an infection or we get a cut, we need that acute inflammatory response to go and, number one, isolate that source of infection and then bring our immune cells in and then repair and regenerate the tissue. All of that is controlled by an acute inflammatory response. It’s bringing the fire trucks to the fire. We need that. Now the problem is, is when we have uncontrolled inflammation,

then that’s the driver of chronic disease, all chronic disease. But all that can be explained by nitric oxide. So in that whole process, if we lose the production of nitric oxide, then if we get exposed to a virus or a bacterium or we have an injury, we don’t have good mobilization of our immune cells to go because we’ve got, if you order something on Amazon and the car goes on the truck, but there’s a traffic jam.

you’re not going to deliver that cargo, which is the oxygen, the nutrients for that cell to do its job. So nitric oxide dilates those blood vessels, clears the traffic jam, so now you can get the immune cells to the site of infection or the site of injury in the body. And then we start to get oxidative stress. And then that’s when the inflammation is driven by a lot of oxygen radicals. And then our immune cells become confused and we develop immune dysfunction.

But if we can just give nitric oxide and restore nitric oxide, we decrease inflammation, we inhibit oxidative stress, and we correct the immune dysfunction that you see in every single chronic disease. And it doesn’t matter if it’s Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, kidney disease, pulmonary disease, liver disease, it’s all the same. That’s the hallmarks of chronic disease.

Melissa Aarskaug (21:15.584)

Yeah, and I’m thinking, you know, I’ve had some discussions with my baby boomer friends and others and, you know, it seems like they have one thing and then they have another thing and then another thing. It’s kind of like this chain reaction these days and they all seem like they’re autoimmune diseases or issues and, this pill needs that pill and that pill needs this pill and them together. So how like if

someone’s out there and they’re in that space where they had some of the issues that you’re talking about. Let’s talk about what they can do and maybe the top three changes that somebody could make today to boost their nitric oxide levels.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (22:04.132)

Well, it’s very good question and it’s a very well-defined answer because we’ve been studying this for the past 25 years. So, number one, you have to get rid of fluoride in your toothpaste. And the other problem is 73 % of the municipalities in the US put fluoride in the drinking water. And why do they do that? Well, because it’s antibacterial. You want to kill the bacteria in the pipes that you’re…

Cooking in you’re drinking and the water and that you’re even bathing in but that fluoride is antiseptic It kills the bacteria on your body in your body You drink it. It’s in the foods that you’re cooking in And it’s shutting down your thyroid function. It’s a neurotoxin and it’s antiseptic I mean we have to get rid of fluoride fluoride is a toxin that lowers IQ by as much as seven points and young kids So that’s number one switch your toothpaste. I developed a fluoride free really nitric oxide biome targeted

toothpaste called cardio smile and it’s changing people’s lives. Number two are antacids or antiseptic mouthwash. Two out of three Americans get up every morning and throw an atomic bomb in their mouth killing all the bacteria creating a sterile environment. We’ve shown that that shuts down nitric oxide production, their blood pressure goes up, they lose the protective benefits of exercise. And then third is get off antacids. Autoimmune diseases caused from insufficient stomach acid production.

because we need stomach acid to break down proteins into amino acids. If we don’t have stomach acid, we’re absorbing undigested peptide fragments across the lining of the gut and our body develops an antibody response or an immune reaction to it and we develop foodborne allergies, immune dysfunction, and that’s autoimmune disease. And many doctors call it idiopathic fibromyalgia, but you know, or some type of syndrome.

that they can now treat with a drug. But the problem is, use the hamster wheel as a metaphor. I think that’s the metaphor of Big Pharma because Big Pharma is a for-profit business. It’s the biggest industry in the history of the world. It’s multi-trillion dollar annualized industry. And they’re the best at it because they get you on that hamster wheel and they treat you with one drug. That drug causes a side effect. They got to now treat with another drug. And that drug causes a side effect.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (24:10.316)

know, in for-profit business, the number one rule is get as many customers as you can and keep them as long as you can. And Big Pharma is the best in the business at that. To our own demise, right? It’s not, it’s very healthy financially, but it’s the most unhealthy thing for us as humans.

Melissa Aarskaug (24:19.821)

Yeah.

Melissa Aarskaug (24:27.428)

Yeah, I agree. I’ve seen people ping pong around to doctors with different medication and then they die shortly after. And so I often wonder what could we…

Dr Nathan S Bryan (24:36.028)

Well, tell people, fire your doctor. Look, if you took your car to a mechanic and it kept breaking down, that’s very simple. You would fire that mechanic because he has not fixed the problem. If you’ve got a doctor and you’re still feeling bad and every time you go back, he puts you on different medication or he’s not making you better, fire that doctor.

and go find somebody who understands your symptoms, who can take the time to listen to you, do an inventory of the drug therapy you’re taking and talk about how do we get people off drugs? Because most doctors are like, okay, if that doesn’t work or you don’t get better, come back, I’m gonna put you on another drug. And then you look up, you’re 50 years old and most people are on half a dozen, sometimes a dozen, 18 different medications and they wonder why they feel that.

Melissa Aarskaug (25:21.006)

Yeah, so true. I’m thinking about my own family. The healthiest people in my family don’t see a doctor, but occasionally. And they aren’t on any medication. So we’ve solved that. And I’m thinking in my brain as a traveling executive. I’ve stressed, and I over train sometimes because I’m an athlete at heart.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (25:27.248)

Here you go.

Melissa Aarskaug (25:47.286)

I’m curious how nitric oxide effects are like how to travel stress and overtraining affect nitric oxide levels and long term health.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (25:58.597)

Well, it’s all about recovering. So number one, it’s about giving the mitochondria what they need and improving the efficiency of mitochondria. So if you overtrain, it’s all about, in terms of recovery, it’s lactic acid buildup. when your mitochondria aren’t functional, they start to get into this. When you push past that anaerobic threshold, then you start to get lactic acid production. That makes muscles sore. You overtrain and you recover slowly.

But if we’re optimized in nitric oxide, we’re basically extending that oxygen gradient in the tissue. Nitric oxide leads to mitochondrial biogenesis, so we’re having more mitochondria per cell generate more energy with less oxygen. So you don’t get the lactic acid buildup and you recover better. Number one, you’re going to get a much better workout. It’s going to be harder to overtrain because you become more efficient at creating cellular energy with the oxygen. And then you’re just going to get good circulation, good blood flow, adequate oxygen delivery.

But without nitric oxide, you’re not going to get adequate oxygen delivery. You’re not going to get adequate ATP production from that oxygen. And you’re going to overtrain and you’re going to have poor recovery.

Melissa Aarskaug (27:08.694)

I love that. I always tell myself after I travel, Melissa, rigorous self care, rigorous self care, rest and relaxation.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (27:17.388)

Now look, it’s tough. Last year I traveled 160,000 air miles and I spent over 200 nights in a hotel. But rather than when you go and when I land, no matter where I am in the world, I go to the gym. Because if I’m traveling 14, 16 hours across the world or four hours or three hours in the US, human nature is to go take a nap and rest, right? But I have enough discipline now to where because I know if I do that, it’s going to ruin my entire day.

So I immediately go to the gym and I usually stay in places where there’s an infrared sauna or a sauna where I can train, I can do cardio, I can sit in a sauna and detox and spend time alone and in prayer and developing my plan for the day. But then you try to eat healthy, but sometimes it’s hard to eat healthy. So traveling a lot is, it’s taxing, but.

You have to have the discipline to make the right decisions, or else you or either one could survive this.

Melissa Aarskaug (28:17.782)

Yeah, I agree. think that’s discipline’s key to all the things we want in our life. Tell me what breakthroughs are you most excited about right now as it relates to nitric oxide?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (28:32.24)

You know, I’m excited about our drug therapy program. You we’ve had products, consumer products on the market for a number of years now. you know, we’re the market leaders, our products produce nitric oxide and, you know, we’re certainly the market leaders in that. for me, getting in this field 25 years ago, my whole purpose was to understand the mechanism of disease to the extent that you could develop rational therapies. And so even though our consumer products are highly successful, highly efficacious,

You know, being in academia, being a professor of medicine at a medical school for a number of years, our whole mission was to develop novel drug therapies, safe and effective drugs. So we’ve got a drug that we’ve developed, a nitric oxide releasing drug for ischemic heart disease, which I think is going to transform the treatment and care of patients with ischemic heart disease. Number two, we’ve got a drug we’re developing for Alzheimer’s. And I’m absolutely convinced that nitric oxide will cure and eradicate Alzheimer’s.

And we’re developing that. We’ve met with the FDA. We’re hopefully designed those trials and get that, you know, this clinical trial started here in the next year or so. And then we make a topical drug for diabetic ulcers, non-healing wounds. And 65,000 Americans die in nursing homes every year from wounds, non-healing wounds that get infected with diapsepsis. And to me, that’s unacceptable because nitric oxide…

We haven’t seen a wound that we haven’t been able to heal with nitric oxide. And then, know, Alzheimer’s, again, it’s correcting the root cause of dementia and Alzheimer’s, which is overcoming the vascular and the metabolic phenotypes of mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. So that’s what, you know, gets me up every day motivated to make sure that, you know, we accomplish this because when we do this, when we get these drugs on the market, it’s going to change the world.

Melissa Aarskaug (29:56.206)

Hmm.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (30:20.674)

and healthcare is going to be better for it because number one, the drugs are safe because what we do isn’t pharmacology. We’re not making synthetic compounds that are inhibiting biochemical reactions, which is what most drugs are. We utilize the principles of restorative physiology. We give the body what it needs, the body heals itself. And so there is no safety issue because this is a naturally produced molecule. We’re just giving back a naturally produced molecule. So we don’t worry about safety.

Obviously, the doses were given as extremacy. So we just got to dial in the right amount of nitric oxide for each indication, and then we’ll change the world. that’s what I’m excited about.

Melissa Aarskaug (31:00.15)

I love it. So if you could create a longevity stack for executives, what would that look like?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (31:07.908)

Well, all I know is what works for me. I, you know, and so I’ll tell you what I do. You know, it’s you have to get sleep. If you don’t get good night’s sleep and you wake up rested and ready to go, then nothing else matters. So sleep, sleep is king. You know, for me, six to eight hours is ideal. I have to get at least six hours of sleep or I just don’t. I’m not top of my game. And then make time.

You know, if you wait till you have time to do these things, you’ll never have time. So what I have to do is make time similar to you. So every morning I wake up, wake up really early because if my workday starts at 730 or 8, I’ve got to get up at 5 because I’ve got three hours of stuff I have to get done. I sit in a sauna for 30 minutes and 170 degrees. I open my Halo app, I read scripture, I do prayer and start my day. What’s my strategy? What I’m going to do? And I plan it out.

And then typically I’ll sometimes I’ll go in a cold plunge. So I’ll go from 170 degrees to 37 degrees for three minutes And then I watch the Sun come up and that recess your circadian rhythm I walk barefoot on the ground to get electrons to this whole concept of grounding I do an 18-hour fast every day that completely changes your metabolism eat my last meal at 6 and typically try not to eat till

noon the next day. know, obviously that’s difficult sometimes because of which time zone I’m in. But and then I exercise, you know, I wake up every morning and I exercise. I take my nitric oxide products. I, you know, always at least do 100 push ups and 100 squats every day. And then sometimes I’ll go to the gym. But, know, those are the must. Those are the, you know, the non-negotiables. And it works for me. You know, I said I’m

travel all over the world and I’m gone a lot. I’ve been in enormous stress. I’ve been sued by competitors. The stresses and the pressures of leading a global multi-million dollar organization is not for the faint of heart. You have to be fit, mentally fit, spiritually fit, and physically fit to rise to the challenge every day.

Melissa Aarskaug (33:22.092)

I love it. Now, if you could tell your, I love this question and I have to ask it for you. If you could tell your younger self one thing about health and success, what would it be?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (33:34.987)

with a younger self. You know, we’ve got to avoid sugar. Sugar is a toxin, sugar is the enemy, sugar is the poison. So, you know, anything that leads to an increase in blood sugar is extremely damaging and is going to, you know, shorten your life, shorten your health span. You know, I got away with it early on because when we grew up, we were fit, we were outside running. And so if you’re burning those calories and utilizing that and burning it, then

it’s not stored as fat. And if you consume sugar, then you kind of dampen that glucose tolerance, that curve. And so your body takes it in, you don’t store it as fat. But for the average American who’s, again, metabolically unfit, overweight, hypertensive, just simply eliminating sugar and staying active, but…

18-hour fast, balanced diet in moderation, elimination of sugar or high glycemic index foods has really been a game changer.

Melissa Aarskaug (34:33.923)

Such good insights. Okay, final question for you. How do you personally define thriving in life and leadership?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (34:43.972)

You know, I think I would answer that question by having the liberty to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, and with whom I want to do it with.

Melissa Aarskaug (34:53.792)

I love it, autonomy. Thank you so much for being here. So incredibly insightful. For those who want to take a deeper dive and learn more about you and your company, what is the best way for them to connect with you?

Dr Nathan S Bryan (35:10.608)

You know, first you have to read the book. This tells the story of nitric oxide. So in 30 minutes we can’t tell the whole story, but this is my book I just published in February, The Secret of Nitric Oxide, Bring the Science to Life. can find it at nathan’sbook.com or anywhere books are sold. Briantherapeutics.com is our company website. You can find our consumer products at n101.com. It’s the letter N, number one, letter O, number one, dot com.

I encourage you to subscribe to my YouTube channel Dr. Nathan S. Bryan Nitric Oxide where we educate, inform, bring you the latest science practical information on nitric oxide and really practical applications you can really adopt immediately to improve your nitric oxide production. And then I’m on Instagram Dr. Nathan S. Bryan LinkedIn and I’m searchable in most search engines.

Melissa Aarskaug (36:04.994)

I love it. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your time and knowledge with our listeners. That’s the Executive Connect podcast.

Dr Nathan S Bryan (36:15.429)

Thank you.

Chapters:
00:00 – Dr. Nathan shares the pivotal moment when nitric oxide research caught his attention after a
Nobel Prize win.
01:00 – His journey from biochemistry to becoming a global leader in nitric oxide research.
02:20 – How nitric oxide regulates blood flow, brain function, immunity, and energy production.
05:10 – Why high-performing executives and constant stress lead to nitric oxide depletion.
08:45 – How nitric oxide fuels decision-making, focus, and stamina.
10:40 – Why CEOs should care about longevity — and the dangers of ignoring it.
12:30 – The most damaging habits for nitric oxide production (mouthwash, antacids, fluoride).
16:40 – How to spot early signs of nitric oxide deficiency and what lab markers matter most.
19:30 – Why nitric oxide is essential for controlling inflammation and immune balance.
22:00 – Simple daily actions that have the biggest impact.
25:50 – How to protect nitric oxide levels under physical and mental strain.
28:30 – Potential cures for heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and wound healing.
31:00 – His personal daily routine for health and leadership performance.
33:30 – The biggest health lesson learned: eliminate sugar.
34:40 – What success and fulfilment really mean to Dr. Bryan.