Chapter 1
Nature’s Multi-Tasker
Meet Mother Nature’s multi-tasker. There are few botanicals, herbs, plants, or foods that have the humble grape plant’s power—whose health benefits have elevated it to the rank of royalty in the plant world.
There are only a handful of botanicals known today that can achieve these remarkable healing feats:
As a cancer researcher, Dr. Goel is certainly impressed with this range of healthful benefits, and especially with the cutting-edge research his team has completed that confirms its powerful activity against the deadliest cancers.
What is This Royal Botanical?
French grape seed comes from the royalty of grapes. Think of French wine, and you’ll quickly get the idea. There is nothing better!
Our ancestors loved wine fermented from grapes. Today’s science has confirmed the health benefits of wine, many of which are derived from the seeds themselves. Concentrating those life-giving and even life-extending benefits into grape seed extract makes French grape seed extract (FGSE) a potent tool that should be part of every household’s medicine cabinet. That’s true whether you are suffering from one of the many diseases of aging or if, like all of us, you want to avoid them altogether.
A major part of FGSE’s power comes from substances with the tongue-twisting name, oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs).
Although OPCs are found in many plants, they are concentrated to extraordinary levels in grape seeds, hence their healing power. OPCs are probably the most potent antioxidants known to science.
What is an antioxidant? Cut an apple, and within a few minutes, it will begin to turn brown due to its exposure to oxygen. We call this “rusting.” Squeeze a wedge of lemon on that apple right after you cut it, and it won’t turn brown. The lemon is an antioxidant—it neutralizes the rusting caused by oxygen exposure.
Bear with us now.
While we need to breathe oxygen to stay alive, oxygen in our cells works just as destructively as it does on that plain apple. Your lifestyle choices and exposure to environmental toxins over a lifetime cause “rust” (actually the correct terminology is free radical oxygen molecules) that accumulate in your cells. That free radical oxygen exposure triggers chronic inflammation, opening the door to cell aging and genetic deterioration, and the diseases of aging, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and more.
At least 90% of all of our modern-day diseases are caused by oxidative stress and inflammation.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just squeeze lemon juice into every cell of our bodies? But seriously, there is something else we can do.
The Great Neutralizer
Lab studies show that OPCs are much more effective than vitamin C and vitamin E and virtually any type of food in neutralizing those destructive free radical oxygen molecules.
The antioxidant levels in French grape seed extract are so high they are quite literally off the scale. The ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) value of FGSE is so high it is difficult to accurately measure —even with modern equipment. ORAC values are a measure of the free-radical fighting capabilities of a particular food.
We know that French grape seed extract has an ORAC value of at least 20,000 per gram, higher than any other food! Compare this to blueberry, which has a rating of 96, dark chocolate powder at 56, and strawberries at 43 per gram.
Foods with high antioxidant power, like French grape seed extract, balance immune system responses to reduce long-term (chronic) inflammation and short-term (acute) inflammation that governs wound healing and allergic responses. This has profound effects on virtually every chronic disease known to science.
ORAC Values (per 1 gram)
French grape seed extract
20,000 or more
Ginger root
148
Elderberries
147
Cinnamon
131
Acai berries
102
Artichoke
94
Blueberries (raw)
96
Cranberries
90
Basil (dried)
61
Blackberries
59
Red wine (cabernet)
45
Sage (fresh)
32
—Source US Department of Agriculture 2010
Of course, we are talking about the right grape seed extract. There have been some cheap products on the market in recent years that have little or no value. So-called grape seed extract from China can cost as little as $20 per kilo. In this case, you get what you pay for.
The best quality grape seed extract comes from tannin-free French OPC grapes that have a small molecular structure for the best absorbability—and the raw materials cost twenty times as much. It’s truly worth it, as you’ll see as you progress through this book.
OPCs and Long-Life Resveratrol
There’s an extra bang for your buck in French grape seed extract.
Resveratrol is another antioxidant, using polyphenol’s power, also found in grape skin (not the seed), berries, and peanuts. It’s known for its unique anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and disease-fighting properties.
Studies show that resveratrol increases the lifespans of some animals (including yeast, worms, fruit flies, fish, and mice) who are fed a high-calorie diet. Resveratrol seems to trick their bodies into “thinking” that they are consuming a life-extending low-calorie diet.
We’re sure that this longevity effect works in animals, and now new research strongly suggests that this benefit extends to humans. That’s great news for foodies and anyone who wants to enjoy each day and a longer life!
All grape seed extract naturally contains resveratrol in addition to the powerhouse antioxidant OPCs. It’s a two for one. That’s a huge bonus!
Substantial research shows that resveratrol has many of the same disease-fighting capabilities as OPCs. It just works in a slightly different way. There is also evidence that the two combined, as they are exclusively in French grape seed extract VX1, and used in Dr. Goel’s research, complement each other synergistically. This combination enhances their total power.
Combatting Cancer
The coming chapters will give you many more details on cutting edge new research that has catapulted this unique herbal formulation to the forefront of natural approaches to cancer.
We know that some natural substances—like FGSE and the OPCs within—can repair genetic damage and tell cancer - preventive genes to wake up and do their job. They can also signal overactive genes to calm down and behave in a normal manner rather than reproducing wildly. We know OPCs can eliminate cancer stem cells, the main reason why even “successful” cancer treatment almost always ends with a recurrence.
Here’s a sneak preview of the extensive number of ways that FGSE and its OPCs target cancer. It is scientifically proven to:
The first section of this book is primarily based on Dr. Goel’s research on French grape seed extract and cancer. Still, it is impossible to separate the underlying causes of cancer from the causes of other diseases, especially inflammation and epigenetics (genes that do not reproduce exactly due to environmental, not inherited factors).
Most of his research has focused on colorectal cancer, one of the most common and deadly cancers in the U.S. and many Western countries.
Read on and learn all about the impressive anti-cancer properties of FGSE without the negative side effects of conventional cancer treatments and its power against other diseases of aging.