Benefits
Helps promote healthy heart function and maintain cholesterol levels that are already in the normal range.*
Maintaining healthy heart function is best accomplished by a multi-disciplinary lifestyle approach, including tactics such as healthy eating habits, a regular exercise routine, stress reduction techniques, keeping body weight in the healthy range, maintaining healthy cholesterol levels, and regular check-ups with a physician. Additionally, supplementing the diet with nutraceuticals that promote healthy heart function can be very beneficial.
Doctor’s Best is pleased to now carry the supplement Best Cardiovascular Support featuring Flavoxine™ to help its customers promote healthy heart function, and maintain their already normal cholesterol within a healthy range. Flavoxine™ is a combination of two different extracts; one from Phellodendron amurense tree bark, and one from orange peel standardized to polymethoxyflavones (PMFs).
Phellodendron amurense, also known as the Amur Cork-Tree, is native to northern and northeastern China, Siberia and Japan.10 One of the major constituents of Phellodendron amurense bark are isoquinoline alkaloids such as berberine, which give the bark its bitter taste.2,3,4 The bark generally contains between 0.6-2.5% of berberine, and the alkaloid content increases as the tree ages. Some of the other constituents that have been found in the bark include small amounts of palmatine, magnoflorine, phellodentrine, jatrorrhizine, candicine, and meispermine.11
Berberine has been found to have significant supportive effects on serum lipid parameters in hamsters as well as in humans.5 In addition to studies suggesting a supportive role for helping to maintain cholesterol levels already within the normal range, both animal and human studies suggest berberine may have a number of other positive effects that help the heart stay healthy. These include supporting both clinical and physiological measurements of heart function, improving quality of life and modulating catecholamine levels under certain circumstances. 6,7,8 It also appears to be well tolerated in humans, with no major side effects seen in a recent human study involving 156 subjects. There was only a trend toward increased mild digestive symptoms in the treatment group versus the control.8 A human study that monitored the ratio of berberine levels in the plasma as compared to effectiveness in supporting heart function after two weeks of consuming a 1.2 gram per day oral dose found that those individuals with higher blood berberine levels had more positive and beneficial cardiovascular effects.14
Polymethoxylated flavones, or PMFs, are present in citrus fruits. Several common PMFs include tangeretin and nobiletin, which are found in orange, tangerine, and sour orange peels. In a study on hamsters, effects of three different combinations of citrus derived PMFs were compared, including a 97.4% pure tangeretin extract, an extract mixture of 63% tangeretin, 26% nobiletin, and 4% other minor PMFs, and a commercial extract containing 22% nobiletin, 16% sinensetin, 2.4% tangeretin, and 7.7% unidentified PMFs from tangerines. All three different PMF extracts were shown to have similar supportive effects on parameters of cholesterol health in the hamsters.9 Animal studies also demonstrated the bioavailability of certain PMFs by detecting metabolites in the serum, liver and urine. Some PMF metabolites have been shown to accumulate in certain tissues including the liver, suggesting localized availability to confer their beneficial effects.9,12,13
Most importantly, a preliminary unpublished double-blind placebo controlled study on Flavoxine™ has recently been completed. A total of 45 subjects completed the study. Both normal and overweight human subjects were given either Flavoxine™ or placebo with food in both the mornings and evenings for a total of eight weeks.1 In this study Flavoxine™ showed statistically significant supportive benefits on several parameters of heart and cholesterol health, in both overweight and normal weight participants. In addition, although all of the study groups lost weight, both groups that were administered Flavoxine™ lost significantly more weight than the placebo groups. Flavoxine™ was well tolerated in the study.
Studies on the individual components as well as the preliminary clinical trial on the combination product itself suggest that in conjunction with healthy lifestyle choices, Best Cardiovascular Support featuring Flavoxine™ may be an important additional supplement to help support cholesterol levels already in the normal range and overall healthy functioning of the heart.*
Scientific References
1. Next Pharmaceuticals. Applications in the Management of Cardiovascular Health and Joint Pain Associated with Osteoarthritis; Clinical Trial #084/2006. December 15th, 2006. Unpublished study.
2. Su X, Kong L, Li X, Chen X, Guo M, Zou H. Screening and analysis of bioactive compounds with biofingerprinting chromatogram analysis of traditional Chinese medicines targeting DNA by microdialysis/HPLC. J Chromatogr A. 2005 May 27;1076(1-2):118-26.
3. Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. [Online Database] 15 March 2007.
4. Ikuta A, Urabe H, Nakamura T. A new indolopyridoquinazoline-type alkaloid from phellodendron amurense callus Tissues. J Nat Prod. 1998 Aug;61(8):1012-4.
5. Kong W, Wei J, Abidi P, Lin M, Inaba S, Li C, Wang Y, Wang Z, Si S, Pan H, Wang S, Wu J, Wang Y, Li Z, Liu J, Jiang JD. Berberine is a novel cholesterol-lowering drug working through a unique mechanism distinct from statins. Nat Med. 2004 Dec;10(12):1344-51
6. Lau CW, Yao XQ, Chen ZY, Ko WH, Huang Y. Cardiovascular actions of berberine. Cardiovasc Drug Rev. 2001 Fall;19(3):234-44.
7. Hong Y, Hui SS, Chan BT, Hou J. Effect of berberine on catecholamine levels in rats with experimental cardiac hypertrophy. Life Sci. 2003 Apr 18;72(22):2499-507.
8. Zeng XH, Zeng XJ, Li YY. Efficacy and safety of berberine for congestive heart failure secondary to ischemic or idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.Am J Cardiol. 2003 Jul 15;92(2):173-6.
9. Kurowska EM, Manthey JA. Hypolipidemic effects and absorption of citrus polymethoxylated flavones in hamsters with diet-induced hypercholesterolemia. J Agric Food Chem. 2004 May 19;52(10):2879-86.
10. Keys, J. D. 1976. Chinese Herbs: Their Botany, Chemistry, and Pharmacodynamics. Rutland, Charles E. Tuttle Company.
11. Zhu, Y.-P. 1998. Chinese Materia Medica: Chemistry, Pharmacology and Applications. Amsterdam, Harwood Academic Publishers.
12. Murakami A, Koshimizu K, Ohigashi H, Kuwahara S, Kuki W, Takahashi Y, Hosotani K, Kawahara S, Matsuoka Y. Characteristic rat tissue accumulation of nobiletin, a chemopreventive polymethoxyflavonoid, in comparison with luteolin. Biofactors. 2002;16(3-4):73-82.
13. Nielsen SE, Breinholt V, Cornett C, Dragsted LO. Biotransformation of the citrus flavone tangeretin in rats. Identification of metabolites with intact flavane nucleus. Food Chem Toxicol. 2000 Sep;38(9):739-46.
14. Zeng X, Zeng X. Relationship between the clinical effects of berberine on severe congestive heart failure and its concentration in plasma studied by HPLC. Biomed Chromatogr. 1999 Nov;13(7):442-4.
15. Abidi P, Zhou Y, Jiang JD, Liu J. Extracellular signal-regulated kinase-dependent stabilization of hepatic low-density lipoprotein receptor mRNA by herbal medicine berberine. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2005 Oct;25(10):2170-6. Epub 2005 Aug 11.
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