Interview with Suzanne Diamond, B.Sc., M.Sc. (Botany)
1) Q: Please tell us a little bit about your book, Nature's Best Heart Medicine:
A: My book, Nature's Best Heart Medicine, published by The Book Publishing Company, covers some of the most important research advances on the subject of heart health and provides people with delicious recipes to help improve daily diets. There are a number of natural medicines that can help to prevent and even reverse heart disease, especially flavonoid-rich foods like brightly colored bilberries, blueberries, cranberries, elderberries, grapes, hawthorn berries and other foods and herbs with similar or related flavonoids such as Maritime pine bark, flaxseed and dark chocolate. These foods and herbs can help people to stay young at heart and soar to the heights of good health thanks to their many proven cardiovascular rejuvenating, youth promoting and anti-aging benefits.
In France, OPCs and anthocyanins are also considered top nutrients for treating varicose veins. Studies show that these flavonoids can actually strengthen veins and restore their elasticity, making varicose veins retract back into position.
Anthocyanins and OPCs act by: 1) reducing blood platelet stickiness—"better than aspirin" according to Dr. Folts; 2) preventing and reversing free radical damage; 3) are vitamin C cofactors and have a vitamin C sparing effect on the body; and 4) increase the body's production of collagen, elastin and other compounds that form the basis of healthy vascular walls, skin and connective tissues. Grape seed extract OPC's (100 to 300 mg/day) and bilberry anthocyanins (200 to 800 mg/day) can act to quickly repair and regenerate broken and leaky capillaries and blood vessels within the body. These flavonoid extracts are generally far more effective than synthetic pharmaceutical drugs for combating CAD and clinically tested OPC products cost less than a quarter the price of commonly used synthetic drugs.
OPC's from peanut skins and grape seeds and anthocyanins from bilberries and have been utilized effectively in France as herbal medicines for treating cardiovascular disease and diabetic circulatory conditions since the late 1940's.
2) Q: What are the differences between a young cardiovascular system and an old cardiovascular system and what happens to cause so much heart disease that we see today in our society?
A: When people are young, their blood flows through their arteries and veins easily, "like water through a gentle brook". In youth, arteries are soft and flexible and easily expand and absorb the contractile force of the heart and the heart pumps efficiently. But with age, animal fats in the diet, environmental and microbial toxins and other stresses, the blood becomes thicker and stickier. Plaque can also form on the arteries making them less flexible. In these conditions, the heart must pump harder which increases blood pressure risks. And if plaque buildup continues, from too much sticky type fats in the diet—and too much LDL cholesterol and other risk factors—it can lead to the development of atherosclerosis, angina, blood clots, strokes and heart attacks.
3) Q: How can we combat these ever-pervasive heart disease risk factors?
A: Thankfully, nature has provided us with many delicious foods that can help to rejuvenate heart and cardiovascular health and even reverse heart disease. Fantastic flavonoids including anthocyanins ("anthos" means flower and "cyan" means blue (first discovered in blue pea flowers)) found in brightly colored berries and fruit including blueberries, cranberries, hawthorn berries, strawberries, elderberries and oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs) in grapes and grape products such as juice, wine and seed extracts and pine bark extracts and related flavonoids also concentrated in green tea and dark chocolate have been shown to exert antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, platelet inhibitory and artery relaxing effects in vitro, in animal studies and in human trials. A highly researched natural extract from the inner bark of the maritime pine tree, Pinus maritima Mill., called pycnogenol also contains active procyanidins and organic acids that are indicated for many health benefits (Rohdewald 2002).
4) Q: How can these compounds act to improve cardiovascular health so quickly?
A: The immense power of these fantastic flavonoids for improving cardiovascular health is very well illustrated by recent studies done in the US looking at the protective effects of these compounds against cardiovascular risk factors associated with long-haul airplane flights. The risks of blood clots, embolisms and heart attacks from long flights are well known. Mittermayr and other researchers (2003) studied the effect of air travel on leg edema (and fluid shifts to interstitial space) under real flight conditions. Leg edema, as a sign of blood stagnation, is a well-known problem with flying. Most people notice the effects of in-flight swelling if they take their shoes off during the flight and have difficulty getting back into them at the end of the flight. I also know many people who also suffer the same effects from car and bus travel and it's a real problem. Researchers have found that long-haul flights induce significant fluid accumulation in the lower leg and thigh. This increase in tissue thickness was maintained for some days after the flights. Thankfully, there is no difference between the fibrin content and other blood clotting factors before and after long-haul flights but the fluid shifts still increase the risks of blood clots so it is important to prevent this phenomenon (Schobersberger et al. 2007).
Several controlled human studies have shown that Pycnogenol® pine bark extract can improve circulation and prevent this leg and ankle edema and swelling and even the blood clots caused by long flights (Cesarone and other researchers 2005; Belcaro and others 2004). A double-blind, placebo controlled study published in 2005 in Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis tested in-flight ankle swelling for 169 participants. Before the airline flight, ankle size was similar for the control group and participants who supplemented with Pycnogenol®. Upon arrival, untreated passengers showed increased ankle swelling which was almost twice as high as in the group of passengers supplemented with Pycnogenol®. The researchers showed that Pycnogenol prevents swellings by strengthening the veinous walls. This enables veins, stretched by pooled blood, to better resist the increased pressure, letting less liquid seep into the tissue, and hence less swelling occurs.
Belcaro studied the occurrence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and superficial vein thrombosis (SVT) and its prevention with Pycnogenol® in long-haul flights, in 198 subjects at moderate to high-risk of DVT and SVT. All subjects were scanned within 90 minutes before the flight and within 2 hours after disembarking. Subjects were supplemented with 100 mg Pycnogenol per capsule and received two capsules between 2 and 3 hours before flights with 250 mL of water; two capsules were taken 6 hours later with 250 mL of water and one capsule the next day. The control group received comparable placebo at the same intervals. The flight duration was on average 8 hours and 15 minutes. In the control group there were five thrombotic events (one DVT and four superficial thromboses) while only nonthrombotic, localized phlebitis was observed in the Pycnogenol group (5.15% vs. no events; p<0.025). No unwanted effects were observed. The researchers concluded that Pycnogenol treatment was effective in decreasing the number of thrombotic events (DVT and SVT) in moderate-to-high risk subjects, during long-haul flights.
Pycnogenol researchers report that the majority of thromboses occurring during travel remain symptomless as the developed clot spontaneously dissolves before it may affect blood flow. Many travelers do not realize they developed a thrombosis and were lucky. Travelers affected by thrombosis typically experience a warming sensation in one of their calves, swelling and show a blue-red discoloration after some time. Thrombosis may be fatal when the blood clot is dislodged and travels with the blood stream to block arteries in the lungs or to the brain.
Other studies have shown that Pycnogenol® inhibits platelet aggregation in a dose-dependent manner in humans. The effect lasts for more than 6 days and unlike aspirin, it does not produce increased bleeding time (Pütter et al. 1999). Pycnogenol® also counteracts the constriction of blood vessels due to stress. The vaso-relaxant activity of Pycnogenol® is mediated through nitric oxide which is similar to how aspirin works (Fitzpatrick et al. 1998).
Treating varicose veins
Good circulation is fundamental to overall cardiovascular health. Poor circulation can lead to blood clots and embolisms. In France, OPCs and anthocyanins are considered top nutrients for treating varicose veins. Studies show that these flavonoids can actually strengthen veins and restore their elasticity, making varicose veins retract back into position.
Dr. Jacques Masquelier of France, who discovered and named these heart-smart flavonoids (OPC's) over 50 years ago, and has a U.S. patent for
OPC-85TM grape seed extract, has tested his extract double-blind on a group of elderly people with fragile capillaries and 89% had significant improvement after only two weeks with only 100-150mg/day.
5) Q: What are the natural blood thinning effects of Flavonoids?
A: Leading American heart specialist, Dr. Jonathon Folts of the Madison Medical School in Wisconsin-the doctor who first recommended people take an aspirin a day to prevent heart attacks-now believes flavonoids from grapes and berries may be altogether better than taking ASA tablets for thinning the blood, and preventing coronary artery disease.
Experimenting on 17 volunteers, himself included, Dr. Folts found that both aspirin and red wine slow the activity of blood platelets by about 45 percent, while drinking one glass (270 mL to 360 mL) of ordinary purple grape juice dampens them by about 75 percent.
Dr. Folts presented his findings in 1997 at a conference of the American College of Cardiology.
More recent studies done by Dr. Folts and other researchers published in the Journal of Nutrition (January 2000), comparing purple grape juice with orange and grapefruit juice, came to the conclusion that grape juice is better, at least for the heart. While grapefruit and orange juice also contain plenty of flavonoids, they are different from the ones in purple grape juice and they have no effect on platelet stickiness.
Additionally, Dr. Folts found that when people drink purple grape juice once a day, the benefits linger. In one experiment, people drank the juice for a week. Even after they had stopped for two days, their platelets were still sluggish. "It appears to be around-the-clock protection," Dr. Folts said.
Dr. Folts recommended including grape juice in a healthy diet, which should include five to seven servings a day of vegetables, fruits and juices. However, he said that until comparative studies are done that people should not stop taking aspirin or other heart medications just because they are drinking grape juice.
However, Dr. Folts argues that taking standardized flavonoid extracts may be the best option in order to avoid all the sugar in grape juice and the alcohol in red wine. He also maintains that if these flavonoids are to replace ASA as natural blood thinners for heart patients, further comparative studies are needed to determine proper dosages.
6) Q: Can these flavonoids help people with High Blood pressure?
A: Yes, new studies confirm that berry and grape flavonoids can help people suffering from hypertension to lower their high blood pressure. A double-blind, placebo controlled intervention trial showed that Concord grape juice supplementation reduces blood pressure in Korean hypertensive men (Park et al. 2004).
Other foods can help as well, such as celery. Celery has been used as a medicine for lowering blood pressure since 200 B.C. by Asian cultures (Food Your Miracle Medicine by Jean Carper(1993)). The active compound is 3-n-butyl phthalide the compound that gives celery it's aroma—it has been researched and found to lower blood pressure 12 to 14 percent in a few weeks based on animal studies and also lowers cholesterol about 14 percent at the same time. An example of a person taking it is a 62 year old man who ate two stalks of celery every day for a week and his blood pressure dropped from a high 158/96 to a normal 118/82. And if that doesn't work, there's always garlic, fatty fish, flax seed and oil, fruits, vegetables, olive oil, high calcium/magnesium foods and high potassium foods to try.
7) Q: How can a person naturally lower their high cholesterol?
A: Flaxseed contains a very beneficial flavolignan phytoestrogen (flavonoid-type plant estrogen) called the SDG flax lignan, which quickly lowers cholesterol and reverses Hyper-cholesterolemic atherosclerosis. Based on one clinical trial with 40 hyperlipidemic patients divided in 3 groups: 10 patients who received low-fat diet (diet group), 10 patients who received low-fat diet plus statins (diet+HL group), 20 patients who received low-fat diet plus 20 g ground flax-seeds/day (diet+flax group), Flaxseed supplementation was associated with significant reductions in TC (-17.2%), LDL-C (-3.9%), TG (-36.3%) and TC/HDL-C ratio (-33.5%). There were no significant differences in between flaxseed and statin groups. The researchers concluded that dietary flaxseed significantly improves lipid profile in hyperlipidemic patients and may favorably modify cardiovascular risk factors (Manda?escu S et al. 2005).
Based on human, placebo controlled clinical trials, taking 50g of flaxseed/day in four flax muffins brings a 9.8% reduction in LDL cholesterol and 19.8% reduction in Lp(a) within three weeks. If, however, flaxseeds are eaten whole (without grinding them first), then they will not be digested and will pass right through the digestive tract.
One woman in Ontario was told by her doctor that she had to lower her cholesterol within 20 days or she would have to begin taking synthetic cholesterol-lowering drugs (which she did not want to do). So she began taking three tablespoons per day of a product high in ground flax seed together with one Bio-K yogurt per day—and she brought her cholesterol down to normal within 20 days. The best way to incorporate flax seed into the diet is by purchasing flax seed and grinding it just before use with a table-top coffee grinder—it must be ground in order for the lignans to be made available to the body. Taking one to two tablespoonfuls of ground flax seed per day has also been found to prevent the progression of lupus nephritis, a classic autoimmune disease, and is also beneficial for reversing some of the problems of diabetes and endotoxic shock. These beneficial phytoestrogens also go a long way toward preventing and even reversing cancerous tumors (based on human clinical trials) on balancing hormones in both men and women and preventing osteoporosis.
8) Q: Who was the first person to discover the heart health benefits of these compounds?
A: Similar active ingredients in peanut skin extracts were studied in France in 1945 by researcher, Jacques Masquelier. He first called these flavonoids "leuco-anthocyanidins" literally meaning "pale anthocyanins" ("leuco" means "pale" in Latin). He was asked to do animal studies with guinea pigs and it was then that he discovered the remarkable capillary strengthening effects of these flavonoids. Masquelier fed guinea pigs the concentrated peanut skin extract and then expose a small area of skin of the guinea pig to suction. He determined that normally capillaries burst at a suction pressure of 25mm of mercury or more, resulting in the formation of a characteristic red patch of skin, or "hicky" where the suction was applied. But when he had given the guinea pigs the concentrated leuco-anthocyanidin extract, he had to apply much more pressure in order to get the capillaries to burst. The capillary strengths were even seen to double within hours of giving the animals the extract! It was soon clear from these and other studies that concentrated leuco-anthocyanidin extracts had dramatic circulatory strengthening effects. It so happened that at the time of these studies, Masquelier's professor's wife was pregnant and was suffering from terrible edema (swelling often due to water retention) of her ankles and knees, a frequent condition suffered by pregnant and nursing mothers. Being from a medical background, Masquelier and his supervisor knew that edema is caused by broken and leaky blood vessels and capillaries, and so they decided to see how well their extracts worked for her painful and debilitating condition (she could hardly walk or get around). Much to their delight, she was completely cured within 48 hours!
And so it was all the way back then, in the early 1950's in France, that the first standardized leucoanthocyanidin product called "Resavit", was created from peanut skin extract and put on the market for treating circulatory disorders. This product is still available today.
Kalus et al. 2004 more recently confirmed those early findings when they found that the administration of grape leaf flavonoids (rich in the same OPCs and related flavonoids found in grape seeds, pine bark and peanut skins) in the product AS 195 improved objective symptoms of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) and may prevent CVI deterioration. The study was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial for which 129 men and women, aged 18 years or more with CVI stage I or II were screened. After 6 weeks of treatment with 360mg of grape leaf flavonoids the leg circumference was decreased significantly at both the ankle and the calf. Patients in the AS 195 group also had significantly increased microvascular blood flow values and increased oxygen.
Clinical studies have shown that flavonoids from red grapes acutely improve endothelial function in patients with coronary heart disease (Lekakis et al. 2005). These results could probably, at least partly, explain the well known and documented favorable effects of red wine on the cardiovascular system. Grape Seed Extracts standardized for OPCs have also been shown to dramatically improve blood circulation, improve the flexibility of blood vessels and capillaries and reduce the pressure on the cardiovascular system.
Studies on capillary resistance in rats treated with bilberry
extract (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) given at a dosage of 100mg/kg show a 40% strengthening of capillaries within only four hours!
9) Q: Are these flavonoids also beneficial for diabetics that have circulatory problems?
A: A human clinical study published in Dec. 2006 (Banini et al. 2006) of muscadine grape juice, muscadine grape wine and dealcoholized muscadine grape wine on glycemic indices, blood constituents, lipid profile and nutrient intakes of healthy and type II diabetic subjects (over a 28 day period) found that the daily intake of 150 mL of the more flavonoid-concentrated muscadine wine or dealcoholized muscadine wine with meals improved several metabolic responses among diabetics compared with diabetics given muscadine juice.
Diabetics have long known of the many benefits of bilberry for
improving circulation. Studies have documented bilberry's efficacy for
reducing diabetic microangiopathy (thickenings of capillaries due to
abnormal collagen and glycoprotein synthesis). One study of 54 patients
given 500-600 mg/day of the berry extract for 8 to 33 months produced an almost total normalization of these conditions (Lagrue et al. 1979). Other studies have shown similar benefits (Boniface et al. 1986).
10) Q: How are your books selling and what plans do you have for this book?
A: Nature's Best Heart Medicine is selling well considering that it has never been properly promoted—it has solid sales every month with steadily increasing numbers—so that is good. My publisher, the Book Publishing Company, has contacted the Oprah Winfrey show about the possibility of doing a show about the research covered in the book. This would be a follow-up show to Oprah's Love Your Heart show that examined the cardiovascular health of Oprah and several other women using 64 slice CT scans—Oprah was told that she has the heart of a 19 year old and most of the other women also had great results from their scans—but there were two women who had the scans done that didn't get very good news—with the scans having identified calcified plaque and other signs of advanced hardening of the arteries. The show that we have suggested would be to document the realistic benefits that people can achieve with Fantastic Flavonoids for healing cardiovascular disease. I have suggested that we could do a "Before and After" look (with the 64 slice CT Scanner) at the benefits of "Improving Daily Diets" with heart-smart foods. The show could also be designed to put flavonoids and the recipes in my book to the 'test'. I know that my book will pass with flying colors and make people's hearts shine through!
Whatever your choice is, much clinical and experimental research supports including fantastic flavonoids in your daily diet as a safe and often delicious way to soar to the heights of good health and keep yourself young at heart.
Cardiovascular Health 
