Pycnogenol, an antioxidant found in the bark of the French maritime pine tree, reduces cardiovascular risk factors in people with type 2 diabetes. The plant extract reduces blood sugar, allows diabetics to lower their dosage of high blood pressure medicine, and improves their cardiovascular risk factors. Researchers at the University of Arizona say they believe Pycnogenol may be a powerful addition to the prescription medicines taken by the 20 million people in the U.S. who are living with diabetes.
“Most people with type 2 diabetes have cholesterol problems and half of those people experience hypertension,” said Dr. Ronald Watson, one of the study’s lead researchers. Previous studies had shown that Pycnogenol benefited the heart, but “what makes the study results compelling is Pycnogenol simultaneously lowered blood glucose, LDL cholesterol and blood pressure in patients. Furthermore, this is the first study that suggests that Pycnogenol might also be beneficial in protecting kidney function in diabetics.”
In the study, 58 percent of the patients who took Pycnogenol were able to control their blood pressure with a 50 percent reduction in prescription medications. In addition, a hormone-like substance called plasma endothelin-1 which constricts arteries and is usually elevated in diabetics was lowered by 17.8 percent.
“It’s amazing to see that adding Pycnogenol to the regimen of prescription medication brought blood glucose to healthy levels, allowed half the patients to reach healthy blood pressure and enabled 58% to even lower their anti-hypertensive medication,” said Watson. “An absolutely new finding is that Pycnogenol appears to improve kidney function in diabetic people, deserves more attention in future investigations. Pycnogenol should be standard adjunct to pharmaceutical treatment of diabetic patients to help control an array of cardiovascular problems.”
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