Grape Seed Power

When it comes to popular medical advice, I tend to be skeptical. I need something like evidence, and not just the over-hyped words of some huckster. So my use of grape seed extract has resulted from extensive reading and personal experimentation.

Grapes, and their seeds, are both high in polyphenols and proanthocyanidins. Both of these groups of chemicals are recognized as antioxidants.

Most people are interested in grape seed extract and other antioxidants for treatment of big, scary diseases like stroke, heart failure, Alzheimer’s and others. Indeed, these diseases all seem to be related to inflammation, and antioxidants are proving to be one way to bring inflammation under control. My reasons for taking the extract are much more mundane.

I use grape seed extract because it allows me to sleep through the night without getting up to urinate, and because it virtually eliminates painful mouth ulcers. I will explain each one in turn.

I first started taking grape seed extract in the 90s because it was purported to help strengthen the body’s wound healing abilities. The length of time it takes a cut to heal has gradually increased as I have gotten older and I was willing to try the extract for that reason alone. So I started a daily dose of 100 mg.

During the six months I was trying grape seed extract, I got numerous little cuts and scrapes in the normal course of doing home repairs and improvements. I did not notice any significant reduction in the time for these little abuses to heal. But I did notice that I stopped feeling any urgent need to empty my bladder.

I made this observation within the first few weeks. Before starting grape seed extract, I was awakening in the middle of the night with a partially full bladder and an urgent need to urinate. It was annoying, but far from being a serious medical condition. The daily dose of grape seed extract completely eliminated this problem. I slept soundly through the entire night and awoke with a full bladder. As has been normal for me most of my life, I needed to use the bathroom first thing in the morning, but there was no sense of urgency. What a pleasant surprise.

But remember, I am a skeptic and an engineer. I was not satisfied to give the credit to the extract until I could make the problem return and then go away again. So I set out to do just that, after enjoying six months of peaceful nights.

For the next experiment, I stopped taking grape seed extract. Within a few weeks, I was back to waking up in the middle of the night for a trip to the bathroom. Since nothing else had changed in my diet or supplement habits, I strongly suspected the grape seed extract. So I resumed taking 100 mg of the extract and in a few weeks, the problem was once again solved. Now I do give full credit to grape seed extract.

The other annoyance I sometimes encounter is a painful mouth ulcer. Before using grape seed extract, if I bit my lip or the inside of my cheek, I would invariably get a small ulcer at the site of the injury. The area is red in the center with a white ring around the outside. The center is slightly sunken and the edges are raised. It is painful at all times, and more so when touched. Such an ulcer takes five to seven days to heal.

With regular consumption of grape seed extract, these ulcers are now rare for me. If one does happen to form, I can reduce the pain and shorten the healing time to three days with topical application of the extract. After the ulcer appears, I open up a grape seed extract capsule and dump the granular powder into a small container. Then I moisten my fingertip, dip it into the powder and dab the powder onto the ulcer.

This application stings initially for about 30 seconds. But then the normal pain of the ulcer subsides and vanishes for several hours. If necessary, I can repeat this to eliminate the pain again. Applying grape seed extract to an ulcer just once a day is enough to shorten the healing time to three days.

It could be that grape seed extract and other antioxidants will make headlines someday as cures for countless other diseases. Personally, I will settle for the two uses I have discovered. If I receive no other benefit from grape seed extract, I will continue to use it for the two simple ways it has made my own life a little bit easier.