You may not know much about nitric oxide, but rest assured that it’s important to your body’s functionality—and that its absence can lead to anything from cardiovascular problems to erectile dysfunction.
Nitric oxide is a gas—its chemical formulation NO—that has major implications for the human body. Study into the bodily impact of nitric oxide began in the 1970s, and by the 1990s scientists had begun championing it as one of the most significant of all biological compounds. In 1992, Science proclaimed it Molecule of the Year.