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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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.

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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.

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A study from the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers have suggested that resveratrol seems to promotes a pathway that facilitates the clearing of the building block for plaque formation which often build up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients

The research team studied several different antioxidants found in red wine by adding them to amyloid. Many of the antioxidants had no effect, however resveratrol did in fact clear the amyloid away. The co-author of the study hoped that resveratrol could be used to model new drugs that could hopefully treat Alzheimer’s Disease

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