Many of my patients travel quite a bit for work. Here’s a tip: pycnogenol (pronounced “pik-noj-en-all”) is a powerful antioxidant extracted from the bark of pine trees and sold in health food stores either under that name or as PCO Extract.
A newly discovered side benefit from pycnogenol is that it can prevent the foot and leg swelling (edema) that occurs during long airplane flights.
Using a relatively small dose–100 mg before the flight, during the flight, and the following day–the 81 subjects in the study using pycnogenol experienced significantly less edema than the 88 subjects given a placebo.