Most people know little about the health benefits of grape seeds and skins, but know grapes for their plump, refreshing juiciness, as well as their dried version and their usefulness in winemaking.
Grapes have long held a high status as one of the world’s most popular fruits, and they are loaded with effective nutrients that can help reverse the aging process and prevent degenerative diseases like cancer.
The skin and seeds of grapes are particularly healing for human health because they contain a treasure trove of powerful antioxidant compounds that science has linked to a vibrant quality of life and longevity.
In fact, almost every imbalance, disease and pathology that afflicts modern man is a potential target for the various nutrients found in grapes. That’s why these small, bulbous berries are among the most studied fruits in the field of food-based functional medicine.
Resveratrol in Grape Skin: An Anti-Aging Wonder
As with most foods that silently possess medicinal properties, the grape’s popularity has traditionally not focused on its therapeutic potential, at least not in the West. The average grape lover today prefers this fruit for its juicy acidity and sweetness, not because it has the ability to prevent cardiovascular disease and infections.
But that is changing, thanks to the dedicated work of scientists who are discovering how grape components such as resveratrol, found primarily in grape skins, can help prevent and treat a range of human health problems.
Resveratrol is possibly the best-known therapeutic substance found in grapes, a natural result of all that science has discovered over the years about its incredible anti-aging potential. A fat-soluble polyphenolic compound, resveratrol’s fame centers on its prominence in longevity research. Many studies have demonstrated its effectiveness in preventing and treating a wide range of age-related health conditions. Things like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline, and even cancer.
Antioxidant effects of grapes
Resveratrol’s strong antioxidant effects make it an ideal nutritional supplement to combat oxidative stress caused by free radical damage. Resveratrol essentially neutralizes free radicals throughout the body, preventing them from triggering the types of inflammatory responses that ultimately lead to chronic and potentially terminal health conditions such as coronary heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.
One of the biggest contributing factors to rapid aging is hardening of the arteries, another area where resveratrol shines with great success. Studies have shown that resveratrol directly increases endothelial progenitor cells. These are the adult stem cells that work to keep blood vessels elastic and healthy, helping to promote healthy circulation and blood flow to and through the heart. Long-term cardiovascular health depends on a flexible, well-flowing circulatory system, and resveratrol is perfect for this important job.
Can grape seeds also turn back the aging clock?
But it doesn’t stop at resveratrol. Grape seeds also contain their own unique healing components that work symbiotically as a supplement to resveratrol. Unfortunately, grapes that actually contain seeds are becoming harder to find in the production aisle, as many people prefer seedless varieties. But don’t spit those seeds out! Grape seeds are naturally rich in oligomeric proanthocyanidin complexes (OPCs), a class of plant metabolites that studies have shown to be strong antioxidants.
OPCs are therapeutic in many ways, exhibiting antibacterial, antiviral, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, and vasodilatory activities. They also help protect cell membrane lipids from oxidative damage; prevent platelet aggregation and blood clots; strengthen capillary integrity; and promote the function and efficiency of enzyme activity.
You may be familiar with a dietary supplement known as pine bark extract (PBE), often sold under the brand name Pycnogenol, which is marketed as an anti-aging supplement. It turns out that PBE is made up of about 65-75% procyanidin compounds by weight. Procyanidin falls into the larger category of OPCs, which are also found in grape seeds.
Grape Seed Extracts (GSEs) containing high levels of OPCs have a similar anti-aging nature and play a number of important roles within the body. Like PBE, Grape Seed Extract contains a wide variety of catechins, procyanidins, phenolic acids, linoleic acid, and flavonoids that, biologically speaking, support life in several important ways.
Studies suggest that grape seed extract may help:
- Strengthen bones and improve bone formation.
- Support oral health by protecting teeth against decay and remineralizing decay.
- It normalizes blood pressure by dilating blood vessels and protecting them from oxidative damage.
- Improve circulation, thereby preventing conditions such as chronic venous insufficiency and edema.
- Stimulates brain function and protects against cognitive brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
- Prevent diabetes and blood sugar disorders by normalizing metabolic function.
- Reduce the likelihood of hemorrhoids, varicose veins and other conditions symptomatic of poor circulation.
Some studies have also found that grape seed extract can help prevent the growth of several types of cancer cells, including breast, stomach, prostate, lung and colon cancers, at least in vitro. The University of Maryland Medical Center, while cautioning that test-tube studies are not necessarily indicative of efficacy in humans, admits that GSE may turn out to be a powerful anticancer drug.
An Austrian study that looked at the effect of OPC on prostate cancer cells found that these nutrients are anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic, meaning they stop cancer cells from spreading and driving them to suicide. Another study from South Korea found that OPC exerted the same antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects against colorectal cancer cells.
You need more than whole grapes to benefit.
To really reap the benefits of resveratrol and OPC, it takes more than just eating a handful of grapes (or drinking a glass of wine). The reality is that you would have to eat massive amounts of whole grapes and whole grape seeds to get the therapeutic doses of resveratrol and OPCs needed to gain these types of health benefits. I’m talking big bunches of grapes just to get a moderate dose of these important nutrients.
This is why the preferred method of ingestion is dietary supplements standardized to at least 40% (or preferably up to 80%) proanthocyanidins and at least 95% OPCs. Therapeutic doses of resveratrol can range from one milligram to 500 milligrams, depending on the desired health outcome.
As neither class of compound has shown signs of toxicity, even at high levels and with no defined dosage for effectiveness, the suggestion is to lean towards taking too much GSE and resveratrol rather than too little. In this case, the more the better is a good, safe rule of thumb.