Request Clinical Starter Kits for Your Patients Today! Request Now

Are you a clinician?

This is a clinician-only website.
By entering, you acknowledge that you're a clinician.

Resveratrol supports brain function and mental performance in post-menopausal women, study shows

Highlights

  • Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with 72 post-menopausal women
  • Supplementation consists of trans-resveratrol (75 mg/day, twice daily) for 14 weeks
  • Compared to placebo, resveratrol significantly improves cerebrovascular responsiveness by 17% and overall cognitive performance

Summary

This double-blind, placebo-controlled study was designed to evaluate the effect of trans-resveratrol on cerebrovascular function, cognition and mood in post-menopausal women.

For this study, researchers enrolled 80 post-menopausal women, aged 45-85 years, who were randomly assigned to take resveratrol (75 mg, twice daily, in the morning and evening) or a placebo for 14 weeks. Eight women withdrew prior to the end of the intervention for reasons unrelated to study intervention, leaving 72 completers (90%).

Effects on cognitive performance, cerebral blood flow velocity and pulsatility index (a measure of arterial stiffness) in the middle cerebral artery (using transcranial Doppler ultrasound), and cerebrovascular responsiveness (CVR) to both cognitive testing and hypercapnia were assessed, and mood questionnaires were administered.

A compliance of 92% was reported for both the intervention and placebo groups. Results indicate that, compared to placebo, resveratrol elicited 17% increases in CVR to both hypercapnic (P=.01) and cognitive stimuli (P=.002). Significant improvements were observed in the performance of cognitive tasks in the domain of verbal memory (P=.04) and in overall cognitive performance (P=.02), which correlated with the increase in CVR (P=.04). Mood tended to improve in multiple measures, although not significantly. Pulsatility index was unaffected by intervention.

These results indicate that resveratrol supplementation (150 mg/day for 14 weeks) promotes optimal cerebrovascular function, memory and cognition in post-menopausal women.

Reference

Evans HM, Howe PR, Wong RH. Effects of resveratrol on cognitive performance, mood and cerebrovascular function in post-menopausal women; a 14-week randomised placebo-controlled intervention trial. Nutrients. 2017;9(1):27.

PMID: 28054939
"