No Blood Pressure Benefit Seen With Pine-Bark Extract

(HealthDay News) — Pine-bark extract taken as a dietary supplement does not lower blood pressure or prevent other heart disease risk factors, new research shows.

Pine-bark extract is an antioxidant and some previous studies have linked it to reductions in blood pressure. But most of those studies were open-label studies (participants knew they were taking the extract) and didn’t include control groups of patients who were given a placebo for comparison, the authors of the new report noted.

This new study was the largest randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial to date to examine the effects of pine-bark extract on blood pressure and other heart disease risk factors, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif.

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