If youre black and blue after a mountain bike fall or have taken a beating during training, your sore muscles will probably recover faster if you take a grape seed extract supplement. We base this suggestion on the results of an animal study that researchers at Stellenbosch University in South Africa published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
If you’re black and blue after a mountain bike fall or have taken a beating during training, your sore muscles will probably recover faster if you take a grape seed extract supplement. We base this suggestion on the results of an animal study that researchers at Stellenbosch University in South Africa published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Muscle tissue damage – as a result of heavy training or from taking blows or a fall – results in inflammatory reactions in the body. Plant-based compounds such as resveratrol, quercetin or the proanthocyanidolic oligomers in grape seed extract inhibit inflammation.
Extrapolation: plant-based compounds such as resveratrol, quercetin or the proanthocyanidolic oligomers speed up the recovery of damaged muscles.
Nice theory, but does it work in practice? This is the question the South Africans set out to answer by doing an experiment in which they anaesthetised male rats and then caused muscle bruising by dropping a weight on their hind legs. For a period of 14 days they gave one group of rats a placebo every day [Pl-PLA] and another group 20 mg grape seed extract per kg bodyweight daily [Pl-PCO].
The researchers used Oxiprovin, a grape seed extract made by the South African company Brenn-O-Kem, which consists of 45 percent proanthocyanidolic oligomers. The human equivalent of the dose they used would be 140 mg per kg per day. The supplement was given orally.
In the rats that had been given grape seed extract there was a faster decrease in the amount of inflammatory proteins such as IL-1-beta and TNF-alpha in their blood.
The grape seed extract boosted the production of foetal myosin heavy chain in the damage muscle tissue. Foetal myosin heavy chain is an indicator of muscle fibre recovery
The figure above shows how grape seed extract speeds up muscle recovery. Macrophages, immune cells that clear up damaged cells that are beyond repair and then produce signalling substances to kick-start tissue regeneration, entered the muscle tissue more easily in animals that had been given grape seed extract.
Fundamental research has shown that macrophages also play a key role in anabolic processes that arise after exceptional physical exertion. So might bodybuilders also benefit from grape seed extract?
Postcontusion polyphenol treatment alters inflammation and muscle regeneration.
Kruger MJ, Smith C.
Source
Department of Physiological Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Abstract
PURPOSE:
Given the major role that oxidants play in cellular damage, and the recent focus on antioxidants as treatment for muscle injuries, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of short-term postinjury grape seed-derived polyphenol supplementation on muscle inflammation and repair processes after contusion injury.
METHODS:
Experimental injury of the right gastrocnemius muscle was achieved by drop-mass method (200 g from a height of 50 cm), after which rats were gavaged with either 0.9% saline (placebo-PLA) or 20 mg·kg?¹·d?¹ of proanthocyanidolic oligomer (PCO) from 2 h after contusion injury, for up to 14 d after injury. Blood samples and injured muscle were collected at 4 h and at days 1, 3, 5, 7, and 14 after injury.
RESULTS:
Compared to an uninjured control group, PCO supplementation resulted in an earlier peak in number of activated satellite cells in contusion-injured muscle tissue (4 h for PCO vs day 3 for PLA, n = 4 per time point per group) and fetal myosin heavy chain expression (day 5 for PCO, P < 0.01 with no change in PLA, n = 3 per time point per group), indicative of quicker muscle regeneration. PCO supplementation limited neutrophil infiltration and facilitated earlier macrophage infiltration into the injured area (n = 4 per group). PCO also resulted in an earlier return toward control levels of muscle proinflammatory cytokines on day 3 (P < 0.01 for interleukin 6 and P < 0 05 for tumor necrosis factor ?, both n = 3 per group). CONCLUSIONS: Data show that short-term postinjury PCO supplementation was able to quicken muscle regeneration by facilitating earlier recruitment of activated satellite cells and to modulate the immune system in favor of an anti-inflammatory status. PMID: 22033514 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22033514