OPC

The Miracle Antioxidant

I borrowed the headline above from Rita Elkins' booklet in the Woodland Health Series "Pycnogenols, The Miracle Antioxidant". The terms pycnogenols and Oligomeric ProanthoCyanidins are basically interchangeable.

Breakthrough Superfood

I first learned about OPC/pycnogenols in the early 1990s. It was widely regarded then as the most important discovery ever in nutritional science, as have other wonder nutrients before and since.

I firmly believe that this nutrient actually deserves that title.

I have taken OPC faithfully for more than 15 years, and will continue until the day I die. Because of it, I rarely get sick, and I *never* get hangovers. And I didn't spent a dollar on health insurance for nearly 13 years, though I certainly don't recommend that tactic to anyone else.

While pycnogenols are extremely helpful for every living person, they are especially useful for athletes, as physical activity increases the production of oxygen free-radicals, which have been scientifically implicated in the development of virtually every degenerative disease.

Pycnogenols may be the most potent free-radical scavengers ever discovered.

There is overwhelming documentation regarding the health benefits and safety of OPCs/pycnogenols, just google them. I won't bother with that information here.

Later I will write a bit on its 400+ year history, which is pretty interesting. Other than that, I will confine this site to my personal experiences and first-hand reports from people who tried OPC at my suggestion.

Poker Tournament Lifesaver

At the time I discovered OPC I was in the early years of my career as a poker tournament director, one of the least healthy occupations in the civilized world.

The big tournaments at that time (WSOP, Queens' Classic, Hall of Fame, LA Classic) were seven-days-a-week for three to five weeks at a time. I would work 16+ hours every day in a smoke-filled room catering to hundreds/thousands of poker players from all over the world, each carrying an assortment of germs and viruses from wherever they called home.

Shaking hands, handling chips, cards, and money all day long, incredible stress, sleep deprivation... for the first couple of years I never got through a single tournament without getting sick, even though I had a strong immune system. And since calling in sick was not an option, I could look forward to a few days of sheer misery every tournament.

In January of 1995, while directing the Queens' Classic, I recognized one day that I was about to get sick. For me the symptoms were always the same - sore throat, runny nose, burning sinuses. Went to bed that night expecting to wake up miserable. But I woke up feeling fine, 100%.

That had never happened to me before.

I couldn't help but wonder if the pycnogenols I had been taking the last couple of months had something to do with it. I couldn't think of anything else in my routine that had changed.

My next tournament was the LA Classic the following month, this time as assistant director. Again I had a day that I felt the symptoms coming on, again I woke up the next day feeling 100%. Now I was certain it was the OPC boosting my immune system.

I placed an ad in the main poker magazine so that I could promote OPC to the players at the upcoming WSOP. After all, the players were also spending many hours in the same unhealthy, stressful conditions, and many got sick at every tournament.

And the network marketing company that I got mine from had the only OPC endorsed by the scientist who discovered them (and spent a half century perfecting the extraction process), Dr Jacque Masquelier, as well as the best price by far.

At the WSOP in April/May, where I served as assistant director, many players asked me about the OPC, and a few placed an order for them.

One night during that WSOP, our swing shift manager, Kathy, came to me and told me that she felt bad. Really bad. She said she had never called in sick at a tournament before, but if she didn't feel better by the next day, would I cover her shift?

Now... I loved directing tournaments, but managing a shift at a major poker tournament is a whole 'nother animal. I had done it at the '94 Queen's Classic to round out my "education", but I didn't like it. At all. However, as assistant director of the WSOP, and not wanting to look like a wuss, I told Kathy that yes, I would cover her shift if necessary.

But... I told her I had something up in my room that I thought might help her, would she take it? She said sure.

I got her twelve 100 mg tablets, suggested she to take four now, four before bed, and four in the morning. She called me the next morning and said... "what is it, and how can I get more?" She felt fine, and I gratefully worked the tournament that night.

Cholesterol Control

My next tournament was the LA Poker Championships in June. One of the players who had ordered pycnogenols at the WSOP, Vince, was waiting for me on the steps of the Commerce Casino. He said he had a story to tell me.

At an empty poker table inside the casino Vince pulled a fistful of supplements from his pocket and told me that it was his daily vitamin regimen. But even with all those supplements, and regular exercise, and attention to his diet, he still needed prescription medication to control his cholesterol. And even with the medication he couldn't get his cholesterol below 213.

He said five weeks after starting the OPC, his cholesterol level was 185. His doctor said "whatever you're doing, keep doing it".

This is a common and well known effect of OPC, but the confusion and misinformation concerning cholesterol leads to differing theories as to why OPC is so effective at reducing cholesterol levels.

I personally subscribe to the theory that our bodies produce as much cholesterol as needed to repair damage to blood vessels, mainly from oxygen free-radicals. And because pycnogenols are so effective at fighting free-radicals, and are such a powerful collagen-binder (which strengthens blood vessels), that less cholesterol is needed or produced by the body to repair damage.

Diabetic Retinopathy

At another tournament I talked with Mike, a dealer with diabetic retinopathy, a deterioration of the capillaries in the eyes which leads to blindness.

The first time I saw him I watched in horror as he lifted a player's cards to a few inches from his face in order to read them. I gave him a bottle of my OPC and asked him to *please* take them. He did, and even ordered some himself.

The next time I saw Mike he told me that six weeks after starting the pycnogenols, his doctor told him that his right eye was the best he had ever seen it (presumably his left eye had improved as well).

The Best OPCs

I don't know if there is a "best" OPC product. I know that the man who discovered them and spent a half-century perfecting the extraction process uses Berkem Laboratories in France exclusively, and I would personally not trust any OPC product not endorsed by Dr Masquelier or processed by Berkem.

I expect you know that there can be huge differences in quality, potency and bio-availability between different brands of the same supplement. If you don't, please do some research. Yugo and Mercedes are both cars, but you probably don't consider them equals.

"Masquelier's Tru-OPCs", from Nature's Way, is available online and in some health food stores. The best price I have found is from Swanson's ( www.swansonsvitamins.com ). A bottle of 90 75mg tabs (providing 50 mg OPC) is only $13.79 as of 5/09/09.

Disclaimer

The statements on this website have not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration. The products referred to on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition or prescribe any treatment.