OPC’s the Cardiovascular Protector



OPC’s the Cardiovascular Protector

Before describing the ways in which OPC protects cardiovascular health, it will be useful to offer a few basics about the cardiovascular system itself. Composed of the heart, arteries, veins and capillaries, the cardiovascular system handles all the blood that flows throughout the body. The heart, which is the hardest-working muscle in the body, pumps blood. This all-important function goes on twenty-four hours a day for as long as you live. Arteries are the blood vessels that transport blood from the heart to all parts of the body, and veins are the vessels that transport blood back to the heart. Between the arteries and veins are the capillaries, which provide fresh, nutritious blood to cells, and which deliver cellular waste products back to the venous system for processing.

Maintaining the health of the cardiovascular system is of utmost importance. Yet due to poor diet a lack of exercise and smoking, Americans rank low in cardiovascular health, and heart disease is the number one killer of adults. According to the American Heart Association, approximately one million American adults die annually of heart attack The medical term for a heart attack is a myocardial infarction, which refers to the heart muscle or myocardium, and an infarct or damage to an area of heart muscle. when one of the arteries supplying blood to the head becomes blocked, either by fatty deposits (such as a build-up of cholesterol) or by a blood clot (due to a concentration of platelets) lodged in a coronary artery blood supply to the heart is cut off, and muscle cells suffer irreversible damage. This can result in death or disability accurately calculate a consistent dose of OPC’s from one wine to the next. While drinking some red wine on a regular basis is in fact a reasonably healthy thing for most adults to do, the best way to guarantee a consistent daily intake of OPC’s is to take it in its pure, concentrated supplement form. In addition, while alcohol consumption in anything more than moderation can compromise liver function. OPC’s actually helps protect hepatic capillaries from free radical damage and activates liver antioxidant enzyme systems. A study of twenty patients with cirrhosis of the liver concluded that an intake of 300 milligrams per day of OPC’s helped to decrease capillary fragility in the liver. In other words, OPC’s provides specific protection to the liver, which is a valuable function that no alcoholic beverage can perform. So enjoy your occasional glass of Cabernet, but as a daily prophylactic to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, take your OPC’s.

If OPC's sole function was to inhibit the primary causes of debilitating or deadly cardiovascular diseases, that would be sufficient to merit a place for it in the health regimen of every thinking person. But as we shall see from what follows, these cardiovascular protective effects are only part of the OPC picture.

OPC the Collagen Enhancer

In the body, there are many types of tissue. One type, connective tissue, binds together and is the support of the various structures of the body Skin, tendons, bones and cartilage are all made of connective tissue, which contains as one of its primary constituents a white fibrous protein called collagen. In this role, collagen is one of the most important agents in the body, for it literally holds us together.

Time and circumstance are not particularly kind to connective tissue, which starts out supple, strong and healthy early in life, and becomes brittle and weak through age and exposure to environmental factors such as sun, wind, smoke and pollutants. We have all seen the contrast between the smooth, clear, soft skin of an infant and the wrinkled, spotted, parchment like skin of an elderly person. The latter is the result of time, wear, and specific biological occurrences which are lumped together under the general heading of "aging."

The integrity of collagen-based tissue is due to what is known as "cross-linking." Collagen forms delicate strands known as micro fibrils. These strands intertwine in pairs, almost like twisted rope. Between the intertwined strands are fibrous links made of collagen, much like the steps between two standing poles of a ladder; hence the term cross4inking. Adequate cross-linking is necessary to maintain the structural integrity of the body On the other hand, oxidation causes excessive cross-linking, which leads to brittle, stiff tissue. In skin, excessive cross-linking manifests as wrinkles and sagging. In the case of collagen, OPC plays a dual role. On the one hand, it helps to ensure adequate cross--linking.

On the other, as a potent antioxidant it effectively fights the adverse biological conditions that result in excessive cross-linking. As a collagen promoter, OPC’s strengthens collagen protein. The oligomers in OPC’s ---the dimers and trimers----bind tightly to collagen protein. This has been observed in vivo and in vitro, where radioactively tagged OPC’s have been seen to affix to vascular walls, thus enhancing vascular integrity by becoming part of the tissue structure. When OPC’s binds to collagen, it modifies the vulnerability of connective tissue membranes, making it more difficult for destructive enzymes in the body to cause damage. One such enzyme is collagenase, which breaks down collagen fibers. OPC’s prevents the degradation of collagen by this enzyme. Studies using soluble collagen from guinea pig skin demonstrated that OPC’s makes collagen resistant to the activity of collagenase. It does this by binding tightly to soluble collagen fibers and altering receptor sites so that the enzyme cannot bind to the protein and break it down. In studies of guinea pigs, observation of tissue by electron microscope revealed that OPC’s have a particular affinity for cell membranes and promotes the formation of collagen micro fibrils.

OPC’s also enhances the ability of collagen to repair itself, thereby helping to protect it against degenerative processes and harmful agents. This has been observed using electron microscopy in studies of rats subjected to lathyric, a chemical agent which causes lesions on arterial walls. Administration of OPC’s prevented lathyric lesions by a means not yet under-stood. Regardless of whether the exact mechanism is known, the protection provided by OPC’s is unusual and remarkable.

While this strengthening and protective power of OPC’s are of value to all connective tissue, it is especially worthy of note relative to the health of skin. OPC’s is are the truest sense of the term a youth enhancer for the skin. It helps specifically to inhibit the oxidative damage, cross-linking and loss of suppleness that come with age. For while collagen gives skin strength, another constituent of skin, elastin gives it suppleness. Like collagen, elastin is under attack by destructive enzymes and by oxidation. OPC’s are proven to markedly inhibit the degradation of elastin protein by blocking the action of the potentially destructive enzyme elastase. In studies using purified elastin, introduction of OPC’s prior to exposure to elastase inhibited the degradation of elastin.

As an internal cosmetic, OPC’s can prolong by years the health and youthful appearance of skin. As described in the previous section on OPC,s and cardiovascular health, the same means by which OPC’s protects the skin and contributes to its construction apply to vascular (blood vessel) walls, which also are made of collagen and elastin. OPC’s helps to preserve the elasticity of vascular walls by inhibiting the action of elastase on elastin protein, and it prevents the degradation of vascular collagen by the enzyme collagenase. By contributing to adequate cross-linking of collagen in vascular walls, OPC’s contributes directly to the strength and integrity of blood vessels.

The strength that OPC’s give to blood vessels is of particular note in the case of the finest of vessels, the capillaries and micro capillaries. These delicate vessels connect arterioles (small terminal twigs of arteries) with venules (minute veins which connect to larger veins), forming a network in almost all parts of the body Because they are small and delicate, capillaries rupture easily, routinely break down with age, and become porous. when this occurs, they leak blood particles, including water and other small molecules, which fill tissues. The resulting inefficient circulation puts a greater demand on the heart, and deprives tissues of important nutrients from blood. This contributes to tissue degeneration.

In a study of 78 patients with vascular disorders in the lower limbs, 150 milligrams of OPC’s per day significantly improved the conditions of 62 of the individuals studied. OPC’ have been proven to improve capillary resistance, thereby being of value in the treatment of varicose veins, leg ulcers, postphlebitic disease and other vascular ailments. In the case of varicose veins, OPC’s relieves the inflammation that causes varicose veins to be red and swollen. It does not eliminate varicose veins, but improves them.

In a University of Bordeaux medical study of 83 elderly persons, 100 milligrams of OPC’s noticeably improved capillary permeability and fragility problems. Another study of 84 elderly persons found that doses of OPC ranging between 100 and 150 milligrams per day decreased capillary fragility, and helped to prevent the induction of capillary fragility by certain capillary-antagonizing substances such as aspirin. The strength and integrity thus provided to capillaries by OPC’s enhances total vascular efficiency throughout the body, sparing the heart and keeping the entire vascular system in a healthier, more youthful condition.

Though there does not seem to be an actual fountain of youth as imagined in various myths and legends, OPC’s play as convincing a role in that regard as any agent and far more than most by enhancing collagen in the body and helping to stem certain ravages of aging.

Masquelier, Jacques "Aspects Pharmacologiques Nouveaux de Certains Flavonoides." A Vic Medicate. December, 1969.

Laparra, J. Michaud, J. Lesca, M.F. Blanquet, P Masquelier J. "Etude Pharmaco-cinetique des Oligomers Procyandoliques Totaux do Raisin." Acta Therapeutica 4 (1978).

Laparra, J., Michaud, J. Masquelier,j. "Etude Pharmacocinetique des Oligomeres Flavonoliques" Plantes Medicinales et Phytotherapie, 1977 Tome XI, pp. 133-142.

Harmand, M.F Blanquet, P. "The Fate of Total Flavanolic Oligomers (OFT) Extracted from'Vitus vinifera L.'in the Rat" European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics. 1978, No. I pp. 15-30.

Robert A.M., Groult, N.; Six. C.; Robert, L. "Etude de l'Action des Oligomeres Procyanidoliques sur des Cellules Mesenchymateuses en Culture. 11 l'Attachment des Fibres Elastiques aux Cellules." (Study of the effect of procyaniclotic oligomers on masenchymal cells in culture. It Attachment of elastic fibers to the cells) Pat, Biol.1990, (38)6, pp. 601-607.

Porter, Lawrence J., Wong Rosalind Y. Chan, Bock G. "The Molecular and Crystal Structure of (+)-2,3-trans-3,4-trans-Leucocyanidin [(2R,3S,4R)-(+)-3,3',4.4'. 5.7'-Hexahydroxyflavan] Dihydrate, and Companson of its Heterocyclic Ring Conformation in Solution and the Solid State." Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions I 1985. pp. 1413-17.

Masquelter, Jacques "Proanthocyanidins et Radicaux Libres." "Radical Scavenger Effect (R.S.E.) of Proanthocyanidins." 1985.

Uchida, Shinji et al. "Condensed Tannins Scavenge Active Oxygen Free Radicals." Med. Sci. Res. (15) 1987. pp. 831-832.

Ariga. Toshiaki "Radical Scavenging Action and its Mode in Procyanidins B-1 and B-3 from Azuki Beans to Peroxyl Radicals," Agre. Biol. Chem. 54(10) 1990, pp. 2499-2504.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download