Maritime Pine: A Sight For Psoriasis

French Maritime Pine trees (Pinus pinaster) hold a key to improving one of the most intractable and widely prevalent chronic skin disorders: psoriasis.

Researchers at the Chieti-Pescara University, Chieti, Italy, treated a cohort of 73 moderate-to-severe psoriasis patients with conventional drug and UV frenchpinebarklight therapy. Thirty-eight of the patients also received Pycnogenol, a standardized extract of the Maritime Pine bark. A number of past clinical studies have shown Pycnogenol to have strong and wide-ranging antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

The patients in this study took 150 mg of Pycnogenol per day (50 mg, thrice daily) in conjunction with conventional treatment for 12 weeks. Addition of the pine bark extract gave marked improvements across numerous measures of psoriasis severity.

Compared with patients who had standard treatment alone, those who also took Pycnogenol showed:

  • Significant reductions in the area of skin affected by psoriasis in all body regions (20% reduction vs 8% reduction)
  • Reduction of areas affected by redness (-44% vs -28%); skin hardening (- 45% vs -21%) and flaking (-45% vs -16%)
  • Increased content of water and oil/lipids in all areas of the skin
  • Reduced need for drug therapy
  • Reduced oxidative stress, a key pathogenic driver of psoriasis.

The Chieti researchers used a number of standard dermatologic metrics to make their evaluations, including: the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) score and the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) score. They also measured oxidative stress (plasma free radicals), and also took two separate measures of skin moisture, oil/lipid content and degree of peeling or flaking skin. The data were published this Spring in the Italian internal medicine journal, Panminerva Medica.

All the patients in this study received conventional dermatologist-directed care included moisturizers, vitamin D supplements, corticosteroids, PUVA, salicylic acid and immunosuppressant, drugs.

The researchers note that at the end of the 12-week trial period, more than 80% of participants in the Pycnogenolgroup elected to continue use of the extract.

Pycnogenol is rich in condensed tannins. Gianni Belcaro, MD, the current study’s lead investigator, attributes the observed benefits largely to the anti-inflammatory effect of Pycnogenol.

“As a natural nuclear factor-kappa B inhibitor, Pycnogenol reduces inflammation at the on-set and can act as a natural, vegetal ingredient to control inflammation, swelling and oxidative stress,” he notes.

“In this study and in several others on chronic inflammatory conditions, Pycnogenol has shown significant clinical results and without any side effects, making it a safe natural alternative to for those seeking relief from the symptoms of psoriasis,” said Dr. Gianni Belcaro, lead researcher of the study.

Given that the dermatology community considers psoriasis to be a manageable but incurable condition, and that conventional therapies have very limited efficacy, the emergence of a natural adjunctive treatment such as this should be good news for people struggling with this difficult condition. Current CDC estimates indicate that psoriasis affects nearly 8 million Americans, and cost the nation over $11 billion annually.

The current study was not designed to evaluate the efficacy of Pycnogenol as a stand-alone therapy for psoriasis. But the data seem clear that it is a safe and useful add-on.

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