Berkeley Life is a lineup of supplements designed to reduce symptoms of high blood pressure. Here’s our review of Berkeley Life and their popular Heart Health Supplement.
What is Berkeley Life?
Berkeley Life is a manufacturer of heart health supplements, including nitric oxide test strips and oral supplements that lower blood pressure.
The company’s products promise to help support healthy nitric oxide levels in your bloodstream. You track your nitric oxide levels using the test strips, then get greater insight into your heart health.
Berkeley Life’s About page claims that the company is on a “mission to improve peoples’ lives, by helping them know the importance of monitoring and maintaining normal healthy blood pressure levels.”
The company’s core product is the Heart Health Supplement, which also comes with testing strips that let you track changes in nitric oxide levels.
How is Nitric Oxide Connected to Heart Health?
Nitric oxide (NO) is a key part of your cardiovascular system. It’s a molecule that works as a signal to widen your blood vessels, thereby reducing your blood pressure. In 1998, researchers working on nitric oxide received a Nobel Prize in Medicine. These researchers showed that as your body ages, it produces less nitric oxide. That’s why older adults are more susceptible to high blood pressure problems than younger people.
Today, many people try to increase their NO levels through exercise, diet, and supplementation. Berkeley Life wants you to take their supplement to increase NO levels.
Alternatively, nitric oxide supplements are popular in the bodybuilding community. Many bodybuilders take NO supplements as a preworkout, widening the blood vessels and increasing your “pump” and “endurance” throughout a workout.
You can’t just take a dose of NO to raise NO levels in your bloodstream. Instead, these supplements contain “precursors” to NO that your body needs to make NO in the first place – like amino acids.
According to Berkeley Life, approximately 70 million Americans suffer from high blood pressure – and 1 in 5 don’t know they suffer from high blood pressure.
How Does the Berkeley Life Heart Health Supplement Work?
The Berkeley Life Heart Health Supplement works in a similar way to other nitric oxide boosters on the market: it uses amino acids to encourage your body’s production of nitric oxide.
Your purchase of the Berkeley Life Heart Health Supplement comes with two testing strips: you take one test prior to taking the supplement, then another test after 30 days of taking it. Ideally, you’ll notice a quantifiable difference in your nitric oxide levels.
How does the Heart Health Supplement raise nitric oxide levels?
Its primary ingredient is a proprietary formula called NOx:BP Complex, which is made up of beet root extract, potassium nitrate, green coffee bean extract, and pomegranate fruit extract.
All of these ingredients can be found in other nitric oxide supplements. Beet root extract is a particularly popular formula. Beet root extract contains nitrates, which widen your blood vessels and increase NO levels.
As Examine.com reports, you typically need about 450mg of beet root extract to enjoy health benefits. It’s unclear the specific dose in Berkeley Life’s Heart Health Supplement.
Potassium nitrate is another popular blood pressure treatment. Potassium nitrate reduces blood pressure when taken in doses of about 500 to 900mg.
Ultimately, Berkeley Life’s Heart Health Supplement appears to contain the right list of proven blood pressure-lowering ingredients, but the dosages aren’t quite as high as we’d like to see, especially considering the high price of the supplement.
Berkeley Life Heart Health Supplement Ingredients
The Heart Health Supplement contains all of the following ingredients in each 2 tablet serving (30 servings per container)
- 110mg of Vitamin C (as Ascorbic Acid)
- 90mg of VitaminB1
- 200mcg of Folic Acid
- 200mcg of Vitamin B12
- 60mg of Calcium
- 120mg of Potassium
- 817mg NOx:BP Complex (Contains beet root extract, potassium nitrate, green coffee bean extract, and pomegranate fruit extract).
- Other ingredients: Calcium carbonate, microcrystalline cellulose, coating (polyvinyl) alcohol, polyethylene glycol, magnesium silicate, titanium dioxide (Color), stearic acid, carboxymethylcellulose sodium, magnesium stearate, and silicon dioxide.
How Do the Berkeley Life Heart Health Supplement Testing Strips Work?
Your purchase of the Heart Health Supplement comes with two testing strips per 30 day supply.
You take one test before you take the supplement, then another after 30 days of taking the supplement. Ideally, your test will indicate higher NO levels after 30 days – showing you that the test strips worked as advertised.
The official Berkeley Life website mentions that an app is in development to help track your high blood pressure over time, although that app has not yet been released.
The tests are straightforward: you take a saliva sample, then wait for the chemical reaction to display a certain color. You match that color to a chart, then track your nitric oxide levels.
Heart Health Supplement Pricing
The Berkeley Life Heart Health Supplement is priced higher than most similar cardiovascular health supplements sold online today. Here’s how pricing breaks down on the official website:
- 30 Day Supply (60 Tablets): $39.99 + Shipping
- 90 Day Supply (180 Tablets): $109.99 + Shipping
You get two test strips for every 30 day supply (1 package).
You can also join the Berkeley Life auto-delivery program to get free shipping and a special $99.99 price for a 90 day supply (about 10% off the regular retail price).
Should You Take Heart Health Supplement?
Berkeley Life’s Heart Health Supplement is a cardiovascular health supplement that promises to lower your high blood pressure. The supplement itself has not gone through any type of testing on its own, although the company cites other tests involving the ingredients within the formula.
Based on the ingredients listed, Heart Health Supplement should work as advertised to raise nitric oxide levels and lower your blood pressure. However, the dosages are small compared to other nitric oxide boosters on the market – especially considering the supplement is priced at nearly $40 for a monthly supply.
You can probably find better options at a cheaper price. But if you like the idea of testing your saliva for nitric oxide differences, then Heart Health Supplement is one popular option on the market today.
