In 1998, researchers Murad, Ignarro and Furchgott won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their discoveries about the signalling properties of the gas, nitric oxide. Among other findings, they demonstrated that when cells release nitric oxide, it induces relaxation in muscle tissue.
Nitric oxide plays a vital role in the body, and its release is triggered by different factors. Trama and injury provide some of those triggers, and it is also released during and after cupping therapy.
Functions of nitric oxide are:
1. Vasodilation: the dilation of blood vessels, which decreases blood pressure.
2. Muscle relaxation, which cures spasms.
3. Anti-thrombotic: protects the blood vessels from thrombosis (a blood clot blocking a blood vessel).
4. Decrease of inflammation.
5. Preventing the narrowing of blood vessels (stenosis) as it helps blood vessels relax, thus improving circulation.
If there is an abnormality in nitric oxide release, this will lead to many diseases such as: obesity, hypertension, heart failure and many other diseases, including viral diseases such as covid-19.