Reliv International, Missouri-based company produces nutritional supplements that promote optimal nutrition along with premium skincare products, has received US patent for its blood sugar management supplement, GlucAffect.

Dr Carl W Hastings, Reliv’s chief scientific officer and creator of GlucAffect, made this announcement as part of opening night at Reliv’s 2012 National Conference.

“Earning this patent validates the work our R&D team put into making GlucAffect a superior nutritional approach to blood sugar management,” Hastings said. “GlucAffect addresses one of today’s biggest health problems — metabolic syndrome — like no other product available. Most importantly, it works.”

In an eight-week, placebo-controlled clinical study of 50 overweight individuals with elevated blood glucose levels, test subjects taking GlucAffect lowered their fasting blood glucose by an average of 30%, moving from elevated glucose levels to healthy blood sugar values. In addition, those individuals taking GlucAffect lost an average of nearly 16 pounds during the eight-week period. No significant glucose lowering or weight loss was found in the control group.

Elevated blood glucose levels and being overweight are key factors in metabolic syndrome, which dramatically increases the likelihood of developing diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. According to the American Heart Association, metabolic syndrome affects about 35 percent of American adults.

“Metabolic syndrome is a serious, emerging health concern among the medical community, and physicians are more frequently looking to nutrition science to complement traditional care and prescriptive remedies,” Dr. Hastings said. “We see the GlucAffect study results and the success stories of GlucAffect consumers as validation of nutrition’s important role.”

One of GlucAffect’s main active ingredients, Pycnogenol, is an antioxidant clinically shown to help lower high blood glucose levels and provide other health benefits. Additional key ingredients in GlucAffect include omega-3 fish oils, Madeglucyl, Glucohelp, Silbinol and cinnamon, among others.

GlucAffect becomes the sixth patented Reliv nutritional formula, joining Arthaffect for joint health, Cellebrate for weight loss, FibRestore for digestive health, Innergize for performance nutrition and ReversAge for anti-aging nutrition.