Real OPC Bioavailable

OPC - The Power of Grape Seeds

Source/Author: Zentrum der Gesundheit from August 20, 2017

Grape seed extract helps to resolve skin problems, allergies, wrinkles, blood vessel problems, poor eyesight, PMS, and chronic inflammation. Grape seed extract contains OPC and, with it, immense healing potential. OPC is an antioxidant plant substance that is also a specialist for very specific areas of the body. OPC acts particularly on the skin, eyes, the immune system, and even the hormonal balance. Read on to find out if OPC is the ideal dietary supplement for you.

OPC – The Guarantee for Protection and Beauty

Life would be twice as nice without sagging skin and wrinkles. While you can cover up a lot with cosmetic tricks, wouldn't it be great to simply look radiant without tubes and jars? Grape seed extract could help you with that!

Grape seed extract belongs to the top-class anti-aging miracle remedies. Grape seeds are packed with OPC (Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins).

OPC belongs to the polyphenols, a large group of secondary plant substances. The antioxidant power of OPC is particularly impressive, as it is one of the most powerful available antioxidants known to us. In the daily battle against threatening free radicals, OPC can hold the front line for you – if you wish.

OPC Makes Your Skin Smooth and Supple

Free radicals attack all cells. When they target the skin, these villains strip the skin of its elasticity and leave it in a thousand crinkly wrinkles.

Particularly deep and stubborn wrinkles form when free radicals not only attack the skin cells themselves but also the two fiber proteins – collagen and elastin – which are located between the skin cells and keep our skin firm and elastic.

The fiber proteins lose their stability and elasticity after radical attacks. Eventually, they are broken down by the body's own enzymes. However, the less collagen there is in the skin, the less moisture the skin can retain. It dries out and becomes even more wrinkled.

The tiny blood vessels that supply every skin cell with nutrients and oxygen also consist partly of fiber proteins and recede as the fiber protein content decreases.

But what happens then? The fewer blood vessels that lead into the skin, the poorer its supply of nutrients and oxygen. However, there are also cells (fibroblasts) in the skin tissue that would actually—if they could—form new fiber proteins every day.

They, too, are attacked by free radicals and can subsequently form fewer and fewer fiber proteins, meaning the vicious circle is finally closed. There would only be an escape if someone could stop the free radicals.

OPC can do that. OPC and all the other antioxidant active ingredients in grape seed extract protect the skin cells, fibroblasts, fiber proteins, and blood vessels from free radicals and thus from decay and aging.

OPC is a Natural Face-Lift

Many antioxidants work in this way. The special thing about OPC is that its antioxidant potential is 20 times greater than that of Vitamin E and 50 times as effective as the antioxidant power of the famous Vitamin C.

But OPC can do much more for your skin. OPC repairs collagen that has become unstable.

If you imagine the structure of collagen as a ladder whose rungs are slowly but surely rotting or are missing entirely, OPC can replace the missing or brittle rails. Wrinkles smooth out, and the skin regains its former elasticity.

This is a kind of natural face-lift – completely without a knife or pain. Skin enzyme activity is also promoted by OPC, which leads to increased protection against UV radiation.

For the sake of your skin, also avoid all factors that provide you with unnecessary free radicals. The number of radicals can rise immeasurably due to smoking, drugs, alcohol, stress, and poor nutrition, which is why we are largely responsible for our appearance ourselves.

So, the person who looks back at us from the mirror, crumpled and tired, and not infrequently gives us a nasty fright, is what we have made of ourselves through our lifestyle. With OPC by our side, we have the opportunity to risk a reversal and begin a new life.

OPC for Rapid Wound Healing

If OPC has such beneficial effects on the connective tissue and the skin, then wounds naturally also heal significantly faster under the influence of OPC and grape seed extract.

The active ingredients of grape seed extract – above all OPC – render bacteria harmless, stimulate damaged blood vessels to regenerate rapidly, and support thorough connective tissue repair.

OPC for Neurodermatitis

All the previously mentioned properties of OPC plus its immune-relieving effect as well as the anti-inflammatory effect described below give rise to the hope that OPC could also be helpful for neurodermatitis.

Neurodermatitis is a complex process and should never be tackled with just a single substance. The holistic therapy of neurodermatitis therefore includes the right diet, the symbiosis management of the intestinal flora, regular detoxification, naturally the avoidance of potential triggering factors, the supply of sufficient Vitamin D and all B-complex vitamins, as well as much more.

However, OPC can be a powerful companion to effective and naturopathic neurodermatitis therapy. There are reports from neurodermatitis patients who experienced a significant improvement in their skin appearance with a daily dose of 100 mg of OPC. However, as is generally the case with the treatment of chronic diseases, patience is required. Results usually only show after several months.

OPC for Beautiful and Full Hair

Beautiful, healthy, and young skin is, of course, not everything in life. A supple head of hair wouldn't be bad either. For many people (and, by the way, for animals, especially dogs as well), OPC has an extraordinarily positive and, above all, visible effect on hair growth and hair appearance.

The hair becomes soft, shiny, and grows thicker and faster than average and becomes longer than ever before.

Japanese studies showed many years ago that OPC was able to boost the cell multiplication of hair follicles by 230% compared to control preparations.

Furthermore, OPC possesses a remarkable ability to influence the hair cycle. OPC increases the number of hairs that are in the so-called anagen phase (growth phase), which is why the researchers in question recommended OPC from grape seed extract as a component for promoting hair growth.

OPC for Healthy Eyes

Glasses and contact lenses are certainly quite helpful. But wouldn't it be better if we could maintain our eyesight into old age? Just consider what you could do with the time you spend at the optician and eye doctor alone.

Experience shows that the daily intake of 300 mg of grape seed extract can reduce the effects of permanent eye strain due to hours of computer work in just 60 days.

And not only that; grape seed extract is also recommended for fighting so-called macular degeneration and cataracts, as well as for improving night vision.

The macular degeneration is an eye disease in which retinal cells die off and vision in the central field of view is impaired. You see the clock, for example, but not the hands; you see the outlines of a person, but not their face.

OPC Protects the Heart and Blood Vessels

Of course, free radicals do not just attack the skin, hair, and eyes. They are involved in the development of many widespread health problems, such as osteoporosis, cavities, diabetes, and digestive problems. High blood pressure can also develop if blood vessels have been damaged by free radicals. Because just like in the skin, the blood vessel walls throughout the entire body contain the aforementioned fiber proteins, which give them stability and elasticity.

If the number of fiber proteins decreases, the blood vessel walls harden, blood flow falters, and the body increases blood pressure to at least keep things flowing to some extent despite the poor vascular situation.

Here, in turn, OPC and all other antioxidants from grape seed extract intervene helpfully, protecting the fiber proteins, maintaining the elasticity of the blood vessel walls, keeping the blood vessels free of deposits, and protecting them from future oxidative damage by free radicals. The risk of cardiovascular problems is consequently reduced to a minimum with OPC.

OPC Lowers Cholesterol Levels

In this context, the effect of OPC and grape seed extract on cholesterol levels is also of interest. According to two promising studies, it is suspected that grape seed extract can lower cholesterol levels, whereby a combination of grape seed extract and the intake of a chromium supplement was able to reduce cholesterol values more significantly than OPC or grape seed extract alone.

OPC Against PMS

OPC also works extremely positively in a very delicate area, namely in the area of the female hormonal balance, e.g., for PMS complaints. PMS describes the cluster of symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. This includes all hormonally induced phenomena that generally occur a few days before menstruation and vanish into thin air with the onset of bleeding, such as mood swings, headaches, fatigue, menstrual cramps, etc.

How specifically OPC acts on the hormonal balance has not yet been clearly clarified. It is suspected that OPC can also harmonize the hormonal system by strengthening and regulating the immune system.

In any case, a study showed that a large proportion (60 percent) of 165 women who had taken 200 mg of OPC daily from the 14th to the 28th day of their cycle for four months felt a relief in their PMS symptoms after just two months. After four months, it was even 80 percent who felt significantly better with OPC.

OPC for Allergies

OPC from grape seed extract could also be used as a natural, side-effect-free antihistamine and in this way mitigate allergic reactions.

For instance, OPC is said to inhibit the activation of certain pro-inflammatory enzymes which, in their activated form, would lead to histamine release and thus to allergic symptoms.

This indicates that OPC also has an anti-inflammatory effect, although the mechanism mentioned is certainly not the only one with which OPC can block inflammation.

Professor Jack Masquelier, who researched OPC for many decades—indeed, dedicated almost his entire life to this highly effective substance—undertook a self-experiment to demonstrate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory power of OPC.

To do this, he applied a skin-irritating solution to two areas of his arm. He then smeared a 0.5% OPC ointment onto one of the two spots. After two days, an unpleasant inflammation had developed on the untreated area. The spot treated with OPC, however, was already healing.

OPC Protects the Brain and Nerves

Grape seed extract and OPC could even be used to support the treatment of conditions such as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), as they pass the blood-brain barrier and can then intervene in the regulation of neurotransmitters and the relevant hormones in the brain.

Once in the brain, OPC and the other active ingredients of the grape seed extract immediately act protectively there as well, safeguarding nerves and brain tissue from oxidative attacks. Results are improved mental attention and a lower risk of dementia.

OPC for Varicose Veins, Edema, and Swelling

In cases of chronic venous insufficiency and swollen, painful varicose veins, several representative studies have shown that OPC from grape seed extract was able to significantly reduce symptoms.

Likewise, in placebo-controlled double-blind studies, it has been proven that edema (fluid retention in the tissue) – for example, after surgeries or injuries – as well as swelling after sports injuries disappeared more quickly thanks to OPC and grape seed extract.

OPC for Cancer

In-vitro studies had shown that OPC from grape seed extract could inhibit tumor growth and possibly even the development of breast, stomach, colon, prostate, and lung cancer cells.

Furthermore, it is being discussed that OPC or grape seed extract could be suitable as an accompanying therapy alongside chemotherapies, as the extract keeps the side effects of chemotherapeutic agents within limits.

In a current study, US researchers now show that grape seed extract with OPC and other active ingredients causes cancer cells to die off while the healthy cells remain unaffected.

"It's a really dramatic effect," says Dr. Rajesh Agarwal from the University of Colorado Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, fascinated by the results of the tests on cell cultures and mice.

OPC Extends Your Life

And last but not least, the extract from grape seeds with its high content of OPC even extends life – at least that of rats. Scientists concluded from this that this would likely also apply to us humans, because we are, after all, only animals...

If you now also take grape seed extract together with a vitamin-rich diet, you can increase the protective effect of OPC many times over.

OPC enhances the antioxidant capacity of vitamins, and vice versa. Both – OPC from grape seed extract and vitamins – therefore work synergistically and spur each other on to ever-new feats of excellence that neither would be capable of on their own.