It’s in powdered/capsule form. I don’t necessarily recommend this brand as I have never bought it before. I chose it mainly because it is 300 mg/capsule as opposed to most others that are 100 mg/capsule.
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Mostly I buy NOW brand but first had some pycnogenol specially formulated in a lab together with some other ingredients as a test product for a supplement company I am consulting. That is how I discovered the benefits for my skin, but it did help with some other things too. I did not measure BS or BP to confirm any benefits. The other strong benefit I noticed (which is not something reproducible in women) is that using pycnogenol I had much firmer erections.
https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Supplements-Pycnogenol-Combination-Proanthocyanidins/dp/B004YZTH74
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That is why I don’t use pycnogenol for BS control. I mainly use it as skin regimen every autumn as prevention for any sun discolorations after summer. But seems pycnogenol is a really good supplement to take with good clinical data if you compare it to others which might prove to be be worthless but equally or more expensive (like NMN). I don’t know the effect on longevity, but since it helps with most symptoms connected to metabolic syndrome it might have some benefits in longevity too.
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The NOW brand has it in combination with either Alma fruit or Acerola + Rutin powder (fruit and flower). Do you think it’s a good combination for skin/BGlucose?
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Acerola is just a natural vitamin C source, I guess in worst case it does nothing, but I don’t know much about rutin powder. I would prefer just pycnogenol, without any additional stuff… mine came with also with some additional citrus flavonoids, I just checked. Wasn’t really aware of that.
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The sleep aid Trazodone (50mg) helps with erections also. Google “Trazodone for erections reddit” and you will go to an interesting article on sex-enhancing drugs.
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I just did my first test of pine bark taking 300mg just as I started a medium-high carb meal:
Oatmeal, milk, walnuts, fruit. I am measuring the amounts ala Michael Lustgarten.
This is just the first day of my experiments so perhaps there is some placebo effect.
The results were almost exactly the same as with acarbose including mildly excess gasiness. I am old and do time-restricted feeding so my starting fasting glucose level is higher than most of you younger folks.
Glucose level before eating: 107mg/dL, 117mg/dL 75 minutes after eating.
Since it works by the same method as acarbose, I hope this works out because I prefer the more “natural” approach.
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"Pine Bark extract is the generic name for a product commonly known as Pycnogenol, which is a trademarked brand (meaning companies have to pay for the right to use the brand name ‘Pycnogenol’. Pycnogenol® is a registered trademark of Horphag Research.
So if you use a brand that has “Pycnogenol” listed as an ingredient you will be paying a lot more than the generic form of pine bark extract.
I am testing to see if it is as effective as acarbose because I have to import the acarbose from India and it is more expensive than the pine bark extract that I am using.
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Best of luck! I hope it works. It’s always good to have options.
I agree with you that picnogenol is just a trade name and you pay for that too, but on the other hand it is standardized and since lack of regulation in supplements trade name gives you at least a bit more hope that you are getting the right stuff. There is another alternative to pycnogenol, oligopin if I am not mistaken, with even better composition. But mostly with supplement industry is so, that it is better to buy from reputable brand or a European GMP certified brand, that gives you at least some assurance that you are getting what is stated on the label.
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I’ve done no research on it, but I believe that buying standardized Pine Bark Extract is a much less expensive alternative to Pycnogenol and is basically a generic version without the brand name.
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Yes, I agree. And with medicines I have no problem with generics, but medicines are strictly regulated and tested so there is less of doubt. You know, on supplements you can write whatever you want and maybe this pine extract did not even see any pines 
that is why I personally would stick with something that was branded… (which normally goes totally against what I believe)
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No good unless I subscribe to that site. Also what do they consider late life? Im 75 take metformin and ride bike 90 mins a day at least 4 days a week. I don’t take it before i go for my bike rides as it then interfears with the atophagy that Exercise does. Also take Rapamycin compound formula 15 mg once a week as part of the Agelessrx Rapamycin trial.
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Can anyone tell me what age “Late Life” pertains to?
It’s in a worm model, so very tough to know what it means or if it translates to a human age range at all.
See the first part of the discussion at the top of this thread for some perspectives.
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Here is a link to a paper claiming that metformin shortens lifespan in the elderly.
A brief summary can be found here
Specifically, the research report claims “By in vitro and in vivo tests we found that metformin shortens life span and limits cell survival when provided in late life.” “In sum, we uncovered an alarming metabolic decay triggered by metformin in late life which may limit its benefits for non-diabetic elderly patients.”
Two items to note: (1) The article is a preprint which, as far as I know, has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. (2) It states that “ATP exhaustion and late life metformin toxicity are alleviated by in vivo rapamycin co-treatment,” a statement I don’t find comforting because I take rapamycin weekly and metformin daily.
I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to evaluate the validity of this paper and would appreciate the comments of others
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I would definitely like to know more about this.
Is anyone knowledgeable on this subject?
Thank you very much.
Sincerely
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Discussion.
16 This study, performed in nematodes and human cells, …
That says it all for me.
It is not a study on humans, but on human cells. It may be interesting if it were a study on mice, like the ITP studies.
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Considering that metformin is prescribed to treat a metabolic syndrome, I find it hard to believe that a patient with untreated diabetes would live longer than one taking Metformin.
The mice from the ITP would also tend to agree.
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The argument against this paper is basically all the data provided in the TAME trial… see this website: TAME - Targeting Aging with Metformin - American Federation for Aging Research , and see this presentation:
MP-Justice.pdf (2.9 MB)
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