AstaREAL improves gastric health.

AstaREAL treatment alleviates heartburn in dyspeptic patients, states a newly published randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study. One hundred and thirty two patients were enrolled in the study--a collaboration between researchers in Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark--and, although there was a strong placebo effect, supplementation with AstaREAL significantly reduced dyspeptic symptoms such as heartburn. The positive effect of astaxanthin was pronounced in people infected with the Helicobacter pylori bacterium that causes stomach ulcers and cancer. H. pylori infection is known to generate a strong inflammation response in the gastric lining, in connection with oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is also thought to be one of the major causes of heartburn and reflux. "We can hypothesize that the stronger response in H. pylori-positive patients is due to reduced oxidative stress in the stomach, resulting from astaxanthin treatment; hence, there is also less oxidative stress in the oesophagus, resulting in ameliorated symptoms," wrote lead author Limas Kupcinskas from the Kaunas University of Medicine in Lithuania.

The results, published in the June issue of Phytomedicine, are supported by earlier findings from animal studies and a human pilot study regarding H. pylori infection and gastric inflammation--showing that astaxanthin has a strong in vivo antioxidant effect and also possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Other human clinical studies have shown that AstaREAL also has a role to play in sports nutrition, eye and skin health. The mechanisms underlying the different indications are the antioxidant properties of astaxanthin that protect the body's cells from oxidative stress (www.bioreal.se).