 Patients with type 2 diabetes were able to cut back on their blood pressure medication after they began taking the flavonoid-rich supplement Pycnogenol, a natural plant extract from pine bark, according to Sherma Zibadi, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in The University of Arizona (UA) Department of Nutritional Sciences and the UA College of Medicine, (shown at right). Also working on this research is Ronald Ross Watson, PhD, a professor at the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH) and interim director of the MEZCOPH Division of Health Promotion Sciences, and other researchers at the University. Previously these UA scientists have also shown that Pycnogenol lowers blood pressure and is beneficial in treating asthma.
Cardiovascular risks increase with type 2 diabetes. These risks include high blood pressure, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and clotting abnormalities.
For people with diabetes, achieving target blood pressure goals is challenging without increasing levels of the amniotes enzyme, or "ACE," inhibitor medication to levels that cause undesirable side effects. ACE inhibitors are heart medications that widen or dilate blood vessels to improve the amount of blood the heart pumps and lower blood pressure.
 In a clinical trial led by Dr. Zibadi, researchers conducted a 12-week study in which volunteers were randomized in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to receive either Pycnogenol pills or placebo. Dr. Zibadi collaborates with Ronald Watson, who is shown in the photo on the left. After 12 weeks, patients who took Pycnogenol improved their diabetes control, lowered cardiovascular risk factors and reduced blood pressure medication.
Diabetes mellitus affects approximately 20 million people in the United States, about 7 percent of the population, and is expected to increase by 50 percent to 70 percent within the next 25 years.
Some of the side effects associated with higher doses of ACE inhibitors currently used to control blood pressure include dry cough, elevated blood potassium levels, dizziness, headache, abnormal taste (metallic or salty) and skin rash. More serious, but rare, potential side effects include kidney failure, a decrease in white blood cells and swelling of tissues.
The full study was published in Nutrition Research 28 (2008). The study was supported by a grant from Horphag Research Inc., Geneva, Switzerland, which also provided the Pycnogenol supplement and placebo pills.
Zibadi and Watson also studied Pycnogenol and its role in reducing pain and stiffness in adults with osteoarthritis of the knee. In this placebo-controlled clinical trial, the group that received Pycnogenol reported less pain and stiffness and improved physical function. They also decreased use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), known as cyclooxygenase 2 inhibitors.
While Pycnogenol’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties may be responsible for the beneficial effects, further research is needed to determine the underlying mechanism, according to researchers.
In addition to being a MEZCOPH professor and interim director of the Health Promotion Sciences Division there, Dr. Watson is a professor of Family and Community Medicine at the UA College of Medicine and is a member of the UA Sarver Heart Center.
Original uanews.org article released on June 9, 2008 by Janet Stark,
Arizona Health Sciences Center (AHSC) Office of Public Affairs.
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