Healing with Hesperidin

Hesperidin is a compound found primarily in unripe citrus fruit. Food sources include orange, grapefruit, lemon, and tangerine juice. Also available in supplement form, hesperidin is classified as a citrus "bioflavonoid" (a type of compound with antioxidant effects).

Why Do People Sometimes Use Hesperidin?

Hesperidin is thought to have beneficial effects on blood vessels. It's touted as a natural remedy for a number of health problems, including: allergies, hemorrhoids, high blood pressure, hot flashes, hay fever, sinusitis, symptoms associated with menopausal changes, premenstrual syndrome, and varicose veins.

Hesperidin is also said to improve circulation, reduce inflammation, and help prevent cancer.

The Benefits of Hesperidin

Research on the health effects of hesperidin is fairly limited. However, there's some evidence that hesperidin may offer certain benefits. Here's a look at some key study findings:

1) Chronic Venous Insufficiency

A condition in which the veins do not efficiently return blood from the legs to the heart, chronic venous insufficiency is linked to problems like varicose veins, ankle swelling, and nighttime leg cramping.

Supplements containing a combination of hesperidin, extract of the herb butcher's broom, and ascorbic acid (a form of vitamin C) may help treat chronic venous insufficiency, according to a 2007 study published in International Angiology.

The study involved 124 people with chronic venous insufficiency. Every day for eight weeks, all study members took two capsules of the hesperidin/butcher's broom/ascorbic acid formula. Starting in the second week of the study, participants showed significant improvements in their symptoms (including pain, cramps, and swelling). The study's authors suggest that the hesperidin/butcher's broom/ascorbic acid may help treat chronic venous insufficiency by producing beneficial effects in patients' blood vessels.

2) Hemorrhoids

In a 1994 study in Angiology, a supplement containing a combination of hesperidin and diosmin (another antioxidant compound available in citrus fruits) was found to aid in the treatment of hemorrhoids. For the study, 100 patients suffering from a hemorrhoid attack were treated with either the hesperidin/diosmin combination or a placebo for seven days.

Compared to the placebo group, members of the supplement group showed significantly greater improvement in symptoms.

More recent research on the use of hesperidin in treatment of hemorrhoids is lacking.

3) Osteoporosis

Hesperidin shows promise for the prevention for postmenopausal osteoporosis, a 2003 study from the Journal of Nutrition suggests. In tests on mice, researchers discovered that a hesperidin-rich diet helped inhibit bone loss in animals whose ovaries had been removed.

4) Cholesterol

Preliminary research indicates that a combination of hesperidin and vitamin E may help keep cholesterol in check. In a 2001 study on rats (published in the International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research), scientists found that supplementing the animals' high-cholesterol diets with hesperidin and vitamin E helped reduce cholesterol levels in their blood.

5) Cancer

Hesperidin may offer anti-cancer benefits, according to a preliminary study published in Phytotherapy Research in 2010. In tests on human breast cancer and prostate cancer cells, the study's authors found that hesperidin inhibited the spread and growth of cancer cells.

Where to Find Hesperidin

http://www.gh-biologics.com/Hesperidin-Anti-aging-pd175704.html