Resveratrol for Cognitive Function
Cerebral blood flow increases acutely, but sustained cognitive gains are inconsistent.
Overview
Verdict
How It Works
Dosing & Protocol
Typical dose
- Recommended dose
- 200-500 mg/day trans-resveratrol with food; cognitive findings are small and inconsistent
- Expected timeframe
- 12-24 weeks
Protocol
- form
- Trans-resveratrol; the postmenopausal trials used 75 mg twice daily of a resveratrol formulation
- duration
- 12-24 weeks; the postmenopausal cognition trial ran 14 weeks and its extension 12 months
- co factor
- Take with food containing fat. Evidence is mixed. The most consistent findings come from Evans and colleagues in postmenopausal women, where 75 mg twice daily improved cerebrovascular responsiveness and modestly improved cognitive performance and mood over 14 weeks, with maintained benefits at 12 months. Witte and colleagues found improved memory and hippocampal functional connectivity in older adults at 200 mg/day. Against this, a 12-month trial in Alzheimer disease at up to 1,000 mg twice daily found no clinical benefit and greater brain volume loss in the resveratrol arm, a finding of uncertain meaning. Effects are small and the mechanism is likely vascular.
- titration
- Up to 500 mg/day; 1,000 mg/day is the practical ceiling
- starting dose
- 150-200 mg/day of trans-resveratrol with a fat-containing meal
Evidence
What the studies say
Effects of Resveratrol on Memory and Cognitive Function
Witte AV, Kerti L, Margulies DS +1 more
In 23 healthy overweight older adults, resveratrol 200 mg/day for 26 weeks improved verbal memory retention and increased hippocampal functional connectivity relative to placebo, accompanied by lower HbA1c and higher body-fat-adjusted metabolic markers.
Safety
Caveats
The Alzheimer trial is worth noting carefully: at high dose over 12 months it showed no clinical benefit and greater brain volume loss than placebo, which - whatever its interpretation - is not reassuring. Resveratrol is not a treatment for dementia. For cognitive health, the evidence sits with physical exercise, sleep, treating hearing loss, controlling blood pressure and diabetes in midlife, not smoking, limiting alcohol and social engagement. Progressive memory change needs medical assessment, since B12 deficiency, hypothyroidism, depression, sleep apnoea and anticholinergic medication burden are reversible contributors. Safety of resveratrol: up to 1,000 mg/day is tolerated short term; gastrointestinal effects become common above that and a myeloma trial at 5 g/day was terminated after renal failure cases. It inhibits CYP3A4, CYP2C9 and CYP1A2, raising levels of many medications, and has antiplatelet activity - avoid with anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs, and stop two weeks before surgery. Oestrogenic activity means caution with hormone-sensitive cancer, which is relevant given the postmenopausal indication. Two trials found it blunted exercise training adaptations. Avoid in pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Less likely to help if
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