A clinical study analyzing the effects of reservatrol on the prevention of cognitive aging, which was recently published in the open-source journal Nutrients, found that daily supplementation with a low dose of reservatrol resulted in overall improvements to cognitive performance in the 125 postmenopausal women who participated in the study.
 
Reservatrol is a natural phenol produced by plants, in response to injury or when the plant is fending off pathogens such as bacteria or fungi. It is synthesized naturally in peanuts, and several berries, and can also be found in red wine. Generally, they’re thought to act in a way similar to antioxidants.
 
The University of Newcastle research report, “Sustained Cerebrovascular and Cognitive Benefits of Reservatrol in Postmenopausal Women,” shares findings based on an investigation into Evolva’s Veri-te reservatrol supplement and its capacity to improve not only cognitive performance but also a wide range of secondary outcomes including body composition, perceptions of wellbeing, physical function, and pain.
 
Participants took either two 75mg reservatrol capsules daily, or took a matching placebo for 12 months, followed by a year of daily reservatrol consumption.
 
Dr. Rachel Wong, a research fellow who conducted the study, said that reservatrol’s effects have significant implications for the aging population. Researchers conducted a number of cerebrovascular tests on participants and determined that, overall, basal blood flow velocity to the brain and arterial stiffness improved as participants supplemented with reservatrol over the first year. A cognitive test battery, consisting of seven unique tests from the National Institutes of Health Toolbox and three other validated tests.
 
“Our observed improvement in overall cognitive performance with reservatrol (d=0.18) could potentially reverse cognitive aging by up to 10 years,” Wong said. “We observed an improvement in overall cognitive performance which appears to be due to improvements in processing speed and cognitive flexibility, which are critical to supporting executive function in the aging population.”
 
Researchers said that, ordinarily, executive function begins to decline after peaking in the third decade of life gradually, and are usually among the first cognitive changes reported in healthy adults. Therefore, they believe that optimizing executive function may delay subsequent impairment in cognition. It has been previously observed, too, that the effects of reservatrol on systemic vascular function are greater in individuals with poorer vascular function at baseline.
 
“Most importantly, [the research] shows that these benfits are not short-lived but can be sustained with ongoing supplementation for at least 12 months,” Peter Howe, professor at University of Newcastle, said.