Picking fruit before it has fully ripened, harvesting vegetables before they are fully mature, and holding them in cold storage reduce or eliminate their nutrient content. Freezing, canning, and cooking has a catastrophic effect. The food is denatured. Proanthocyanidins, the marvelous nutrients so highly concentrated in Pycnogenol, are especially hard hit by modern food technology. Remember, Pycnogenol is the most powerful natural free radical scavenger and antioxidant yet discovered.
Free radicals cause oxidative damage to cells and tissues.
Damage caused by free radicals is what we recognize as aging. Free radical damage also plays a part in the degenerative diseases we associate with aging such as arthritis, allergies, circulatory disorders, diabetes, liver cirrhosis, heart disease, atherosclerosis, and others. They all seem to appreciate that Pycnogenol is wholly natural, pure and safe. And it is effective. In Finland, for example, users swear it is the only thing to take for hay fever.