THE SUPERNUTRIENT THAT FIGHTS AGING AND DISEASE

At an annual meeting of scientists involved in OPC research, several studies were presented to substantiate claims that OPC’s combat aging and heart disease. David F. Fitzpatrick, associate professor of pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, reported that the supplement can prevent damage to blood vessels and a decrease in blood clotting, both of which are linked to heart disease. Another study found that OPC’s unique combination of natural vitamin-like compounds known as flavonoids, inhibit excessive metabolizing of nitric oxide, a process that has been linked to inflammation, arthritis and Alzheimer’s. What’s more, research conducted on mice at the University of Arizona at Tucson showed that OPC’s stimulate immune activity and delays such age-related changes as hair loss and skin damage. Studies have shown that OPC’s are non-toxic and have no known drug interactions.

Since OPC is an antioxidant, research shows it fights cholesterol by discouraging deposits from forming on artery walls. OPC’s anti-inflammatory activity may help relieve inflammatory conditions, including arthritis, allergies, bronchitis and asthma. OPC’s also correct dangerous blood clotting tendencies that trigger heart attacks and strokes. Dr. Ronald Watson, a researcher at the University of Arizona, recently confirmed that OPC’s normalize platelet aggregation, a disorder that in which the "sticky" platelets tend to form blood clots. He showed that when people smoked, their platelets clump together in a tendency to form clots. But, about 20 minutes after taking OPC’s, their platelets returned to normal.

A surprising use of OPC’s has arisen among people suffering from a bewildering disorder in concentration and attention known as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is said to have been discovered quite by accident when people with ADD took OPC for another purpose, such as allergies, they noticed an improvement in concentration and mental focus, classic symptoms of ADD. Other started using it. Word spread and the ADD remedy has achieved high visibility.

The use of OPC’s for this purpose has not yet been widely studied but a preliminary study by Marion Sigurdson, Ph.D., a psychologist in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who specializes in treating ADD, has found striking benefits from OPC’s.

Dr. Sigurdson found that it worked just as well as the commonly prescribed stimulant medications, including Ritalin, on 30 children and adults diagnosed with ADD.

The subjects were given a battery of computerized and behavior tests to judge their attention, concentration and other important factors in ADD under various circumstances: when they were either on or off their usual stimulant medications, or on OPC’s alone. When they were off their medications, their ADD deteriorated. On their medications, they were much improved. But when they took daily doses of the OPC mixture, their scores and behavior were just as improved as when they took stimulant drugs.

In other words, OPC’s equaled the drugs in most subjects. The subjects also had decreased heart beat, disappearance of tennis elbow, relief of acne and improved sleep and mood.

How could such a mundane combination of common grape seed and pine bark have such a profound influence on the brain comparable to that of a powerful pharmaceutical drug? According to Marcia Zimmerman, a California consultant who specializes in research on OPC’s, there is some underpinning in the scientific literature, suggesting possible mechanisms of action. A fascinating way OPC’s might affect brain cells, as shown by studies in cell cultures, she says, is by regulating enzymes that help control two crucial neurotransmitters; dopamine and norepinephrine, chemicals that carry messages among brain cells and are involved in"ecitatory" responses. OPC’s also help deliver nutrients to the brain such as zinc, manganese, selenium and copper, that are helpful in ADHD, according to recent research. Additionally, OPC’s remarkable antioxidant activity may help stabilize brain cells and improve their functioning by neutralizing damage from free radicals.

Medical studies conducted at the University of Illinois demonstrate that OPC’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects have the ability to inhibit all three phases of the cancer process: initiation, promotion, and progression.

Scientists at the University of Arizona discovered that OPC’s help build resistance to cancer by as much as 40 to 50 percent by boosting the body’s first line of cancer defense, known as natural killer cells (NK cells).

Dr. Packer has focused much of his attention on the relationship between OPC’s and nitrous oxide (NO), a free radical produced in the body. Within the body, NO is a double edged immunity sword, made by the body to regulate the muscle tone of blood vessels and employed as a weapon to kill pathogens, the micro-organisms that cause disease. The body’s overproduction of NO, on the other hand, can result in chronic, damaging inflammation, the root cause of 1 in 3 cancers. "OPC’s says Dr. Packer, have a biphasic effect on NO. It both quenches NO when this substance threatens to become a damaging free radical and it inhibits a gene that might otherwise foster enzymes that can lead to NO overproduction."

Preliminary studies have also shown that OPC’s are also effective against Alzheimer’s disease. Cell culture studies have shown that OPC’s can inhibit beta-amyloid accumulation also called amyloid-beta-protein, a peptide that accumulates in the form of plaques in the central nervous system. These plaques are a characteristic feature of Alzheimer’s disease. Beta-amyloid is directly toxic to nerve cells causing a breaking of membranes.

Dr. D. Schubert of the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences of San Diego accumulated brain cell cultures taken from Alzheimer’s patients to which beta-amyloid has been added. In those cultures, OPC’s prevented the toxic protein present in Alzheimer’s patients from accumulating.

Somewhat more impressive are reports from patients having Newman-Pick’s disease, an ailment closely related to Alzheimer’s. These patients reported significant improvement following OPC supplementation.

TRIPLE ACTION ANTIOXIDANT:

Reduces free-radical-caused tissue damage many times more effectively than vitamin E, potentiates the health-giving effects of vitamin C and protects brain and nerve tissue with its nearly unique ability to penetrate the blood-brain barrier.

It reduces inflammation and improves circulation, both relieving the distresses of arthritis, diabetes and stroke and promoting prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Its ability to bond to collagen promotes renewed youthfulness, flexibility and body integrity allowing it to function as an "oral cosmetic."

Most importantly, OPC’s are not drugs and are as safe to use as vitamin C. What’s more, OPC’s are far less costly than pharmaceuticals. However, as an anti-oxidant formula it is 20 times more powerful than vitamin C and 50 times more so than vitamin E.