KATHMANDU, AUGUST 19
As many as 10,000 bottles of nitric oxide supplements are being donated to Nepal.
Nitric oxide has proved useful for treatment of COVID-19 as it maintains blood pressure and saturated oxygen level in the blood.
Philanthropist organisations Basanta Chaudhary Foundation and Norvic Initiatives for Nutrition and Health, along with the support of former senator of Texas State in the US Dan Shelley made it possible to transport the top-notch product to Nepal. The over-the counter product worth USD 750,000 will be provided to needy people in the near future through the BCF and NINH in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Population.
During the press meet here today, Dr Nathan S Bryan, inventor of the nitric oxide dietary supplement, said they chose Nepal to donate the valuable medicine in a bid to prevent the rapid spread of the COVID-19 infection in the country.
Bryan, an international leader in molecular medicine and nitric oxide biochemistry said the pharmaceutical drug of nitric oxide was currently in phase 3 clinical trials for treatment of COVID-19 in the US. However, nitric oxide dietary supplement being donated to Nepal is a widely used and recommended product among COVID-19 patients in the US.
Bryan, who also worked along with the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology Ferid Marad, said, "Nitric oxide is a compound produced naturally in the human body.
This compound is responsible for management of blood pressure and saturated oxygen in the blood. As COVID-19 decreases oxygen level in the blood, this supplement has proved very useful in this regard, thereby saving many from unwanted deaths."
"Using the supplement twice on a daily basis shall improve the saturated oxygen level in the body and reduce the rate of hospitalisation.
This lifesaving supplement is very crucial in countries like ours where the rate of vaccination is limited," read the press release jointly issued by the BCF and NINH.
Speaking to journalists during a press meet, Senator Shelley said the supplement has proven to be very effective for him personally. He also urged everyone, particularly the elderly, to take it for better health.
Similarly, chairman of the BCF Basanta Chaudhary said the supplement had proved to be fruitful to his nonagenarian mother-in-law who had started taking it after contracting COV- ID-19. "It seems that this supplement does not require doctor's prescription and can be very useful for COVID-19 patients.
It helps to maintain oxygen level in the blood at a time when many people in Nepal have died due to lack of oxygen."
A version of this article appears in the print on August 20 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
