Red wine is often considered a “superfood,” as it is purported to prolong lifespans by some significant margin.

On the one hand, claims of this sort related to red wine are mostly unfounded, as they derive from several studies whose results are utterly mixed — and in some cases, completely ridiculous.

Thus, determining whether or not red wine prolongs life may necessitate a highly individual-based examination.

When it comes to the health benefits of grapes, on the other hand, some plausibility to the red wine story begins to arise — the fermentation process of winemaking kills most of the “healthy” compounds contained in wine.

Because it is one of the most well-researched dietary supplements known to science, you should supplement with Grape Seed Extract.

However, as with any dietary supplement with several beneficial claims attributed to it, not all of the positive claims attributed to grape seed extract are founded by science.

But what precisely is grape seed extract?

Why is it beneficial to supplement with grape seed extract, and in what ways is it not?

What is Grape Seed Extract

Grape seed extract is a highly concentrated form of grape seeds.

Specifically, the grapes used to create grape seed extract are the seeds of grapes used to cultivate red wine.

When these seeds are ground up — i.e., before fermentation — the result is a substance with a high concentration of an important compound called “procyanidin B2.”

It is this crucial element that is lost in large concentrations through the process of fermentation — along with other health-promoting compounds like resveratrol and polyphenols.

According to the journal Clinical Bioenergetics, procyanidin B2 “is an antioxidant present mainly in the proanthocyanin extracts from grape seed.”

In other words, procyanidin B2 is an antioxidant unlikely to be obtained from any other compound than grape seed extract.

Though procyanidin B2 is also found in chinchona, Ceylon cinnamon, common hawthorn, and cat’s claw, it is not found in as high of concentrations as in winemaking grapes.

Ultimately, you should supplement with grape seed extract to reap all of the possible health benefits you can from doing so.

Here are the top health benefits conferrable from supplementing with grape seed extract:

Pain and Joint Health

Joint pain becomes increasingly common as we age, and gym-goers know all too well how it feels to have such “aging” symptoms pre-emptively encroach.

In either case, a significant portion of such pain is caused by increased inflammation levels, a lack of blood flow to the joints in question, and autoimmune responses — some of which are associated with the later development of arthritis and rheumatism.

Grape seed extract reduces joint pain by reducing inflammation and increasing blood flow.

Inflammation

According to a 2020 meta-analysis by Phytotherapy Research, grape seed extract shows high potential for reliably lowering the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein.

As noted in StatPearls, very high levels of C-reactive protein “are associated with bacterial infections about 90% of the time.”

Likewise, C-reactive protein is a reliable marker in assessing whether a patient has rheumatoid arthritis. It is also a potential marker to account for otherwise inexplicable pain sensitivity, as stated in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Higher levels of C-reactive protein are associated with higher levels of pain sensitivity, and therefore both “can be examined as potential biomarkers for chronic pain and other inflammatory conditions.”

Grape seed extract can reduce chronic pain and pain from inflamed joints by lowering C-reactive protein.

Blood Flow

Research from the Journal of Biomedicine & Biotechnology and Thrombosis Research demonstrates that the essential biological role of grape seed extract in humans is its ability to increase blood flow by hurling catechins into the bloodstream and interacts with nitric oxide to produce a signal which relaxes the blood vessels.

Hence, grape seed extract helps to provide “a dietary means by which to augment vascular function in at-risk populations,” to quote Thrombosis Research.

Because of this, grape seed extract is well-suited to aid in reducing pain for those experiencing vascular dysfunction, typically rooted in poor blood flow.

For the same reason, it makes sense that research from the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture shows grape seed extract is effective in reducing leg swelling caused by long periods of sitting and varicose veins.

Heart Health

According to Autoimmunity Reviews, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol oxidizes when particles of LDL cholesterol are exposed to free radicals.

The inflammatory response in the arteries generated from LDL oxidization contributes to plaque formation on artery walls.

When plaque builds up on artery walls, it narrows them, causing a reduction in blood flow and endothelial dysfunction, which is the decreased ability of cells lining blood vessels to regulate blood flow and immune responses.

The process of LDL oxidization, therefore, contributes significantly to the development of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, and thrombosis.

Research from the Journal of Medicinal Food and Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental provide ample evidence to suggest that grape seed extract significantly reduces rates of LDL oxidization, which is another reason you should supplement with grape seed extract.

Misconceptions and Myths About Grape Seed Extract

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Any compound that reliably demonstrates beneficial effects on lipid profiles, like cholesterol and triglycerides, will reduce the odds of developing cardiovascular disease.

Grape seed extract is often touted as one such compound.

However, according to Diabetic Medicine: a journal of the British Diabetic Association, despite the ability of grape seed extract to protect LDL from oxidization, supplementing with it has no effect on overall blood markers for lipids and triglycerides.

Furthermore, according to the journal Metabolism, supplementing with grape seed extract does not affect blood glucose levels, making it unsuitable in aiding the treatment of diabetes and useless for controlling food intake.

Moreover, as with all supplements, grape seed extract cannot cure anything — let alone cure cancer, despite the highly preliminary inklings some scientists and health journalists are overzealous about.

How to Take Grape Seed Extract and Side-Effects

To reap the cardiovascular, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory benefits of grape seed extract, you should supplement with 300mg daily, as the British Journal of Nutrition suggests.

There isn’t a specific time of day when taking grape seed extract is optimal — in other words, take it daily at whatever time it makes sense for you.

Even in considerably higher dosages than 300mg daily, grape seed extract fails to exhibit any adverse side effects barring any underlying allergies to grapes.

Dietary supplements are called “supplements” because they are meant to improve something, not replace it.

The word “supplement” derives from the Latin “supplementum,” which translates in English to “something added to a complete thing.”

Furthermore, the Latin word itself was derived from the ancient Greek word “συμπλήρωμα” (sympló̱rōma), which means “something that completes or fills up.”

The Greek συμπλήρωμα is derived from the verb “συμπληρόω” (symplo̱róō), which means “to fill up, complete, or make whole.”

Hence, dietary supplements presuppose one has what they regard as a good diet that covers most nutritional bases, such as macronutrients and micronutrients, which can be made “more whole” by using supplements.

Grape seed extract provides manifold health benefits at a low cash cost ($0.25 per day) and with nearly no side effects.

That is why you should supplement with grape seed extract — it can help “fill up” or “complete” an otherwise well-rounded diet aimed at promoting health.