An examination of the effects of the antioxidant Pycnogenol® on cognitive performance, serum lipid profile, endocrinological and oxidative stress biomarkers in an elderly population

Abstract

The study examines the effects of the antioxidant flavonoid Pycnogenol on a range of cognitive and biochemical measures in healthy elderly individuals. The study used a double-blind, placebo-controlled, matched-pair design, with 101 elderly participants (60-85 years) consuming a daily dose of 150 mg of Pycnogenol for a three-month treatment period. Participants were assessed at baseline, then at 1, 2, and 3 months of the treatment. The control (placebo) and Pycnogenol groups were matched by age, sex, body mass index, micronutrient intake, and intelligence. The cognitive tasks comprised measures of attention, working memory, episodic memory, and psychomotor performance. The biological measures comprised levels of clinical hepatic enzymes, serum lipid profile, human growth hormone, and lipid peroxidation products. Statistically significant interactions were found for memory-based cognitive variables and lipid peroxidation products, with the Pycnogenol group displaying improved working memory and decreased concentrations of F2-isoprostanes relative to the control group.

Dose- and Time-Dependent Neuroprotective Effects of Pycnogenol® following Traumatic Brain Injury

“…30 A human clinical study reported that elderly individuals tolerated 150 mg/day of PYC for 3 months without any significant side effects. 31 PYC has very low acute and chronic toxicity with mild unwanted effects occurring in a small percentage of human subjects. 32 The beneficial effects of PYC 24 indicate it can cross a compromised blood-brain barrier, which is breached soon after injury.…”

Cognitive tests used in chronic adult human randomised controlled trial micronutrient and phytochemical intervention studies

“…The eight visuospatial measures, used in eleven different studies, showed significant effects in four studies, with respect to flavonoid treatments (20,90,91) and Zn (80) , although Santos et al (91) (n 48) and Gleason et al (20) (n 30) had relatively small sample sizes, and the randomisation process adopted by Santos et al (91) may not have been reliable as they reported baseline differences in IQ between groups.…”

“…Spatial Working Memory Task (CDR) (90) Positive: flavonoid (90) (28,72,75,79,92) Positive: B vitamins (79) Positive: flavonoid (92) Y Y Y Memory: episodic -verbal Short Story Recall (WMS) (19,21,22) Positive: flavonoid (19,21) (29,68,70,71,77,83,90,91) Positive: B vitamins (77) Positive: multivitamins/ multiminerals Positive: B vitamins (75) Negative: B vitamins (73) Positive: flavonoid (84,91,92) Y Y Y Psychomotor: processing speed Finger-Tapping Task (24,71,89) -Y Y Psychomotor: processing speed Grooved Pegboard (20,25) Positive flavonoid (20) Y Y Psychomotor: processing speed Identical Forms Task (78) Positive: B vitamins (78) The working memory span task (the Digit Span Backward test) showed significant effects in only two of eight studies, for flavonoids (84,92) , although as mentioned earlier, it is difficult to judge the quality of these results due to the lack of statistical rigour to which the data were subjected, and/or to lack of information provided.…”

“…Murray-Kolb & Beard (81) and Ryan et al (90) used factor analysis to group 'families' of tasks to reduce the number of cognitive variables. Neither of these studies found significant results using these composite scores.…”

“…Eighteen studies (46 %) did not screen for cognitive impairment; of these, thirteen included participants over the age of 50 years (19,22,25,27,28,65,69,78,79,84,86,89,90) and may also, therefore, have unwittingly included cognitively impaired participants. Three studies reported baseline statistical differences in cognitive performance (68,69,91) .…”