- The gist of this article
“Circulatory diseases are the world’s number 1 cause of disability and death. Together, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease lead to more than 20 million deaths each year and to more than 374 million years of life lost.”
Thus begins “Driving Sustainable Action for Circulatory Health,” a White Paper released in New York on the 26th of September by the Global Coalition for Circulatory Health to stimulate the fight against circulatory disease. At the event, European Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis said: “As a former cardiac surgeon, I have witnessed at first hand the dangers posed by cardiovascular disease. I have seen the enormous consequences of not acting – on patients, their families, on society at large and on the sustainability of our health systems. Each year, in the EU alone, there are over 6 million new cases and 1.8 million related deaths.”
The Health Commissioner specified that “in Europe, heart disease and stroke cause between half and two-thirds of all deaths in Eastern European countries like Bulgaria, Romania and my native Lithuania. In contrast, these diseases account for a quarter or less of deaths in Western European countries as Denmark, France or the United Kingdom.” He added that “… cardiovascular diseases are responsible for more than one third of all deaths in the EU,” and that, tragically, these deaths “are largely preventable.”
Commissioner Andriukaitis was born in 1951 in Lithuania. Four years before young Vytenis saw the light of day, i.e. in 1947, a French student by the name of Jack Masquelier had published his Doctorate Thesis, in which he described the isolation of the botanical compound we now know as Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins or OPCs. Masquelier had also tested the effects of OPCs on vascular health. His invention made Masquelier the first scientist who managed to isolate pure OPCs and show their beneficial effects on the circulatory system.
So convincing were these effects, that the Dean of Masquelier’s University Faculty, Francis Tayeau, decided to give the new graduate’s invention to his wife, who was pregnant at the time and suffered from edema and circulatory problems in the legs. The problems disappeared in just a couple of days.
Since Masquelier’s earliest discoveries, OPCs have gained worldwide prominence in the field of circulatory health and disease. Since their first isolation, millions of people have taken Masquelier’s OPCs to mitigate vascular and circulatory problems and sustain a healthy and functioning circulatory system. How many healthy years of life the use of Masquelier’s OPCs has added for how many people cannot be calculated, but one may rest assured that the numbers will be impressive and are significant.
In his “Circulatory Health” speech in New York, Commissioner Andriukaitis mentioned that “we also know that women are more affected by cardiovascular disease than men, so a gender sensitive approach is important.” Indeed, because of their hormonal make-up, women are particularly prone to developing circulatory problems in the legs. Often, this comes to expression during pregnancy, but “gender sensitive” circulatory problems also raise their ugly head in the form of what is known as the premenstrual syndrom or PMS.
The most common premenstrual symptoms are painful, swollen breasts, a bloated stomach, a puffy face, undefined pelvic pain, weight gain, functional disturbances in the legs, irritation, depression, and headaches. During 1987, the effect of Masquelier’s OPCs was tested on 156 women suffering from one or more PMS complaints during the second half of the menstrual cycle. In 60 percent of the women, the physical disorders disappeared after two cycles. In 80 percent of the women, the physical disorders disappeared after having taken OPCs during four cycles. Of the women suffering from psychological PMS symptoms, half reported that these problems had disappeared after the fourth cycle. In addition, Masquelier’s OPCs appeared to be effective against menstrual problems (dysmenorrhea), which had disappeared in 66 percent of the women after the fourth cycle.
This PMS-study is only one of the many clinical trials performed with Masquelier’s OPCs, most of them dedicated to research and improve circulatory health. OPCs are especially effective in the field of microvascular health, which concerns the condition of your capillaries or hair vessels. Microvascular circulation is especially compromised in diabetics. Due to increased capillary fragility, diabetics often suffer from dwindling eyesight (retinopathy) and circulatory and neurological problems in feet and lower parts of the legs. Moreover, the Circulatory Health White Paper mentions that “diabetes multiplies the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) by 2 to 4 and contributes to 16.1 percent of the CVD burden. Conversely, heart disease and stroke are the leading cause of mortality for people with diabetes. Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease worldwide.” For diabetics Masquelier’s OPCs are enormously relevant, since they were shown to be of significant benefit in microvascular complications in diabetics.
In New York, Health Commissioner Andriukaitis promised that “in addition to promoting physical activity, EU initiatives encourage healthy nutritional choices through food reformulation.” Sounds great, but what does “food reformulation” mean in our day-to-day nutritional practices ? Quite frankly, not much or nothing at all. When it comes to circulatory health, a more practical, proven and highly efficacious dietary solution consists of supplementing one’s daily food with Masquelier’s OPCs. You may wish to read all there is to know about it in OPCs, Dr. JackMasquelier’s Mark on Health.
