People with diabetes are known to face a heightened risk of heart disease but a new study suggests that antioxidant pine bark extract may help to reduce the added risk.
The extract, which comes from the bark of the French maritime pine, was found to lower blood sugar, LDL cholesterol and blood pressure in patients with type-2 diabetes.
According to lead researcher Dr Ronald Watson, the extract should be considered as a standard supplement to pharmaceutical treatment in patients with diabetes.
"Most people with type-2 diabetes have cholesterol problems and half of those people experience hypertension," revealed Dr Watson of the University of Arizona, whose findings are published in the journal Nutrition Research.
"It is amazing to see that adding pycnogenol (pine bark extract) to the regimen of prescription medication brought blood glucose to healthy levels, allowed half the patients to reach healthy blood pressure and enabled 58 per cent to even lower their anti-hypertensive medication," he added.
People with diabetes are known to face a heightened risk of heart disease but a new study suggests that antioxidant pine bark extract may help to reduce the added risk.
