Pink bark reduces blood sugar in diabetics

TUCSON, May 29 (UPI) -- Pycnogenol, an antioxidant plant extract from the bark of a French maritime pine tree, reduces blood sugar in type 2 diabetes patients, U.S. researchers say.

The study, conducted at the University of Arizona, indicates Pycnogenol may also allow some people to lower their anti-hypertensive medication and improve cardiovascular disease risk factors.

"Most people with type 2 diabetes have cholesterol problems and half of those people experience hypertension," lead researcher Dr. Ronald Watson said in a statement.

The 12-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial consisted of 48 men and women, 40 to 75 years of age, with non-insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes, taking anti-diabetic medication with metformin, sulfonylurea and glitazones. They also took anti-hypertensive medications with ACE inhibitors such as Lisinopril.

Despite their medication their fasting blood sugar was above healthy values -- 142 mg/dL -- and their average systolic blood pressure was 139 mmHg. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive either Pycnogenol at 25 mg, five times daily, or a placebo. Participants were told to continue taking their prescriptions.

In the Pycnogenol treated groups, blood pressure control was achieved in 58.3 percent of patients at the end of the 12 weeks with 50 percent reduction in prescription medications.

The study, published in the journal of Nutrition Research, found the mean average blood glucose decreased from high 142.3 mg/dL to a healthy value 118.6 after 12 weeks. Low-density lipoprotein the "bad" cholesterol declined by 11.9 percent.