Effects of Pterostilbene on Cardiovascular Health and Disease

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“Pterostilbene (trans-3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxystilbene) is a naturally derived compound found primarily in blueberries and Pterocarpus marsupium (PM) heartwood [1, 2]. The amount of daily pterostilbene consumption varies according to dietary fruit intake, and it has been estimated that pterostilbene content per blueberry varies from 99 ng to 520 ng/gram depending on the type of berry ingested [3, 4]. Substantial evidence suggests that pterostilbene may have numerous preventive and therapeutic properties in a vast range of human diseases that include neurological, cardiovascular, metabolic, and hematologic disorders. Further benefits of pterostilbene have been reported in preclinical trials, in which pterostilbene was shown to be a potent anticancer agent in several malignancies [5].”

I hope someone will correct me on this but the only mostly unconfounded controlled human clinical experimental data I am aware of on pterostilbene is Riche (2014), which had 80 hypercholesterolemic adults, four arms, 6–8 weeks, 50 and 125 mg twice daily.

Two important findings of that research point in opposite directions.

  • Both systolic (−7.8 mmHg; p<0.01) and diastolic blood pressure were reduced with high-dose pterostilbene.

  • LDL increased by a non-trivial amount with pterostilbene monotherapy (17.1 mg/dL; p=0.001), but was not seen with the grape extract combination. This increase occurred at both 50 mg and 125 mg twice daily.

The 17 mg/dL LDL bump is not trivial for something being conveyed as cardioprotective. It may be but explanations are owing. The attenuation by co-administered grape extract is interesting but unexplained. The hierarchy for due notice is something like human, primate, mammalian, animal, in vitro.

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Perhaps there is a dose dependent effect with supplements vs dietary sources - in my post above I bolded the content range in blueberries. After all, blueberries, even eaten in quantity and daily are not known to increase LDL or worsen any aspect of CVD. There have even been hints of possible endothelial benefits of blueberries if consumed in sufficient quantities. Again, this might be a dosing issue.