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Pycnogenol and Benefits: What is it?

Pycnogenol is a natural plant product made from the bark of the European coastal pine, Pinus Maritima. It is the most powerful antioxidant today and acts as a protector against environmental toxins.

Research has demonstrated that Pycnogenol is 50 times more effective than vitamin E and 20 times more powerful than vitamin C. Studies show that Pycnogenol is rapidly absorbed and distributed throughout the body within twenty minutes. Pycnogenol also activates vitamin C and puts it to work before it leaves your body.

Pycnogenol has been used in France, Finland, Holland, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Argentina, and Switzerland, and has just recently been marketed in the United States.

How does it work?

Like Vitamins C and E, Pycnogenol (pronounced Pick-nah-geh-nol), is a trade name for proanthocyanidin, a special family of bioflavanoids, plus 40 other biologically beneficial components. It is a powerful antioxidant which neutralizes unstable or "radical" oxygen molecules that attack the body's cells.

When these "free radical" molecules go unchecked, they degrade the tissue-strengthening collagen within the body's joints, skin and organs. Free radicals reprogram DNA and are implicated in more than 60 diseases. In addition, aging, inflammation of the muscles, joints and other tissues, plus improper functioning of the circulatory system, nervous system (including brain cells) and immune system, often result from free radical damage.

Pycnogenol furnishes the human body with excellent antioxidant nutritional support for a variety of body repairs. It furnishes capillary resistance against fragility and rupture; consequently, Pycnogenol is useful to prevent diseased blood vessels associated with varicose veins, peripheral hemorrhage, diabetic retinopathy, and high blood pressure. Such capillary resistance adds up nearly three fold over the effects in those patients who normally are prescribed other types of nutrient flavonoids for repair of their damaged capillaries.

The physiology of capillary repair involves the collagenases (enzymes which break down proteins). These collagenases are released inside the body during tissue damage and subsequent inflammation. By supplementing the diet with tablets containing Pycnogenol, one can effectively inhibit the release of unwanted collagenases, thus preventing decay of the fragile capillaries' vascular walls.

There have been over one thousand scientific studies documenting Pycnogenol's absorptive ability and bioavailability in the human body. When Pycnogenol is taken as a food supplement, and then measured in human metabolism by means of laboratory tests, results show the compound behaves like a cellular detoxifier. What is the reason such ready availability takes place? Because Pyncogenol gets quickly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract due to its excellent water solubility. The compound fixes rapidly to cell membranes in veins and capillaries and connective tissue (collagen) where it exerts a stabilizing effect on cellular membranes of all types. Outside and inside the membranes it counteracts destructive oxidization by free radicals from this unique solubility characteristic.

As if it were a sponge, the catechin ingredient mentioned earlier actually mops up free radical particles. It binds with them and then the newly formed molecules leave the body as waste products. Such neutralized waste particles gather in the kidneys and get urinated away. Thus, absorption of Pycnogenol is determined by detecting its metabolities in urine. Pycnogenol facilitates active transport of vitamin C by carrying it to the site of necessary action. Other bioflavonoids perform this function, too, but Pycnogenol does it better.

Antioxidants

Your body naturally protects itself against pollutants by forming antioxidants. The most common antioxidants are vitamins A, C, and E; beta carotene; and selenium. Unfortunately, the continual bombardment of stress, environmental pollution, and the popular practice of food industrialization and food conversion processes destroy antioxidants, allowing the body to be more susceptible to disease and ill health. Consequently, the body has an extremely difficult time producing enough antioxidants to combat the contaminants.