Can red wine improve brain power?

Red wine

Can Resveratrol, the so-called miracle molecule found in red wine, peanuts and an obnoxious plant called Chinese Giant Knotweed actually improve your brain function?

Scientists at Northumbria University, Britain have published a study which concludes that a relatively modest dose of this compound in the form of one or two capsules may just do that.

Subjects were administered one capsule of a supplement called Biotivia Bioforte Resveratrol containing 250 mg of the trans-Resveratrol isomer in each dose.

In previous studies of Resveratrol, the compound has been shown to have potent anti-aging properties in animals, as well as the ability to protect cells against a remarkable range of diseases.

Resveratrol seems to perform much the same function in animals the same way it does in plants; that is, act as the organism's immune system.

The supplement's ability to activate certain genes called sirtuins was discovered by David Sinclair at Harvard about three years ago and since that time has been the subject of hundreds of studies and trials.

Albert Einstein Medical School, for example, has applied to present the results of its trial on diabetes patients to the American Diabetes Association Science Meeting in June.

In the Northumbria study, Bioforte Resveratrol increased the brain blood flow in the human subjects while they were performing mental tasks by a substantial amount.

The effect seemed to be turned on by the increased demand caused by the cognitive tasks being performed by the student subjects.

This implies that the effect of Resveratrol on cerebral blood flow is activated on demand when the brain is called upon to perform a challenging mental task, says a Northumbria University release.

These findings have been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.