Natural ingredients show beneficial effects on cardiovascular health and sports performance

Natural ingredients show beneficial effects on cardiovascular health and sports performance

June 19, 2019 Off By Dino Mustafić

Euromed, a Spain-based producer of standardized herbal extracts and natural active substances for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic industries, said Wednesday that, according to a recently published randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, supplementation with Euromed’s natural extracts Pomanox™ and Mediteanox™ could help to maintain a healthy blood pressure, endothelial function and levels of circulating oxidised low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (oxLDL).

According to Euromed, researchers found that the extracts’ polyphenols — hydroxytyrosol and punicalagins — offer synergistic heart health and blood flow supporting effects. Another recently published study has shown that Pomanox™ might also help to improve sports performance and recovery.

During the 20-week crossover study at the Clinical Nutrition Department of the La Paz University Hospital in Madrid, 67 middle-aged, seemingly healthy adults were given either capsules containing Mediteanox™ and Pomanox™ or a placebo for 8 weeks. The supplement comprised 9.9 mg of hydroxytyrosol from the natural olive fruit extract Mediteanox™ and 195 mg of punicalagin from Pomanox™, a full spectrum polyphenol pomegranate whole-fruit extract standardised for punicalagins.

Compared with the placebo, supplementation with the natural extracts improved several blood flow markers in all subjects. It enhanced endothelial function — as measured by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD)— particularly in those affected by endothelial dysfunction, as well as reducing oxLDL more significantly in subjects with higher levels of oxLDL, which was an improvement compared with the placebo group. Whereas all subjects demonstrated lowered blood pressure, the prehypertension and hypertension subgroups exhibited significantly decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure after the supplementation period. In conclusion, the Mediteanox™ and Pomanox™ supplement exerted blood flow supporting effects by improving endothelial function, blood pressure and levels of circulating oxLDL, especially in those persons whose conditions fluctuate from the norm. Endothelial dysfunction is greatly underdiagnosed in the general population, but plays a major role in the early stages of poor blood circulation and is later associated with plaque progression and the occurrence of cardiovascular events. Supplementation with Mediteanox™ and Pomanox™ may therefore represent an interesting additional strategy in maintaining blood flow and hearth health. Mediteanox™ delivers the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommended heart-friendly hydroxytyrosol – a powerful antioxidant and polyphenol. The natural pomegranate extract Pomanox™ has proved to be effective in consistently lowering blood pressure in several published clinical studies, besides other beneficial health properties. Its punicalagins act as strong antioxidants that stimulate endothelial production of the vasodilator nitric oxide.

Other evidence-based applications of Pomanox™ include sports nutrition. A previous study suggested that the consumption of Pomanox™-enriched juice for 1 week attenuates exercise-induced oxidative stress, blood pressure and the urinary cortisol/cortisone ratio in human adults. Now, a recently published study by the Department of Exercise Physiology, San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia in Spain, demonstrates improvement in sports performance and recovery. The randomised, placebo-controlled, crossover trial investigated whether a pomegranate extract (Pomanox™) could improve the peak performance of trained amateur cyclists (26 completed the study) after an exhausting endurance trial.
The main outcomes show that 14 days of Pomanox™ supplementation significantly increased the time to exhaustion and the time to reach ventilatory threshold 2 (VT2) in a maximal test, after a long endurance effort, compared with a placebo. According to the authors, this shows that both maximal and submaximal performance increased. The physiological conditions of the physical protocol were similar to those occurring in long-distance competitions when athletes decide to increase their efforts during the final stages of a race and may be valuable when the aim is peak performance.