碧萝芷Pycnogenol.doc

碧蘿芷Pycnogenol可降低罹患心血管疾病的機率Pycnogenol1 to reduce risk factors of cardio-vascular diseasesP. Rohdewald1Pycnogenol, French maritime pine bark extract, (Horphag Research Sales Ltd.)When the tube is blocked, the pump does not work. This simple message means one has to care for his blood vessels to avoid malfunction of the heart. It should be common knowledge that a healthy life style protects against cardiovascular diseases, starting with exercising, healthy nutrition, not smoking, coping with stress.Unfortunately, there is a large gap between knowing, understanding and doing something healthy, because it is so hard to change life-style.For those not able or not willing to switch to another way of life, there is the possibility to reduce risk factors for cardio-vascular diseases. Pycnogenol, the special extract from the bark of the French maritime pine, is an ideal daily supplement because of its manifold actions.A prerequisite for a healthy heart is a healthy vascular system. For regular blood flow, blood vessels should be elastic and free from deposits, especially from calcification. Red blood cells should be elastic and should travel freely, not clumping together. Diameter of the blood vessels should be normal, so that blood pressure is also normal. Pycnogenol, as a natural extract, containing many useful substances produced from the pine tree, helps to keep normal all these preconditions for a healthy vascular system.Starting with the red blood cells, Pycnogenol increases the fluidity of the outer layer of the blood cells, so that they can squeeze more easily through capillaries (Sironova et al., 2004). Simultaneously, Pycnogenol protects the lipids in the red blood cell against peroxidation because of its ability to inactivate free radicals (Sironova et al., 2004).Even when the red blood cells are more elastic, other blood cells have to be protected too. Clumps of blood platelets, adhering to the blood vessel wall, can block the blood flow, forming a thrombus. And if the thrombus travels through the lung, a lung emboli could be the result, a thrombus in the brain may result in stroke.Daily life in our days favors clumping of blood platelets in many ways - stress, immobility, smoking. Smoking increases dramatically the tendency of blood platelets to clump together as stress does (Fig. 1). Intake of Pycnogenol one hour before smoking prevented completely that smoking-induced clumping of blood platelets (Ptter et al., 1999). An extreme example for immobility is to sit for a long period of time in a plane. That immobility together with dry air produces clumping of platelets, which eventually leads to thrombosis. Intake of Pycnogenol before and during flight prevented thrombosis completely (Fig. 2) (Belcaro et al., 2004) an extreme example how effectively Pycnogenol helps to protect the circulation. This is very important for diabetic patients. They are at high risk to die from thrombosis.If blood flows freely with elastic cells and not clumps together, so the diameter of the blood vessels is the next critical point.Stress and smoking constrict blood vessels, the heart has to pump against the smaller diameter of the tubes, consequently, blood pressure increases. High blood pressure in turn damages blood vessel walls. Therefore, it is mandatory to have a well functioning regulation of blood vessel diameter. The diameter of the blood vessels is regulated by a balance between vasoconstricting factors and vasodilating factors, produced by the nervous system and also inside the blood vessels.Pycnogenol helps to normalize blood pressure when arteries get constricted, for example by stress hormones, giving rise to blood pressure. After intake of Pycnogenol, less endothelin-1 is produced - endothelin-1 is a very powerful vasoconstrictor - and more prostacyclin is formed - prostacyclin dilates arteries (Liu et al., 2004) (Fig. 3). Therefore, Pycnogenol is effective in reducing high blood pressure (Liu et al., 2004 Life Sciences, 74), but does not decrease normal or low blood pressure.Diabetes and inflammatory diseases damage cells of the vascular system by oxidative stress, by production of free radicals. The damaged, oxidized cell material attracts inflammatory cells, which invade the vascular walls and form deposits, leading to calcification of the blood vessel walls. High levels of the bad cholesterol, LDL, support that damage.Pycnogenol interferes with these processes in many ways. Intake of Pycnogenol not only increases the capacity of blood to inactivate free radicals, it also increases the synthesis of antioxidative enzymes in cells. In vivo, in diabetic rodents, it re-enforces bodies own defense systems against free radical attack and inflammation (Maritim et al., 2003). Pycnogenol also blocks the generation of adhesion molecules which facilitate invasion of inflammatory cells in blood vessels walls (Rohdewald 2002). The risk factor cholesterol is also influenced by Pycnogenol in a favorable way: In an open, controlled study with 25 volunteers, LDL was lowered significantly after 4 weeks supplementation with 150 mg Pycnogenol, while high density lipoprotein (HDL) as well as overall radical absorbance capacity of blood was increased (Devaraj et al. 2002). A double-blind, placebo-controlled study with 21 patients showed significant reduction (Fig. 4) of total cholesterol and LDL after intake of 120 mg Pycnogenol (Durackova et al. 2003). In a comparative, controlled study, total cholesterol and LDL were also significantly lowered (Koch 2002).Taking all these effects together: Higher flexibility of red blood cells, prevention of clumping of blood platelets, reduced oxidative stress, anti-inflammatory effects, less constriction of blood vessels, anti-hypertensive effect and cholesterol-lowering - it can be stated that Pycnogenol is a very useful agent to keep circulation healthy. However, one has to realize that these effects are mild, not dramatic. The reduction of cardio-vascular risk factors starts slowly, but proceeds steadily to restore the disturbed balance of the body.Therefore, Pycnogenol has found its place not only as a stand-alone food supplement, but also as a versatile ingredient in combinations with other substances promoting cardiovascular health as coenzyme Q10, lipoic acid, antioxidative vitamins, poly-unsaturated fatty acids.Thus, the regular intake of Pycnogenol provides the body with a series of positive effects directed to better cardiovascular health. To obtain these effects with drugs, a regular intake of several drugs is needed, each of these drugs produces its side effects. In contrast, Pycnogenol has been found to have only occasionally mild adverse effects as gastric troubles, it is recognized generally as safe (GRAS status).References:1. Sivonova M, Waczulikova I, Kilanczyk E, Hrnciarova M, Bryszewska M, Klajnert B and Durackova Z. The effect of Pycnogenol on the erythrocyte membrane fluidity. Gen Physiol Biophys 23:39-51, 2004.2. Ptter M, Grotemeyer KHM, Wrthwein G, Araghi-Niknam M, Watson RR, Hosseini S, Rohdewald P. Inhibition of smoking-induced platelet aggregation by Aspirin and Pycnogenol. Thrombosis Research 95:155-161, 1999.3. Belcaro G, Cesarone MR, Ricci A, Ippolito E, Brandolini R, Dugall M, Griffin M, Ruffini I, Acerbi G, Vinciguerra MG, Bavera P, Di Renzo A, Errichi BM. Prevention of venous thrombosis in long-haul flights with Pycnogenol. Clinical Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis 10(4):373-377, 2004.4. Liu X, Wei J, Tan F, Zhou S, Wurthwein G, Rohdewald P. Pycnogenol, French maritime pine bark extract, improves endothelial function of hypertensive patients. Life Sciences 74:855-862, 2004. 5. Maritim A, Dene BA, Sanders RA, Watkins JB. Effects of Pycnogenol treatment on oxidative stress in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. J Biochem Mol Tox 17:193-199, 2003.6. Rohdewald P. A review of the French maritime pine bark extract (Pycnogenol), a herbal medication with a diverse pharmacology. Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther 40(4):158-168, 2002.7. Devaraj S, Vega-Lpez S, Kaul N, Schnlau F, Rohdewald P, Jialal I. Supplementation with a pine bark extract rich in polyphenols increases plasma antioxidant capacity and alters the plasma lipoprotein profile. Lipids 37: 931-934, 2002.8. Durackova Z, Trebaticky B, Novotny V, Zitnanova A, Breza J. Lipid metabolism and erectile function improvement by Pycnogenol, extract from the bark of Pinus pinaster in patients suffering from erectile dysfunction a pilot study. Nutr Res 23: 1189-1198, 2003.9. Koch R. Comparative study of Venostasin and Pycnogenol for treatment in chronic venous insufficiency. Phytother Res 16:1-5, 2002.platelet reactivity indexFig. 1: After smoking a cigarette the blood platelet activity is significantly increased (red bars) as compared to before smoking the cigarette (blue bars). This increased platelet activity c