Olive leaf (Olea europaea) has been used as a therapeutic remedy for several thousand years or more but has only become popular in the US market over the last 25 years. Most commercially available olive leaf is in extract form. Being oriented toward using whole, natural-state herbs whenever possible, we attempt to find products in a whole, dried form (as opposed to an extract). By doing this, the herb retains all of the components in the same ratio found in nature (as close as possible considering it is dried). Extraction, standardization etc. are often used to maximize one component of the product, but often all the components work synergistically [1].
With these goals in mind, we were able to source high quality, dried, whole olive leaf which our team of accomplished applied-kinesiology-practicing physicians found performed better, in our opinion, than the extracts which we tested. Olive leaf has many known therapeutic uses.
1) Olive leaf is a great broad spectrum antimicrobial with published studies showing it has antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasitic effects [2, 3, 4]. It may stimulate phagocyotosis, prevent viral shedding and even penetrate infected cells and stop viral replication [5].
2) It can act as a vasodilator, increase production of nitric oxide, inhibit platelet aggregation, and decrease oxidation of LDL, in addition to exerting other cardio protective effects [6, 7]. Olive leaf, at the dosage regimen of 500 mg twice daily, was similarly effective in lowering systolic and diastolic blood pressures in subjects with stage-1 hypertension as Captopril, given at its effective dose of 12.5–25 mg twice daily. It also lowered triglycerides in patients [8].
3) It is one of the strongest antioxidants on the market with an Oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) value of 7,608, which puts it as having higher anti-oxidant values than green tea, grape seed, blueberries, blackberries, garlic, and many other high anti-oxidant foods/supplements [9]. It also doesn’t contain potentially harmful theobromine as in chocolate or theophylline in tea. It also contains a higher ORAC value than most other medicinal herbs. The antioxidant activity also has potential uses to help against cancer [10].
4) It can lower blood sugar and thus be a complement to other diabetes treatments [11].
5) It can increase T3 levels and decrease circulating TSH levels, thus helping thyroid function.
6) A compound found in Olive leaf inhibits xanthine oxidase thereby decreasing the buildup of uric acid [12].
7) It also has significant anti-inflammatory properties and can be very useful in a number of conditions as a result [13]. One of the anti-inflammatory properties is due to its superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activity [1].
8) Studies suggest that postmenopausal women could be a target population for the intake of olive phenolics in order to prevent age-related and oxidative stress-related processes such as osteoporosis [14].
References available on request.