Quercetin and Pterostilbene: The Benefits of These Potent Antioxidants (2024)
How? Largely because of a special class of antioxidant compounds called flavonoids. Flavonoids are the biggest family of polyphenolic compounds and are more simply called polyphenols.
Plants naturally produce flavonoids for protection against harsh conditions, UV light, injury and parasitic invaders.
When you consume flavonoids, their rich supply of phytochemicals interacts with enzyme systems involved in some of your body’s most crucial pathways.
These super-antioxidants are so important to your health, your well-being depends on them. Studies show the more flavonoids you consume, the greater the health benefits you’ll experience.
However, two basic facts about flavonoids and polyphenols can keep you from getting enough:
- Flavonoid antioxidants exist in foods in very minute amounts.
- They’re typically hard for your body to use.
Two Super Antioxidants You Likely Haven't Heard Much About
Quercetin is a natural flavonoid found in small quantities in many foods, such as apples, berries, onions, broccoli, black tea and a flower from the Sophora japonica tree.
Widely distributed in the plant kingdom, quercetin has played an important role in traditional health practice for centuries.
Another powerful antioxidant, pterostilbene is naturally produced by blueberries and other small berries, but the amount each berry produces is incredibly small.
You’d have to eat several hundred pounds of blueberries to get a significant amount of pterostilbene.
So the same two basic facts about quercetin and pterostilbene prevent you from getting sufficient amounts:
- You would need to consume impossibly or undesirably large amounts of their richest sources (along with their large sugar content).
- In their natural states, the bioavailability, or your body’s ability to absorb them, is poor or inadequate.
In other words, even if you could consume large enough amounts of blueberries, apples, onions and other good sources of quercetin and pterostilbene, you still may not fully benefit from these two outstanding antioxidants.
Why would you want more quercetin and pterostilbene than these foods can provide? First, let’s start with quercetin, the one you’re likely more familiar with...
How Quercetin Benefits You
Western scientists began studying quercetin around the same time the Nobel Prize was awarded in 1937 for the discovery of vitamin C and rutin, a quercetin-containing bioflavonoid.
Quercetin offers an impressive array of potential health benefits, as it supports:
- Natural defenses against seasonal threats.*
- Lung and bronchial tract health.*
- Production of new mitochondria in your brain and muscle.*
- A healthy, normal immune response.*
- Protection of cells and tissues against free radical damage.*
- A normal, healthy histamine release.*
- An already normal inflammatory response.*
- Mental performance following physical stress.*
- Supports healthy cellular aging.*
- Protection against lipid peroxidation in your cells and tissues.*
- Metabolic health.*
While quercetin offers some impressive potential benefits, there’s something else that makes it stand out among antioxidants.
Why Quercetin Enhances Exercise Performance and Recovery
Recent studies suggest that exercise and antioxidant supplements may work against each other. In fact, one study shows that certain antioxidants can counteract some of the beneficial effects of exercise.
“Direct” antioxidants, like vitamins C and E, react directly and quench free radicals.
On the other hand, quercetin and other polyphenols enhance your body’s inner antioxidant response, performing their “antioxidant” activity indirectly. They do this through the expression of certain genes and through the Nrf2-mediated stimulation of your cell’s antioxidant system.
What does this have to do with the effects of exercise on your body?
During exercise, your consumption of oxygen increases and so does your mitochondrial activity. As a normal response, reactive oxygen species are produced.
When you take a vitamin C supplement during exercise, because it works to quench free radicals, it may, at the same time, lower your endurance capacity, because some free radicals are actually important biological signaling molecules.
Because of quercetin’s indirect response on free radicals, you may actually experience greater endurance.
Triathlon athletes, for example, need high levels of endurance and fast recovery to get through training and competitions.
One of the biggest challenges for triathlon athletes is the oxidative stress that occurs during exercise. Intense training increases the production of free radicals and reactive oxygen species, which can cause delayed recovery and post-training discomfort.
This is where certain antioxidant compounds, especially quercetin, can help.*
In a recent study, a group of 23 triathlon athletes took 250 mg of quercetin phytosome twice daily while a control group of 25 used none. At the end of the 14-day study, performance, post-training discomfort, cramps, time to full recovery and oxidative stress were measured.
Compared to the control group, the group that supplemented with the quercetin phytosome saw more improvement in both performance and endurance.
They were able to reduce their time to complete the race by approximately 10% after two weeks – some even reported that they found their experience to be more pleasant and less stressful.
Overall, here’s what researchers found with the quercetin phytosome group:
- Post-run muscular discomfort incidence was lower.
- Cramps and localized discomfort were improved.
- Post-recovery time was considered better.
- Oxidative stress was reduced.
It’s important to note that these results were seen with quercetin phytosome, not regular quercetin. Because of quercetin’s typical low bioavailability, you wouldn’t expect to see the same results with non-phytosomal quercetin.
Government-Funded Animal and Human Research Leads to the Development of a Quercetin Supplement for Military Personnel
Maintaining the health of soldiers and other military personnel during training and deployment is a top government priority. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense set out to see whether quercetin might be a useful tool for their personnel.
After directly funding animal and human research, they uncovered some interesting effects of quercetin on wellness and mental performance:
- Cyclists enduring physical stress for three days in a row were nine times more likely to remain well when taking quercetin, compared to those who didn’t.*
- Athletes taking quercetin maintained their ability to react to an alertness test when exhausted, compared to the much slower response of those in the placebo group.
Convinced of quercetin’s potential benefits, the U.S. government developed a quercetin supplement for their military personnel.
That supplement is still used today.
Pterostilbene: A Marvel for Your Brain, Cellular and Metabolic Health
In recent years, stilbenes, a class of polyphenolic compounds, have created much interest among researchers.
Two stilbenes in particular, pterostilbene and resveratrol, have generated the most buzz.
While resveratrol, a valuable polyphenol from grapes, is certainly the better known of the two, researchers have recently begun paying more attention to pterostilbene.
Although the two share a similar structure, compared to resveratrol, pterostilbene has three advantages:
- It is fat-soluble, making it more easily absorbable by your body.
- It has a longer half-life in your blood, meaning it has more time to deliver potential benefits.*
- It is more biologically active than resveratrol once it’s absorbed.
Like resveratrol, pterostilbene activates genes associated with longevity and offers a wide range of benefits, especially for your cellular, metabolic and brain health.*
Even at low doses, the active form of pterostilbene, trans-pterostilbene, was shown in recent animal studies to support brain health, including memory and cognitive function.*
Take Control of Your Health® With Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced
Our Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced formula combines two potent antioxidants to support your seasonal health, brain, metabolism, immune function, already healthy inflammatory response, cellular aging and exercise recovery.*
Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced contains:
- Quercetin Phytosome Complex from Styphnolobium japonicum, or the Sophora japonica flower bud.
- trans-Pterostilbene, the active form of pterostilbene, which is nature identical to blueberries.
Many traditional quercetin supplements on the market are difficult for your body to absorb and utilize.
However, even with regular quercetin’s limited bioavailability, studies show it can be detected in your blood within 30 minutes of ingestion and reaches a peak concentration in two to three hours.
Research suggests quercetin may reach and accumulate in your brain, lungs, colon, kidneys, liver and muscles. In fact, it can even cross your blood-brain barrier, reaching your brain.
We have elevated quercetin’s bioavailability with the help of liposomal technology.
Our Quercetin Phytosome Complex incorporates phospholipids to protect the quercetin and aid in the formation of liposomes in your stomach.*
These liposomes surround the quercetin complex and assist its transport across your cell membranes for increased absorption potential. This is the same liposomal technology found in our Liposomal Vitamin C and Liposomal Vitamin D.
Thanks to this advanced technology, our Quercetin Phytosome Complex offers 20 times the bioavailability of regular quercetin, and our trans-Pterostilbene provides four times the bioavailability of ordinary pterostilbene.
A Multi-Pronged Approach to Support Your Health and Well-Being*
One way you can get the most out of Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced is by combining it with one or more of our other formulas:
- Liposomal Vitamin C
- Astaxanthin
- Purple Defense
Vitamin C works synergistically with quercetin to provide antioxidant support and to support immune balance.* Researchers have found that vitamin C enhances plasma quercetin levels. Therefore, Liposomal Vitamin C may enhance the absorption of Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced.*
Astaxanthin acts in the lipid portions of your cells and tissues. Because it’s completely fat-soluble, rather than both water- and fat-soluble like quercetin and pterostilbene, Organic Astaxanthin can help with the migration of both compounds across your cell membranes.*
Resveratrol is similar in structure to pterostilbene, and researchers have discovered they have complementary actions in your body. Both work together to activate your very important longevity genes with resveratrol’s actions considered “upstream” and pterostilbene’s actions “downstream” from resveratrol’s sites of activity.
Consider Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced your multi-pronged approach to health and well-being.
Choose Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced for Your Seasonal Health and More*
Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced delivers a concentrated and enhanced high-quality multi-antioxidant formula. Now, you can reap the benefits of powerful quercetin and pterostilbene without the need to consume undesirable amounts of their sources and the excess sugar that comes with them.
Combining our highly bioavailable Quercetin Phytosome Complex and active, nature-identical trans-Pterostilbene, this potent formula provides valuable support for your:
- Seasonal health.*
- Brain and cognitive function.*
- Mitochondrial health.*
- Memory and mental focus.*
- Healthy blood flow.*
- Exercise performance and recovery.*
- Metabolic health.*
Take advantage of the extensive, total body health benefits this formula has to offer, and order Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced today.
FAQs
1. Should I take resveratrol-containing Purple Defense or Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced?
There is growing evidence to suggest that resveratrol (Purple Defense) works well with pterostilbene to support longevity, so taking both formulas together may be ideal.* As their actions differ, one doesn’t replace the other. Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced is especially useful for seasonal health concerns.*
Quercetin is an indirect antioxidant, meaning it works via a different pathway than direct antioxidants such as Vitamin C. With this in mind, a person may choose to take it in addition to other antioxidant supplements.
These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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