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Endothelial Function

Endothelial function (vasoreactivity) tends to refer to the reactivity of blood vessels to dilate or contract upon demand, and is associated with blood flow and arterial calcification. Improved vasoreactivity is associated with reduced risk for cardiovascular incidents.

Kamal
Research analysis lead by Kamal Patel
All content reviewed by Examine.com Team. Published:
Last Updated:

Human Effect Matrix

The Human Effect Matrix looks at human studies (it excludes animal and in vitro studies) to tell you what supplements affect endothelial function
Grade Level of Evidence
Robust research conducted with repeated double-blind clinical trials
Multiple studies where at least two are double-blind and placebo controlled
Single double-blind study or multiple cohort studies
Uncontrolled or observational studies only
Level of Evidence
? The amount of high quality evidence. The more evidence, the more we can trust the results.
Outcome Magnitude of effect
? The direction and size of the supplement's impact on each outcome. Some supplements can have an increasing effect, others have a decreasing effect, and others have no effect.
Consistency of research results
? Scientific research does not always agree. HIGH or VERY HIGH means that most of the scientific research agrees.
Notes
grade-b Coenzyme Q10 Minor Very High See all 5 studies
The effective size does not appear to be overly large, but CoQ10 is associated with a protective effect on blood flow and endothelial function in persons with otherwise impaired function.
grade-b Fish Oil Minor Very High See all 4 studies
There appears to be a slight increase in vascular reactivity and blood vessel responsiveness that may be independent of both blood flow alterations and blood pressure
grade-c Arginine Minor Moderate See 2 studies
Unreliable improvements in endothelial function, notably in persons with impaired glucose tolerance/type II diabetes, associated with the supposed increase in nitric oxide
grade-c Panax ginseng  
grade-c Vitamin D  
grade-d Vitamin C  

All comparative evidence is now gathered in our ​A-to-Z Supplement Reference.

The evidence for each separate supplement is still freely available ​here.

This page is regularly updated, to include the most recently available clinical trial evidence.

Each member of our research team is required to have no conflicts of interest, including with supplement manufacturers, food companies, and industry funders. The team includes nutrition researchers, registered dietitians, physicians, and pharmacists. We have a strict editorial process.

This page features 0 references. All factual claims are followed by specifically-applicable references. Click here to see the full set of references for this page.

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