Nearly 18 million people across the globe died from cardiovascular disease in 2015.
That’s more than the populations of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago… COMBINED.
So what’s KILLING so many heart patients?
It isn’t having a heart attack. About 70% of people survive a myocardial infarction.
It’s the heart failure that follows in the weeks or months afterwards.
And the most common cause of heart failure?
Coronary artery disease.
Protecting your blood vessels as a first line of defense means that ultimately, you’re protecting your heart… and your life.
So, if you can 1) ELIMINATE the disease from your blood vessels… you can 2) reduce the severity of a heart attack if you have one… and 3) lessen the risk of developing chronic heart failure after the heart attack.
There’s a natural way you can check ALL THREE of those accomplishments off your list…
And it’s a nutrient that’s showing more promise than any others have in a long time.
The ‘better’ resveratrol?
Could there be any antioxidant that’s actually BETTER than resveratrol at promoting cardiovascular health?
It turns out there is – and it’s called pterostilbene.
Its discovery was first announced all the way back in 1979…
But I GUARANTEE you’ve STILL never heard of it.
Pterostilbene gets its name from the genus of trees whose bark and hard, inner wood contain it, including
- red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus)
- narra tree (Pterocarpus indicus)
- Indian kino (Pterocarpus marsupium).
You may know the Indian kino tree better as “heartwood”…
Cultures across the globe have used heartwood powder and extract as natural treatments for MILLENNIA.
And it’s one of the most abundant sources of this practically ANONYMOUS antioxidant, pterostilbene.
Chemically, it’s a cousin of resveratrol.
And they’ve been shown to have similar activity. Both fight oxidative stress and inflammation, for instance.
But pterostilbene turns out to be even more potent than resveratrol!
If resveratrol has one shortcoming… it’s that your body can only use 20% of what you consume… and eliminates the rest of it when you go to the bathroom (hence the snarky term “expensive pee”).
The bioavailability of pterostilbene, on the other hand, is a whopping 80%!
That means it lingers in your body longer than resveratrol — long enough to cross cell membranes where it’s needed most.
Both these antioxidants can improve your overall heart health…AND save the day when it comes to life-threatening cardiovascular events.
You see, your body makes its own antioxidants – namely, glutathione (the “master antioxidant”) and superoxide dismutase (SOD).
But increased exposure to oxidative stress… and the release of reactive oxidative species (ROS) by your immune system… can EXHAUST that natural defense mechanism.
Your internal supply of antioxidants gets DEPLETED – and, left unprotected, the delicate cells of your blood vessel walls and heart (a.k.a. your endothelial cells) stop working properly.
That’s when your arteries can harden… thicken… and narrow.
Not nearly enough blood is available to deliver oxygen to your heart… body… or brain.
And you’re looking at not just injury… but permanent damage.
Supplementing with antioxidant compounds from an EXTERNAL source provides a “backup generator” to your body’s fight against oxidative damage… even if your natural defenses go on the fritz.
Pterostilbene in particular provides an “emergency supply” of antioxidants.
That helps reduce your body’s production of damaging ROS… and BOOSTS your body’s own antioxidant mechanisms.
Thanks to pterostilbene, your levels of both glutathione and SOD will rebound!
Research shows that if even you’ve already got vascular disease, pterostilbene can let the air out of its tires.
In a 2009 study, scientists found that eating a pterostilbene-rich diet helped rats experience less severe heart attacks (which were induced) than those on a regular diet.
In fact, the average size of their myocardial infarction (MI) was 22% smaller!
Two weeks after their heart attacks, the special diet rats also exhibited higher “ejection fractions” – that is, their hearts could pump MORE BLOOD out –compared to controls.
Finally, the researchers found that pterostilbene also prevents the muscle cells of the heart from DYING OFF… even AFTER they’ve been deprived of oxygen (from limited blood supply)… and subjected to oxidative damage.
The pterostilbene actually STAVED OFF heart failure!
But in the study, when certain rats were taken off their special diets, their conditions WORSENED.
Now, this doesn’t mean you should SWITCH from resveratrol to pterostilbene.
It turns out that they may complement each other!
Fortunately, supplement formulas often package them together.
Just go for a pure, natural version – and not a synthetic.