Grapes and the Brain

Abstract

Since deficits in brain function can have a tremendous impact on overall physiology and greatly reduce the quality of life, much effort has gone into identifying treatments that can prevent the loss of brain function and/or restore normal brain function following disease or injury. Given that losses in brain function can involve multiple targets, perhaps the best therapeutic approach is to identify treatments that inherently contain multiple biological activities that can impact the different targets that are associated with the loss of brain function. Grapes provide one such treatment. Freeze-dried grape powder, grape seed extract and grape juice have all been shown to positively impact brain function in a variety of different in vivo models including stress, aging, ischemia, and Alzheimer’s disease. In the brain, consumption of grape products has been shown to reduce oxidative stress, enhance trophic factor signaling, increase neurotransmitter release, reduce inflammation, improve vascular function, and reduce protein aggregation. These beneficial activities combined with the positive effects on cognitive function seen in many studies strongly suggest that further studies on the impact of grape products on brain function are highly worthwhile.