Resveratrol Supplements Guide » Resveratrol

7 Reasons Why You Should Be Taking Resveratrol Supplements

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 03:12:13 +0000

1. Resveratrol can increase your lifespan

Groundbreaking research by Dr David Sinclair and his team from Harvard Medical School showed that resveratrol activated the SIRT1 gene. Researchers believe that resveratrol tricks the body into believing that it is under the effects of a calorie deficient diet and thus receives the beneficial health effects such as an increased lifespan as a result. Resveratrol given to some higher forms of organisms and has shown to increase lifespan of killifish by up to a massive a 59%, yeasts by 60%, fruit fly by 29% and roundworm 15%.

2. Resveratrol can help you lose weight

Resveratrol works on several different levels in aiding weight loss. Firstly, resveratrol acts as an estrogen blocker. Estrogen has some negative effects on the body including decreased muscle mass and increased fat storage; studies have demonstrated that resveratrol actually increased the hormones responsible for signaling the body to produce more testosterone 2.7 times greater than the placebo. Increased free testosterone will actually lead to increased muscle mass and decreased body fat.

Secondly, resveratrol helps to regulate insulin production in the pancreas. High levels of insulin secretion leads to increased fat storage, which may eventually lead to insulin resistance and therefore Type II Diabetes.

3. Resveratrol in cancer prevention

Resveratrol is known to inhibit all 3 major stages of tumors development, initiation, promotion and progression, and the list of tumors it can inhibit is astounding, including prostate cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, liver cancer, brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, colon cancer, ovarian and cervical cancer, lymphoma and it even acts as an anti-leukemia agent.

4. Resveratrol is anti-fungal, antiviral and acts as an anti-biotic

Because plants produce resveratrol in response stress from invading fungus, resveratrol is anti-fungal in nature and has shown to inhibit the growth of both mold and fungus. Research has also shown that resveratrol also has antiviral properties, studies have revealed that resveratrol inhibits the growth of viruses such as herpes, influenza, and has also shown to improve the potency of certain antiretroviral drugs used against HIV.

5. Resveratrol acts as a neuroprotective agent

New research on resveratrol has shed the light on some of its neuroprotective attributes. After serious brain injuries, resveratrol treatment has been shown to vastly improve the ability of the brain to recover, especially from secondary brain injury from exitotoxic events. Further, it is believed that due to its activation of the SIRT1 longevity gene, resveratrol promoted neuronal survival in the brain and it may provide a practical application to help treat neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers disease.

6. High intake of resveratrol is not toxic

And that means more benefits of resveratrol with little side effects. Studies conducted on mice shows this. Huge resveratrol dosage (that would be present in hundreds of glasses of an average red wine) was given to the mice showed a significant boost of the advantages while there is little evidence that it shows any harm.

7. Insufficient intake of resveratrol by an average population

The main source of resveratrol is from red wine, however, resveratrol content in red wine varies. Increasing intake of red wine will increase the chance of resveratrol absorption and hence increase the advantages mentioned above, however the amount of resveratrol in red wine is minute compared to what can be taken in supplement form. Dr David Sinclair believes that to receive the benefits of resveratrol and the potential increased lifespan, mice would have to have the equivalent of 10 glasses of red wine, whereas resveratrol supplements generally have the equivalent amount of resveratrol of anywhere between 10 – 100 glasses of red wine.

Resveratrol And The French Paradox

admin — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 04:53:35 +0000

When talking about resveratrol, the ‘French Paradox’ is often mentioned, or vice versa. So what is this ‘paradox’ and how does it relate to resveratrol?

The ‘French paradox’ refers to the fact that the French, who (on average) consume more saturated fat than the average person from the United States, actually have a lower incidence of coronary heart disease. Data from 1999 indicates that 230 out of every 100,000 males aged 35-74 died from coronary heart disease in the US whereas only 83 out of 100,000 in France. From this data, researchers suggested that it was from red wine French people consume. More research dedicated to this area found that it was the resveratrol found in the red wine which was responsible for their lower death rates.

Resveratrol, a potent antioxidant, is found naturally in a variety of plants, most notably of which, is grapes. Red wine has a relatively high level ofresveratrol due to the winemaking process, incorporating the seeds and skins of grapes, both of which contain resveratrol. Recent studies on resveratrol have established not only its cardio-protective benefits but also other important benefits such as anti-inflammation, anti-cancer and antiviral. Resveratrol is even found to protect the brain against several neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers have also noted that red wine not only contains resveratrol, but also contains up to 600 different compounds, some of which may interact with resveratrol and provide beneficial health effects themselves. One of these includes quercetin, another antioxidant found in grapes that help resveratrol circulate in the bloodstream for a longer period of time, increasing the benefits resveratrol offers.

Although resveratrol is found in most red wines, there is still much research to be done on resveratrol and red wine as well as its link to the ‘French Paradox’. No one knows for sure how much red wine is needed to provide sufficientresveratrol for the beneficial health effects the French has. However, Dr David Sinclair of Harvard University believes that 10 glasses of red wine a day provides enough resveratrol for remarkable health benefits and perhaps even enough resveratrol to increase the lifespan of mice.

Resveratrol Study Showcased In Annual Bibliography of Significant Advances in Dietary Supplement Research

admin — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:27:06 +0000

The National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements released their annual Annual Bibliography of Significant Advances in Dietary Supplement Research. The 2006 Annual Bibliography highlights emerging findings from a diverse array of laboratory and human studies. These include the potentially favorable effects of resveratrol as an anti-inflammatory compound.

The paper chosen regarding resveratrol, which was selected from 2006 was “Resveratrol attenuates TNF-α-induced activation of coronary arterial endothelial cells: Role of NF-κB inhibition.” Which suggested the anti-inflammatory effects of resveratrol are responsible at least in some part for its cardio protective effects, although they also suggest that additional research on resveratrol will need to study the mechanisms by which resveratrol exerts its effects.

Funding for this resveratrol study was by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH; American Heart Association; Philip Morris USA; and Philip Morris International.

Harvard and MIT Researchers Show Neurprotective Abilities Of Resveratrol

admin — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:03:40 +0000

According to Harvard and MIT researchers, we are slowly closing in on diseases such as Alzheimer’s with some cutting edge research on the SIRT1 gene, which is activated by the naturally occurring compound, resveratrol. Using resveratrol extracted from red wine, researchers have shown that it extends life-span, and now they are finding evidence of its neuroprotective abilities in mice. The mice that received resveratrol also showed a reduced death rate and a measured increase in neuronal restoration.

If the research by to Harvard and MIT teams have anything to go by, then the implications that resveratrol has on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease are potentially huge.

However there is still some challenges regarding the effects of resveratrol on the brain and that is its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. The mice in this study actually had resveratrol injected directly into their brain. Although this is still a hurdle to overcome by researchers, it still wont diminish the other positive effects that resveratrol has been seen to have in the labratory.

Resveratrol Can Help With Muscular Endurance

admin — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:48:08 +0000

A study from the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cell Biology shows that resveratrol, a compound in grapes and red wine can actually improve muscular endurance and the effectiveness of resveratrol may actually lead to athletes one day taking it for sports performance.

Mice who were fed a high fat diet along with daily resveratrol supplements were only 20% heavier than control mice compared to a huge 60% increase in weight for the mice on the high fat diet without resveratrol.

Furthermore, mice given resveratrol also had increased an increased level of endurance even after taking into account differences in weight. The resveratrol mice were able to run 2 times further on the treadmill compared to other mice with the same diet and no resveratrol supplementation.

Researchers believe that resveratrol boosts muscle endurance by increasing the energy creating components in the cell furnace, which is called the mitochondria.

This research has opened up many intriguing questions regarding resveratrol including diabetes and weight loss as well as perhaps preventing muscle wasting in the elderly. Earlier resveratrol studies have also shown that it can increase the lifespan of many different animals.

New Resveratrol Study Shows Effectiveness Against Cancer

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:24:50 +0000

A new study from the U.S.A has shown that drinking between one and two glasses of red wine could help reduce the risk of getting prostate cancer. In the August edition of the Journal of Carcinogenesis, researchers from the University of Alabama discovered that resveratrol, a component of red wine, helped decrease the risk of developing the prostate cancer.

Resveratrol, which has potent antioxidant and anti-cancer effects on the body was fed to mice for 7 months in their food and showed an 87% decrease in the risk of developing prostate cancer. Other mice which were also fed resveratrol, but developed a lesser form of prostate tumor, had a 48% greater chance of the cancer growth slowing or being stopped compared to other mice who did not ingest resveratrol.

This study is just one of many studies into resveratrol which has shown the exceptional benefits of resveratrol consumption. Another study by the University of Alabama in Birmingham from 2006 showed that female mice which were given resveratrol had a sizeable reduction in the risk of breast cancers and tumors.

New research is now being conducted on the benefits of human consumption of resveratrol in regards to cancer as well as the amount of resveratrol required for its remarkable benefits as the amount of resveratrol given to the mice in this study was equivalent to a human consuming about one bottle of red wine per day. However, this research on resveratrol is quite exciting for researchers and will only promote resveratrol as a superfood.

Current Research In Resveratrol

admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:40:37 +0000

Below is a snap shot of some of the new, frontline research being conducted on the potential health effects of resveratrol.

Researchers from the Department of Genetics at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Korea released a recent paper on the effect of resveratrol on human neurotypic cells in which dopamine induced cytotoxicity. Dopamine occurs naturally in the brain and acts as an oxidant, causing degeneration of particular neurons. Cells which were pretreated by resveratrol before being treated with dopamine reduced the dopamine-induced toxicity compared to samples not pretreated by resveratrol. The researchers concluded that dopamine was indeed a potential oxidant of neurological cells and that resveratrol may protect these cells against this cytotoxicity. They continued on by stating that resveratrol may be of “biological importance in the prevention of a dopaminergic neurodegenerative disorder such as Parkinson disease.”

Researchers from the Institute of Neurosurgery in China reviewed the protective effect resveratrol has on cerebral ischemic stroke and the possible mechanism for its effect. They hypothesized that resveratrol supplements, after cerebral ischemia, might be beneficial for brain regeneration.

Researchers from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil studied the positive effects of resveratrol on acute hydrogen peroxide induced oxidative stress in astrocyte brain cells. The researchers’ results showed that resveratrol did indeed counteract the oxidative damage caused by the hydrogen peroxide; resveratrol has antioxidant properties that prevent oxidative stress. In addition, resveratrol also provides help in important brain functions that contributes to the recovery of the brain after injury.

A recent study conducted by researchers of the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, China investigated the inhibitory effect of resveratrol on ovarian carcinoma. The study’s results indicated that although resveratrol showed no cytotoxicity on the cancer cells, resveratrol did significantly inhibit migration and adhesion of the cancer cells in vitro. The researchers concluded that resveratrol supplements might potentially inhibit tumor metastasis.

Researchers from several United State universities including Harvard and MIT reported in the online edition of the Embo Journal the effects thatresveratrol had on the promotion of neuronal survival in mouse models. Resveratrol acts as an activating molecule for the SIRT1 gene. They showed that SIRT1 did indeed promote neuronal survival and is an important link between ageing and certain human neurodegenerative disorders. Furthermore they believe that resveratrol and the SIRT1 gene may provide a valuable avenue for medicinal intervention.

Why Men Should Be Taking Resveratrol Supplements

admin — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 13:56:53 +0000

As you can see from previous articles exposing the benefits of taking resveratrol supplements, resveratrol has a whole lot going on for it, but did you know that men actually receive a whole lot of extra benefits when taking resveratrol?

A simple reason: resveratrol acts as an estrogen blocker.

E for evil

Estrogen, while generally thought to be present in women, is surprisingly found in men, although in much smaller quantities. The problem with estrogen, however, is some of the negative effects it can have on the body. It is surprising what estrogen can do, especially in males! These are only a few:

· Increase body fat storage

· Reduce muscle mass

· Decrease strength

· Can cause gynecomastia (the development of breast tissue in males)

Not pretty is it?

But wait, there’s more!

Estradiol (the major form of estrogen in the body) can also enter the bloodstream and signal the pituitary gland in the brain to decrease the production of testosterone in the body.

The Good News: Resveratrol

We all agree estrogen has some pretty nasty effects, nonetheless men still need some in their body for optimum health, and here is whyresveratrol is so important. Resveratol acts as an estrogen antagonist (although in some tissues may act as an estrogen agonist); this means that resveratrol works against the production of more estrogen and may even block excess testosterone from turning into estrogen. Increased levels of testosterone will help decrease fat mass, increase muscle mass and strength, increase sex drive and can also increase feelings of well being.

Studies have also shown that resveratol increased the pituitary hormones responsible for testosterone production in the testes by 2.7 times greater than the placebo. And even better news for men, further studies have also shown that resveratrol increased sperm count by 76% – that’s almost double! Furthermore, although high levels of testosterone have often been associated with the increased risk of developing prostate cancer, resveratrol has been found to potentially prevent and treat prostate cancer.

If you were concerned about taking resveratrol supplements in the past, then you can see from here that resveratrol has huge health applications, especially for men. Estrogen can often be a nasty hormone for men and with the help of resveratrol you can help relieve that problem