- GRAPE SEED EXTRACT
(OPC) :
OPC SUPER ANTIOXIDANT.
What Is OPC Grape Seed Extract and How Does It Work?
OPC's (Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins) are a set of bioflavonoid complexes
that perform as free radical scavengers in the human body. Many names
refer to this set of bioflavonoids, including PCO's (Oligomeric Procyanidolic
Complexes), leuco anthocyanin, anthocyanidin and still others. We will
refer to them as OPC's for the duration of this discussion.
OPC's are types of bioflavonoids, very powerful ones. Bioflavonoids
are parts of plants that are actually assimilated into our body tissues
when we consume them. It was, in fact, this very ability that led to
their discovery. OPC bioflavonoids were first noticed in the laboratory
because they have the uncanny ability to strengthen blood vessel walls
within hours after taking them! The person responsible for their discovery
was a French scientist named Dr. Jacques Masquelier, who first tested
bioflavonoid containing peanuts on lab animals and discovered that their
blood vessel walls would double in strength only hours after eating
them. His discovery was made in 1948. In 1951, this same doctor extracted
OPC's from pine bark.
In 1970, Dr. Masquelier obtained yet another patent for these bioflavonoids
- a far more potent product. It is the grape seed extract that you may
have heard about, and it is a powerful substance indeed.
Oxidation Theory Of Chronic Illness
OPC's have one particular ability that was discovered by Masquelier
in 1986, and that is the ability of Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins to
scavenge free radicals from the body. Free radicals are simply oxygen
atoms that are robbed of an electron through the body's natural metabolic
processes.
If you exercise or smoke, you are exposed to higher levels of these
free radicals than most people. Ironically, people who exercise are
exposed to more free radicals than those who don't because they have
faster, more vigorous metabolisms. Smokers, and second-hand smokers
are bombarded by free radicals, because free radicals are also the product
of pollutants (inefficient combustion).
The oxygen atom, which in a stable state has four pairs of electrons,
becomes unstable when it loses an electron. An oxygen atom with seven
electrons is referred to as a free radical. This name aptly describes
its action in the body, too. Just as water pools, and vacuums are filled
quickly in nature, free radicals quickly attach themselves to something
- in this case body tissues - in order to stabilize themselves. What
happens is the free radical takes an electron from the membrane of a
body tissue and by doing so, produces yet another free radical, which
then is obliged by its charge to seek out another electron - in your
body. What results is a cascade of oxidations - a "rusting"
of body tissues.
Enter OPC's, Antioxidants
Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins, in fact anti-oxidants in general, are
structured in such a way that they are able to donate electrons freely
without altering their valence (their electrons are not paired) - what
this means is that anti-oxidants can stabilize free radicals without
themselves becoming dangerous. In fact, anti-oxidants will go about
donating electrons until they have no more; one anti-oxidant molecule
is able to neutralize many free radicals.
It is by the number of available electrons in a given anti-oxidant that
we are able to rate their effectiveness. If anti-oxidant A has twice
the number of available electrons as anti-oxidant B, then A is said
to be twice as potent as B. To put OPC's in perspective among other
anti-oxidants, they are roughly 20 times as potent as Vitamin C, and
50 times as potent as Vitamin E.
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