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Pycnogenol may reduce health problems in smokers, prof says

A drug supplement taken from the bark of pine trees in France could better the health of smokers, according to a UA professor's research.

Ronald Watson, a professor of public health at Arizona Prevention Center, collaborated with researchers from the University of Munster in Germany two years ago to study how smokers reacted to a supplement called Pycnogenol.

Pycnogenol is a brand name for the French tree bark extract - bark that is ground and dried into a powder. The researchers discovered how the supplement reduces the amount of blood clotting in smokers, which is usually higher than that of a non-smoker.

The results were published last month in Thrombosis Research, a scientific journal.

The University of Arizona study tested how 38 smokers - mostly students - reacted to Pycnogenol after smoking cigarettes.

Watson said a non-smoker has a clumping rate of 100, while a smoker's rate is 120. When the smoker takes Pycnogenol after one cigarette, their clumping rate is reduced to around 105.

Watson said smokers' platelets, disks in the body that cause blood to clot, tend to clot more than necessary.

"If you smoke, you clot too much," he said.

He said if blood clots too much, the body's blood vessels gets clogged. This extreme clotting can cause a stroke or a heart attack. Second-hand smoke can cause this problem as well, Watson said.

Because Pycnogenol reduces clotting, it can decrease chances of life-threatening problems.

"Although it does not prevent heart disease, we've proven it reduces the risk factor," he said.

Jeongmin Lee, a doctoral student in Antioxidant and AIDS research, participated in the study as a non-smoker.

Lee said Pycnogenol lowered the rate of tightening in blood vessels.

"After taking Pycnogenol for three months, I felt more energetic," he said. "I didn't feel any timelessness, so that was a good thing for me."

Lee said this extra energy prolonged for an extra month after he stopped taking the pills.