Can Sea Buckthorn Help Prevent Heart Disease?

Heart disease, the number one killer of both men and women in the United States, is also on the rise in developing countries. The most common form of heart disease is coronary heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease (CAD). CAD afflicts an estimated seven million Americans. Each year, approximately 500,000 Americans die from CAD-related heart attacks. Other types of heart disease include cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, and stroke. A recent review of scientific data suggests that Sea Buckthorn may have beneficial effects on heart disease.

Summarizing the promising health benefits for humans, particularly for cardiovascular disease, the authors of a study on the health benefits of sea buckthorn for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases said, “Sea buckthorn is a natural source of vitamins and several other bioactive compounds such as carotenoids and flavonoids, which have been claimed to lower cholesterol, platelet aggregation, blood pressure and blood sugar.” Learn more about sea buckthorn for cardiovascular health here.

Flavonoids are basically antioxidants naturally present in vegetables and fruits. A recent review article published by the Journal of Functional Foods suggests that daily consumption of 28 g of berry or 5 g of oil daily may be potentially beneficial in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases including atherosclerosis, hypertension and heart attack. It was explained that it’s the flavonoids proportion in the Sea Buckthorn berry that have been linked mostly to lowering the high risks associated with those heart conditions.  And Martijn B. Katan, in his study of flavonoids and heart disease, notes that the hypothesis that flavonoids could prevent heart disease received a boost when an inverse association was reported between the intake of the flavonol Quercetin and coronary mortality in men in Zutphen, Netherlands.

The total flavonoids of Sea Buckthorn extracted from the leaves and fruit is a group of compounds containing seven kinds of flavonoids. Of these, the main components are isorhamnetin and Quercetin. Zhang Maoshun, Wang Jialing and others of the West China Medical University experimented with Sea Buckthorn flavonoids, treating coronary heart disease using a random double blind control test. The results showed that with Sea Buckthorn flavonoids could remit angina and improve the mechanocardiography and the ischemic electrocardiogram. As for this aspect, its curative effect was shown to be better than that of isosorbide dinitrate, (first-line medication to prevent chest pain for patients with blockages in their coronary arteries. They work by causing your coronary arteries to dilate, allowing more blood flow to the heart) which might be due to the increased volume of coronary blood flow and myocardial nutritional blood flow, and the decrease of myocardial oxygen consumption and inhibition of platelet aggregation.  In addition, the leaves of the sea Buckthorn plant had been found to contain ß-amyrinoley-lalcohol acid, which can dilate the cardiac and cerebral vessels, facilitate blood circulation and slightly lower the blood pressure. Read more about sea buckthorn’s wonderful antioxidants here.

Heart disease may be a leading cause of death, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it as your fate. Although you lack the power to change some risk factors — such as family history, sex or age — there are some key heart disease prevention steps you can take. Learning how to eat healthy, control cholesterol, maintain a healthy weight, be active, and control blood pressure are all wonderful ways to reach this goal.  Adding Sea Buckthorn Berry oil to your diet could also be beneficial to your prevention regimen.

References:

Flavonoids and heart disease. Martijn B Katan. Amer J Clin Nutr 1997;65:1542-3.

The medicinal research and development of Sea Buckthorn. Xu Mingyu, Sun Xiaoxuan, Cui Jinhua. Xiyuan Hospital of the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine of China, Beijing 100091. Department of chemic engineering, Taiyaun University of Technology)

7 thoughts on “Can Sea Buckthorn Help Prevent Heart Disease?”

    • Hello,

      You may want to try a capsule that has a blend of sea buckthorn seed oil and sea buckthorn berry oil. That will help with heart health. If you are taking other medications ask your doctor if they interact with other supplements first.

      Thank you

      Reply
    • Hello,

      Generally speaking, you can just follow the recommended dosage on the packaging of the product that you end up purchasing. Beyond that, you will need to seek help from a health care professional or herbalist.

      Thanks

      Reply
  1. Hello there, I just purchased the berry oil in liquid form. You mentioned in above comment that its best to take berry and seed. Would it still be beneficial to take the berry oil alone or its best to take both? Thanks.

    Reply
    • Hi Alla,

      It’s still beneficial to take the berry oil on its own. Using both oils together gives you the most nutrients and creates a balance most similar to consuming the berry itself. Taking just the berry oil provides you with all of the omegas and is really beneficial for digestive health.

      Thank you

      Reply

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