A new study1 has found that CurraNZ improves blood flow after as little as four days, with greater effect after seven days.
As well as having important health implications for the general population, enhanced blood flow is an important factor for sports performance.
Therefore, nutritional interventions that improve cardiovascular function are considered beneficial to active users and athletes5.
CurraNZ is an effective sports nutrition ergogenic aid that improves exercise performance up to 11%.
Until now, New Zealand blackcurrant performance studies across a range of sporting sectors have focused on dosing protocols of seven-day intake. This study confirms that changes occur earlier than previously thought and performance effects may take place after four days of loading.
The project, involving healthy untrained, but physically active men, took 600mg CurraNZ blackcurrant extract (210mg anthocyanin) daily and were tested on days one, four and seven.
The collaboration between the universities of Chichester and Worcester confirmed the fantastic findings of a 2017 study3, which found that a week’s intake of CurraNZ had a moderate-to-large effect on increasing blood flow during exercise (+20%-35%).
Those findings were confirmed in this follow-up project, using the same design with estimated changes in blood flow of 8%, 25% and 45% at 1-day, 4-days and 7-days intake during static exercise because of widening of blood vessels.
Mark Willems, Professor of Exercise Physiology at the University of Chichester (pictured right), says: “I’m very pleased with this study, which has a good data set on 19 participants showing clear-cut findings that blackcurrant intake provides meaningful changes to blood flow.
“In general, enhanced blood flow to your tissues, that is having better circulation, may have beneficial health effects. I would not be surprised that the potential health effects by long-term intake of blackcurrant but also by regular consumption of some fruit and vegetables, are linked with effects they have on your circulation.
“With blackcurrant, those changes take place earlier than seven days, but you don’t get a substantial instant, on the day effect.”
The University of Chichester’s program of New Zealand blackcurrant extract research has found the berry is amongst the most effective performance enhancers in sports nutrition, confirmed by a 2020 meta-analysis2.
Over 30 clinical studies have been published on CurraNZ, showing its capacity to increase performance up to 11%4, in trained and elite athletes, across a range of sporting modalities.
New Zealand blackcurrants are rich in anthocyanins, the bioactives responsible for the deep purple colours in the berry, which have vasodilatory, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
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