Mind Lab Pro® supplies:
Maritime Pine Bark Extract 75 mg
standardized for min. 95% proanthocyanidins
Maritime Pine Bark Extract supplies a natural complex of active proanthocyanidin nootropics that enhance antioxidant status, cerebrovascular function and brain regeneration to promote mental clarity and long-range brain health.*
Brain Support
- Stimulates nitric oxide release to relax blood vessels and support blood flow to the brain*
- Helps protect brain cells from the age-accelerating effects of toxic free radicals*
- Supplies flavonoids that support brain plasticity and brain regeneration*
Nootropic Effects
- Linked to benefits for focus, attention, mental processing and mood*
- Helps to enhance memory and mental performance throughout every life stage*
Mind Lab Pro® Maritime Pine Bark Extract
- Standardized to supply a minimum of 95% active proanthocyanidins
- Strongest available potency of Maritime Pine Bark's nootropic actives
Why Mind Lab Pro® Includes Maritime Pine Bark Extract
High-performance thinking demands high levels of brain energy, but brain energy metabolism generates brain cell-damaging free radicals.
Maritime Pine Bark Extract’s proanthocyanidin antioxidants supply two bioactivities to help with this mental performance paradox, working by:
- Promoting healthy cerebral blood flow and delivery of brain-energizing oxygen and glucose;
- Crossing the blood-brain barrier to neutralize cell-damaging free radicals that are concentrated in the brain
With these and additional brain-supportive bioactivities, Mind Lab Pro®'s Maritime Pine Bark optimizes focus, attention and memory while modulating key risk factors for age-related cognitive decline.
- Mind Lab Pro® includes Maritime Pine Bark Extract as a superior source of flavonoid proanthocyanidins that effectively delivers their broad-spectrum support for short- and long-term mental performance.
How Maritime Pine Bark Extract may support mental performance and brain health
Brain Protection
Over thousands of years, the Maritime Pine (Pinus pinaster) tree species has adapted to its salty, windswept coastal environment by developing a unique antioxidant complex that is especially rich in a class of flavonoids called proanthocyanidins, also known as tannins or OPC (oligomeric proanthocyanidin complexes).
Classified as polyphenols, pinebark OPCs are also present in red wine, currants, cocoa, grapeseed, cranberries and other herbal supplements, and possess a wide range of health-promoting biological activities.
- Maritime Pine Bark OPCs may be most known for their superior antioxidant activity, estimated to be 20X greater than that of vitamin E and 50X greater than vitamin C.<1,2,3>
Due to this antioxidant potency, Maritime Pine Bark is associated with anti aging applications, including within the brain: Antioxidants are suggested to help neutralize the age-accelerating effects of free radicals.
Proanthocyanidin compounds found in Maritime Pine Bark Extract are uniquely neuroprotective: They can cross the blood-brain barrier, enabling their potent, multi-pathway antioxidant activity to reach the brain and modulate the damaging effects of free radical-induced oxidative stress and inflammation.<4>
Brain Circulation
Maritime Pine Bark Extract’s proanthocyanidin antioxidants have a natural affinity for collagen. They naturally migrate to, bind with and protect collagen – including within flexible blood vessel walls.
Here, Proanthocyanidins interact with the endothelium (blood vessels’ inner lining) to help encourage release of nitric oxide (NO), a compound that signals for blood vessels to relax and widen.
- With this nitric oxide-oriented mechanism of action, proanthocyanidins are suggested to support circulation throughout the body – including enhancing blood flow to the brain.<5,6>
Polyphenols like those found in Maritime Pine Bark Extract are also suggested to inhibit platelet adhesion and aggregation, helping to keep blood slippery and free-flowing.<7,8>
Proanthocyanidins’ multiple circulation-supportive bioactivities may help promote peak blood flow to the brain, which may in turn:
- Assist with delivery of micronutrients and other Mind Lab Pro® nootropics;
- Encourage delivery of glucose and oxygen that are needed for energized brain function, neurogenesis and healthy overall cognitive performance
Brain Regeneration
Flavonoids like those in Maritime Pine Bark Extract may stimulate hippocampal neurogegenesis and enhance brain plasticity via several bioactivities. Flavonoids have been suggested to:
- Increase the strength and number of neural connections;
- Indirectly promote brain growth factors including Brain Derived Neurotrophic factor (BDNF);
- Preserve existing brain molecular architecture.<9>
Researchers have linked flavonoids’ brain regenerative bioactivities to improvements in memory, learning and overall mental function, as well as a potential reversal of age-related cognitive decline.<10>
Brain Energy
Maritime Pine Bark Extract may indirectly support brain energy metabolism by optimizing blood flow to the brain -- thereby enhancing delivery of the oxygen and glucose that are needed as fuel for brain cells mitochondria powerhouses to produce energy.
In addition, some early animal research suggests that proanthocyanidins like those found in Maritime Pine Bark Extract may enhance mitochondrial oxygen consumption, suggesting a possible role in mitochondrial function.<11>
Mind Lab Pro® Stack Strategy: Maritime Pine Bark Extract and Vitamins B6+B9+B12 for Brain Blood Flow
Mind Lab Pro®’s Maritime Pine Bark Extract and B6+B9+B12 are designed to work on unique pathways for brain blood flow synergy.
Pine bark’s proanthocyanidins bind to and protect blood vessel collagen while signaling for vasodilating nitric oxide; B6+B9+B12 protect blood vessels from the cerebrovascular-damaging effects of homocysteine.
- Together in Mind Lab Pro®, Maritime Pine Bark Extract and Vitamins B6+B9+B12 supply complementary support for healthy blood flow to the brain that can help to promote multiple aspects of both short-term mental performance and long-range cognitive function.
*The statements on this page have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.
References
- Bagchi D. Free radicals and grape seed proanthocyanidin extract: importance in human health and disease prevention. Toxicology. 2000 Aug 7;148(2-3):187-97.
- Bors W1, Michel C, Stettmaier K. Electron paramagnetic resonance studies of radical species of proanthocyanidins and gallate esters. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2000 Feb 15;374(2):347-55.
- Shi J, et al. Polyphenolics in grape seeds-biochemistry and functionality. J Med Food. 2003 Winter;6(4):291-9.
- Ho GTT, et al. Immunomodulating Activity of Aronia melanocarpa Polyphenols. Int J Mol Sci. 2014 Jul; 15(7): 11626–11636.
- Schmitt CA, Dirsch VM. Modulation of endothelial nitric oxide by plant-derived products. Nitric Oxide. 2009 Sep;21(2):77-91.
- DalBó S, et al. Activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase by proanthocyanidin-rich fraction from Croton celtidifolius (Euphorbiaceae): involvement of extracellular calcium influx in rat thoracic aorta. J Pharmacol Sci. 2008 Jun;107(2):181-9. Vasorelaxant
- Dell’Agli M, Buscialà A, Bosisio E. Vascular effects of wine polyphenols. Cardiovasc Res. 2004;63:593–602 inhibit platelet aggregation
- Cui X., Liu X., Feng H., Zhao S., Gao H. Grape seed proanthocyanidin extracts enhance endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression through 5'AMP activated protein kinase/surtuin 1-krüpple like factor 2 pathway and modulate blood pressure in quabain induced hypertensive rats. Biol. Pharm. Bull. 2012;35:2192–2197
- David Vauzour, et al. The neuroprotective potential of flavonoids: a multiplicity of effects. Genes Nutr. 2008 Dec; 3(3-4): 115–126.
- Spencer JPE, Vauzour D, Rendeiro C. Flavonoids and cognition: The molecular mechanisms underlying their behavioural effects. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Volume 492, Issues 1–2, December 2009, Pages 1-9
- Pajuelo D. Acute administration of grape seed proanthocyanidin extract modulates energetic metabolism in skeletal muscle and BAT mitochondria. J Agric Food Chem. 2011 Apr 27;59(8):4279-87.
