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.

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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.

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