I don’t blame you for not knowing about oligomeric proanthocyanins. Say that three times fast—what a mouthful! It is a lot easier to call them by their abbreviation: OPCs. These tongue-twister polyphenols are special compounds found in just a few places that, with proper dosages, have incredible benefits for heart disease, cancer, liver problems, and more. In fact, one could argue for their place in just about any health protocol for any health condition because they work at such a foundational level.

What Are OPCs?

OPCs are a specific type of plant compounds called polyphenols. There are some amazing plant medicines that are polyphenols. Red wine, green tea, coffee, and dark chocolate contain polyphenols, and are all personal favorites of mine! Turmeric contains curcumin, which is itself a polyphenol. Polyphenols provide various medicinal health benefits, and are powerful antioxidants.

But like cousins in a big family who share some similarities, they also have individual characteristics that differentiate them from their kin. One cousin might be amazing at playing the clarinet, another might paint beautiful portraits, and yet a third hit the bull’s-eye with an arrow every time. This is also true of polyphenols—their individual characteristics allow them to shine.

Health Benefits of OPCs

OPCs are powerful medicine and can be a part of virtually any health protocol. However, they especially shine for:

• heart disease
• lowering blood pressure
• stabilizing blood sugar
• liver disease
• cancer

Don’t be afraid to combine OPCs with other polyphenols, such as ECGC from green tea or curcumin from turmeric, for even more powerful benefits.

As you may have already guessed, OPCs are a group of polyphenols that have been found in three plants: grape seeds, pine tree bark, and the red outer skins of peanuts. We have to go back some decades to understand how these natural medicines came to be, since none of these sources have been commonly consumed as part of the diet.

How Were OPCs Discovered?

Dr. Jacques (Jack) Masquelier, a French scientist, was working on the isolation and description of a nutrient we now know of as OPCs as early as his doctoral research in 1948. He spent many years exploring the understanding of these unique nutrients and the health benefits they confer.

Some of his earlier findings were that OPCs can strengthen blood vessels and vascular function, which impacts every health system in the body.

The applications for prevention and treatment of heart disease followed, and, in the 1980s, the incredible antioxidant potential for OPCs was defined, making them useful for nearly every degenerative disease, and even for slowing the aging process.

Supplements with OPCs

Today, there are OPCs in two different kinds of supplements: Grape seed extract and French Maritime pine bark extract.

Two of the branded raw materials mentioned in studies are Leukoselect and VX1.

No one works with peanut skins, but remember that mention, because we will be talking about peanuts more later.

Types of OPC Supplements

• Pine Bark Extract

  French Maritime pine bark (Pinus pinaster) has been on the market a few decades, and has clinical research in many health conditions, including issues with blood vessel health, such as hypertension, chronic venous insufficiency, hemorrhoids, blood vessel diseases of the eye, Reynaud’s disease, erectile dysfunction, and blood clot prevention.

  The branded raw material used in most of the research is called Pycnogenol, though there are other bark extracts available as well. One downside of sourcing trees for supplements is the sustainability issue, as trees grow more slowly than other crops.

  Two recent colorectal cancer studies focused on the pathways by which French grape seed VX1 works to downregulate tumor formation pathways. They found that these OPCs affect several key cancer-associated genes and can reduce tumor formation by 65 percent in an animal model of colorectal cancer.

• Grape Seed Extract

  The other major source of OPCs is grape seed. Grape seeds are harvested annually for food and wine. Though red wine may contain grape seed elements, white wine does not.

  For the most part, we don’t have grape seeds in our diet. There is an enormous amount of clinical data for the OPCs delivered in grape seed extract, including cardiovascular issues, cancer care, diabetes, and inflammation.

Choosing an OPC Supplement

• Pine Bark or Grape Seed?

  What distinguishes OPCs from pine bark from OPCs from grape seed? It turns out that these OPCs are the same but in somewhat different ratios. There has not yet been research to understand these factors as they relate to disease. Both have published human trials proving their effectiveness, and both have a great deal of supporting science. Therefore, either source is good and legitimate medicine. However, the amount of OPCs in an extract can vary greatly. The best have more than 99 percent polyphenols, of which at least 80 percent are actually OPCs. Unstandardized extracts may have no OPCs at all.

• Absorption and Bioavailability

  OPCs are like dogs. They come in all sizes. Some are Great Danes and some are Chihuahuas. They are both dogs, but only the Chihuahua can squeeze through a tiny doggy door, while the Great Dane is left outside.

  Likewise, very large OPCs cannot squeeze through the doors in our intestines and are not absorbable. The largest OPCs are tannins, which are not dangerous, but are not medically useful, either.

  In order to get consistent health benefits, OPC size should be standardized for only small, absorbable OPCs and be tannin free.

• Product Adulteration

  Unfortunately, with the increased popularity of OPCs, there is a great deal of adulteration of these products.

  In 2015, independent researchers analyzed 21 grape seed extracts. Their results were surprising. Of the 21 products they evaluated, 15 had significant quality challenges and 6 were adulterated with high levels of peanut skin!

  This is problematic on many levels, especially for people with peanut allergies. It is important to work with quality companies that verify the authenticity of their grape seed or pine bark extracts.

You Only Get One Brain

The scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz heroically traveled great distances, at great risk (Good Lord, flying monkeys!) to acquire a brain. But most of us take our brain for granted. We feel our heart thump, and our muscles pump, and we see the results of our kidney and intestinal function when we visit the bathroom. But do we feel our brain think?

Our brains are the seat of our consciousness, the home of all our memories and experiences. Everything we have ever learned is stored in the brain. Our emotion, our pain, our pleasure, all result from the function of our brains. It certainly makes sense to take extra care of this delicate system, because, unlike the scarecrow, we cannot travel to the Wizard to ask for a new one.

How The Brain Changes as We Age

It is a little unsettling to learn that our brain shrinks as we age. Most researchers agree that this is a normal process, as it happens in both healthy and unhealthy people. After the age of 40, we lose about 5% of our brain volume each decade.

While changes happen throughout the brain, the areas most consistently affected are the reductions in grey matter and the prefrontal cortex.

Our grey matter is involved in tasks like controlling our muscles, receiving information from our senses, speech and language, and decision making. Our prefrontal cortex deals primarily with higher-level brain processes like behavior, personality, navigating our social interactions, and also decision making.

The good news is that even though we should minimize this process whenever possible, losing a small amount of brain volume does not result in dramatic changes.

With Age Comes Wisdom

While there are challenges, there is good news, too. As we age, our brain function improves in certain areas. Older brains are better able to anticipate problems and results. We have better empathy as we age, which is important for social functioning, but also important for a number of other endeavors as we learn with time to put ourselves in another’s shoes.

Our thinking changes. We are better at synthesis—the ability to see connections between unrelated ideas and events. A great Albert Einstein quote is that we can't solve problems through the same kind of thinking as when we created them.

Keeping Your Brain Healthy

Neurotransmitters and Nutrients

Another change that occurs is a decrease in the amount of key neurotransmitters – our brain’s chemical messengers. Dopamine levels start to decrease in early adulthood and proceed at a rate of about 10% decline per decade.

Nutrients that play a very important role in keeping our neurotransmitters where they should be are choline (eggs and peanuts are especially rich in choline) and the B vitamin family. However, not all forms of B vitamins behave the same way in our bodies. The inactive forms need to be transformed in the liver to the active form before we can derive any benefit at all.

Upwards of 30% of the population is inefficient at transforming one or more of the B vitamin family. Therefore, the better way to supplement is to look for active (or bioactive) B vitamins. These have already been transformed, sometimes called “methylated,” and provide more powerful and consistent benefits.

Some examples of active B vitamins are methylcobalamin (B12), pyridoxal-5-phosphate (B6), and folate instead of folic acid.

Nourishment for Neurons

A very important protein, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) also drops as we age. BDNF helps facilitate a process called neurogenesis, which is the production of new neurons.

Reductions in BDNF are often seen in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease. Fortunately, there are compounds within the turmeric plant that can help attenuate the losses of BDNF. Turmeric contains about 2-5% of a key compound called curcumin, which has been shown in human clinical studies to increase levels of BDNF.

Another compound found within turmeric essential oil, called ar-turmerone, has been shown in scientific research to increase the amount of neural stem cells, which can generate new neurons. Look for a curcumin enhanced with turmeric essential oil to receive the benefits of both of these scientifically validated compounds.

Supplements for Circulation

Blood vessels that feed our brain also experience changes beginning as early as our twenties. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) may be partly influenced by our blood vessel’s ability to dilate becoming compromised with age.

Grape seed extract is known to be a vasodilator. It helps the blood vessels relax, which improves blood flow. Compounds from grape seed extract called oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs) have also been shown to help lower brain oxidative stress, which helps keep the brain cells younger and healthier.

Grape extract contains a wide size spectrum of OPCs, including tannins. It’s best to select a grape seed extract that features small OPCs, tannin free, so they are absorbed and utilized in the body.

Enzymes for Energy

Coenzyme Q­10 ­(CoQ10) is another crucial nutrient for the brain. Unfortunately, it also decreases throughout the human lifespan. Though it is commonly thought of as a heart protective compound, CoQ10 is also critical for the neurological system.

CoQ10 is a key cofactor in mitochondrial function, which helps ensure proper energy production throughout our body, including the brain. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been indicated in several neurological diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). CoQ10 acts as an antioxidant and can help protect the brain from toxin-induced lesions.

The Brain: Use It or Lose It

While these nutrients and others can improve brain function throughout our lives, it is also important to remember that supplements alone are not enough. What we eat and how we move our bodies profoundly affects brain health. Sugar and refined carbohydrates accelerate brain aging and can damage neurons over time.

Also, the overused maxim: “use it or lose it” remains true. Our brains crave novelty to grow and flourish. Trying new hobbies, learning languages, travel, conversation, games, and reading also help to keep also improve brain function—naturally.