Maintaining a healthy weightis an increasingly common concern, both in the United States and around the world. Not everyone gains weight in the same place though. People who have a pear-shaped body have smaller waists and carry fat around the hips. People who have an apple-shaped body, on the other hand, have larger waists and accumulate fat around the belly. This kind of fat, known as visceral fat, can collect around the organs and is considered more dangerous than regular fat, because it interferes with normal metabolism. A person doesn’t even have to be overweight to suffer the consequences of visceral fat.

Preliminary research evidence has already shown that Oligonol has beneficial effects on metabolism. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 10-week trial recruited adult volunteers whose abdominal circumference measured greater than 85 cm (33.5 inches). The results showed that the Oligonol-group subjects experienced reductions in weight, body mass index (BMI), abdominal circumference, and waist circumference compared with the placebo group. Abdominal CT scan analyses also revealed a dramatic 15% drop in visceral fat (Nishihira J., et al., 2009). What do these data mean? A study conducted by Duke University on 175 overweight adults found that participants who performed high-dose vigorous-intensity activity had their visceral fat levels drop by only 7% in six months. In other words, Oligonol reduced visceral fat levels twice as much as vigorous exercise — in less than half the time.

Blood tests showed that the antioxidant ability of the Oligonol group trended higher than that of the placebo group, while their levels lipid peroxides (fats that have been attacked by free radicals) were remarkably reduced. Oligonol also maintained triglycerides that were already within a healthy range.

Other studies showed Oligonol may regulate the production of special hormones produced in the fat tissues to facilitate fat metabolism. 

Fatigue prevention — When more blood is flowing to the muscle, more oxygen is delivered. In the meantime, more waste is being removed from the muscle. This combination prevents fatigue. In one clinical study conducted in a total of 47 young athletes, half the participants took Oligonol, and the other half took regular lychee extract. At the end of the trial, not only did the Oligonol group report feeling improvements in recovery from fatigue, mental clarity, quality of sleep, eye fatigue, and stiff shoulder compared with the regular lychee group, but they also had lower urine levels of 8-OHdG, which is a marker for physical and mental fatigue (Ohno H., et al., 2008). 

Heat Stress is experienced by everyone, especially professional athletes, when performing strenuous physical exertion. Heat stress results in increased circulation of excitatory compounds in the blood, contributing to fatigue and muscle soreness, and also wreaks havoc with DNA (Kantidze OL, et al., 2016). In addition, heat stress induces the body’s sweat response, which results in loss of bodily fluids and in turn reduces exercise performance.

Previous studies showed Oligonol could reduce serum concentration of excitatory biomarkers including cortisol, IL-1β, and IL-6 after heat stress (Li S., et al., 1999) and improved exercise performance. One double-blind, crossover clinical study using oral supplementation of 100 mg of Oligonol showed that Oligonol intake before submerging half the body into hot water significantly prevented elevation of tympanic temperature and mean body temperature, when compared with the placebo group. In addition, Oligonol ingestion lowered serum levels of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) significantly when compared with the placebo group (Shin YO, et al., 2013).

Another placebo-controlled, crossover clinical trial using 200 mg of Oligonol for one week showed a smaller increase in body temperature during heat stress and reduced the amount of whole-body sweat loss. The subjects in the Oligonol group maintained serum aldosterone at a relatively low level and serum sodium at a relatively higher level than the placebo group did (Jeong BL, et al., 2015). These results indicated the important role Oligonol plays in sweating, plasma volume, and osmolality in response to heat stress, suggesting its potential use in attenuating body temperature and excessive sweating under heat load in healthy humans, especially in professional athletes, who are under tremendous heat stress caused by intense training every day.