- Pycnogenol much better at treating hypertension than placebo after eight weeks
- Supplement is a French maritime pine bark extract, containing natural antioxidants
- Study showed it widens blood vessels and improves blood circulation
Neil Trainis For Mailonline
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People can lower their blood pressure by taking a supplement made from pine bark, researchers claim.
The claim was made following a study involving patients with borderline hypertension. Those who took part had not been given medication from their blood pressure.
Results revealed that the supplement, known as pycnogenol, reduces blood pressure considerably more than placebo after eight weeks.
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High blood pressure is a leading cause of disease, but researchers believe they have found a way to lower it through a supplement made from antioxidant-rich tree pine bark
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HYPERTENSION FIGURES
Around 16 million people in the UK have high blood pressure.
Thirty percent of women and 32 per cent of men suffer.
Approximately 62,000 unnecessary deaths are caused by stroke and heart attacks because of poor blood pressure control.
Source: Blood Pressure UK
Pycnogenol is a French maritime pine bark extract that contains natural antioxidants.
It has anti-inflammatory properties that generates collagen and helps to widen blood vessels and improve blood circulation.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, occurs when the force of blood pushing against the walls of blood vessels is consistently too high.
Blood pressure causes 7.5 million deaths globally and is responsible for 12.8 per cent of all deaths, according to the World Health Organisation.
It is measured with two numbers -systolic pressure is the force at which the heart pumps blood around the body and diastolic pressure is the resistance to the blood flow in the blood vessels. Both are measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg).
High blood pressure is at least 140/90mmHg and low blood pressure is 90/60mmHg or less.
Dr Fred Pescatore, an expert in nutritional medicine, based in New York, said: ‘The innermost layer of our blood vessels are lined with collagen and elastin which help our veins to expand and contract in response to blood flow and keep our blood pressure within a normal range,’ the Express reported.
‘But, just as it is visible externally by the appearance of wrinkles and thinning skin, both collagen and elastin break down as we age resulting in weakened blood vessels.
‘Pycnogenol, French maritime pine bark extract has been shown in multiple studies to supports the production of collagen and elastin in the body which results in stronger blood vessels and therefore improved circulation which contributes to a healthy blood pressure.’
Pycnogenol is also said to have other benefits.
A study by Chieti-Pescara University in Italy, published in 2015 in the Journal of Neurosurgical Sciences, claimed the supplement improves people’s attention span, memory and decision making.
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