Article Summary:
- Quercetin’s antioxidant properties and its role in maintaining the body’s natural inflammatory response promote good cardiovascular health.*
- Quercetin’s poor bioavailability is a significant challenge to its absorption and compromises its efficacy in exerting its cardioprotective effects.
- Tesseract’s QuerciSorb® is an innovative quercetin supplement formulated for optimal absorption to promote cardiovascular support.*
Flavonoids — a class of polyphenolic compounds found in plants, have been historically known for positive health benefits, particularly for the heart. Quercetin is the most abundant dietary flavonoid in several foods, including citrus fruits, apples, berries, grapes, olives, onions, parsley, sage, tea, and red wine. Quercetin provides significant heart-related benefits and has a well-demonstrated safety and tolerance profile, leading to its FDA GRAS (Generally Considered As Safe) status for use as a nutritional supplement.
If you are considering including a quercetin supplement in your diet, then it is worth knowing its cardiovascular support benefits. Let’s look at how quercetin promotes healthy heart function and why you should include an advanced quercetin formulation in your diet.
Quercetin and Heart Health: The Correlation
Increased oxidative stress is a common cause of cardiovascular pathologies. Some of the leading indicators for cardiovascular disorders include high blood pressure and high cholesterol, resulting in narrowed arteries and compromised blood circulation. In conditions such as high blood pressure and the buildup of plaques in the inner lining of arteries, the release of free radicals is greater than the body’s natural antioxidant capacity.
Because quercetin exhibits powerful antioxidant activity, it protects cardiac cells from the adverse effects of free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS).* Clinical studies1 show that quercetin can limit ROS-induced oxidative damage by enhancing the body’s level of glutathione (GSH).* Quercetin also modulates2 the expression of antioxidant-related genes in specific cells, which also alleviates oxidative stress.*
Furthermore, quercetin’s role in maintaining the body’s normal inflammatory response in fat cells can inhibit lipid accumulation and help limit the cardiac pathologies associated with unhealthy weight gain.* The following table highlights how quercetin provides support for good cardiovascular health.*
| How does Quercetin affect Heart Health? | ||
| Helping maintain normal blood pressure* | Randomized controlled trials3 have shown the significant benefit of quercetin supplementation (500 mg/ day or more) in helping to maintain normal blood pressure levels.* | |
| Addressing LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol levels* | Quercetin modulates4 cell signaling pathways, particularly the TLR-NF-κB pathway, that inhibit the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), thus lowering its level.* | |
| Maintaining healthy arteries* | Quercetin inhibits5 the expression of adhesion molecules or cell surface proteins in aortic endothelial cells, helping to maintain healthy arteries.* | |
Although the cardioprotective effects of quercetin are well-established, quercetin’s poor natural bioavailability can adversely impact its efficacy. Quercetin glycoside — the naturally occurring form of quercetin, has been shown to display an estimated absorption rate of 3% -17% in healthy individuals receiving 100 mg of quercetin daily. This is because after initial absorption in the upper segment of the small intestine, quercetin undergoes extensive metabolism in the liver, small intestine, colon, and kidneys, resulting in quercetin and its metabolites then being rapidly excreted from the body.
Key factors hindering the absorption of quercetin include its poor solubility in water and its instability in the stomach and intestines. Among several approaches to enhance the bioavailability and absorption of quercetin, nanoformulations show promising potential.
Introducing An Advanced Quercetin Supplement
Quercisorb SR®, developed by Tesseract Medical Research, is an innovative nutritional supplement that contains extracts from the flower Sophora japonica and provides significant support for heart health.* The proprietary CyLoc® – DexKey® nutrient delivery nanotechnology enables Quercisorb SR to be time-released in individual molecule form at desired points throughout the intestinal tract. Tesseract’s CyLoc® technology encases each quercetin molecule in its own dextrin fiber delivery cage, after which Tesseract’s DexKey® technology releases each quercetin molecule in the intestinal tract for maximum absorption and effectiveness. The resulting enhanced solubility and absorption of quercetin optimizes its therapeutic efficacy in providing comprehensive cardiovascular support.*
All Tesseract nutritional supplements are manufactured following Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and combine the highest-quality nutrients with cutting-edge delivery systems to support your health.
The power of Tesseract supplements lies in enhancing palatability, maximizing bioavailability and absorption, and micro-dosing of multiple nutrients in a single, highly effective capsule. Visit our website for more information about how Tesseract’s products can support your cardiovascular health.*
Citations:
1Xu, Dong et al. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 24,6 1123. 21 Mar. 2019, doi:10.3390/molecules24061123
2Qi, Weidong et al. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 27,19 6545. 3 Oct. 2022, doi:10.3390/molecules27196545
3Serban M-C, et al. Journal of the American Heart Association vol. 5,7 e002713. 12 Jul. 2016, doi:10.1161/JAHA.115.002713
4Bhaskar S, et al. Immunobiology vol. 216,3 (2011): 367-373. doi:10.1016/j.imbio.2010.07.011
5Li C, et al. Redox Biology vol. 9 (2016):104-113. doi:10.1016/j.redox.2016.06.006
