What are the health benefits of resveratrol?  Let’s start with the French Paradox. Resveratrol is found most abundantly in Polygonum Cuspidatum, an Asian plant used for centuries for heart and liver ailments. In the last decade of the twentieth century, the search for a better understanding of the “French Paradox” lead eventually to plethora of scientific  investigation of  red wine polyphenols and most especially of resveratrol. This research lead to the “resveratrol revelations” summed up in such descriptions as:

•    powerful anti-oxidant

best health benefits!

•    anti- proliferative, anti-atherosclerotic
•    anti-clotting
•    senescence preventive
•    central nervous system protective
•    non-toxic chemo-protective
•    anti-cancer cell protective
•    hormone, gene, and enzyme modulator
•    longevity activator

Though there are several plausible explanations, including the moderate use of alcohol itself, it appears that the abundant supply of polyphenols found in red wine are part of the answer to this debate. Polyphenols are a major class of plant nutrients known as phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are chemicals found in plants (phytochemicals), of which there are tens of thousands, and of which some comparatively few appear to be useful in promoting optimal health in human beings. Polyphenols can be further divided into sub-classifications such as anthocyanins and flavonoids, the former of which contains the stillbenes.

Everyone knows that there is a connection between cardiovascular disease and cholesterol. Those with a bit more familiarity appreciate that the type of cholesterol which is most damaging are the low density and very low density fat and proteins. Generally, it is the informed who appreciate that it is only when these bad lipoproteins are oxidized by free radicals that they become the artery clogging menaces for which they are feared. This is why it is thought that the water and fat soluble vitamins, like C and E, appear to help prevent heart disease, as they each protect against certain free radicals that oxidize the bad “fat/proteins” in the blood. Resveratrol’s own marked antioxidant activity is most fortuitously accompanied by:

•    its ability to boost nitric oxide, an endogenous chemical that relaxes arteries
•    its ability to halt proliferation of the cells responsible for narrowing our arteries
•    its ability to inhibit thrombin, and a legion of other pro-clotting conspirators

With regards to the Health Benefits of Resveratrol for our brain, our brains are actually composed most especially of fatty acids. Therefore, our minds as much as our hearts need antioxidant protection. Those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease produce an abnormal protein, or a peptide, the now infamous beta-amyloid. These pitiless peptides produce so much free radical damage that the brain cells are slowly “burned” to death, leading to this universally dreaded dementia.  Resveratrol, most especially when combined with vitamins C and E, provides the much sought for protection from these monstrous mind-munchers. It is even possible that resveratrol will be used medicinally in therapeutic doses post-stroke and central nervous system ischemia and injury. Resveratrol injected into laboratory animals proved better than prednisone as a post traumatic spinal cord injury anti-inflammatory. Researchers speculate that regular supplementation may be neuro-protective as well.

Very recent research strongly suggests that resveratrol is a broad spectrum cancer inhibiting agent. Research reveals that resveratrol:
•    promotes normal cell death
•    kills cancer cells
•    increases vitamin D3’s steroid mediated inhibition of breast cancer
•    increases cancer cells vulnerability to chemo toxic agents
•    inhibits cancer cell metastasis to bone, especially for renal, breast and pancreatic carcinomas
•    inhibits cancers associated with high linoleic fatty acid Western  diets
•    protects healthy cells via its abilities as an antioxidant, and as a modulator of genes, hormones, enzymes and other endogenous cell signaling chemicals

Just recently, scientists at Harvard Medical School and BIOMOL research labs have discovered that other health benefits of resveratrol include its ability to activate a “longevity gene” that increases the life span of yeast cells by 70%. This is not just good news for yeast cells. Up to this point, the only proven method of life extension was calorie restriction. But if calorie restriction is also to be successful for us humans, it means being very skinny, tired, and cold all the time! Calorie restriction in yeasts, worms and flies occurs, at least in part, by activating a gene called sirtuin (SIR). The potential good news is that we have our own version of a “Methuselah gene” and resveratrol supplementation turns on  our SIR as well as calorie restriction, via deacetylation. Another theory of aging holds that we suffocate in the ashes of our own metabolic fires. It is known that as we pass our prime, we lose our ability to perfectly replicate our DNA in every new cell. Slowly, these less than perfect copies accumulate, resulting in what has been termed as “junk DNA”, which debris eventually chokes optimal functioning. Resveratrol antioxidant power has been shown to protect oxidation of both cellular and mitochondrial DNA, thereby helping to minimize these errant copies that kill us.

www.benefits-of-resveratrol.com Are they good for you? Can they cure cancer? Which wines should you drink? How much should you drink? Which supplements are the best? All here. All resveratrol

For many years, prominent professors of cardiovascular surgery at certain Medical Schools have been recommending two glasses of red wine a day, preferably with meals, for their patients. It is now widely recognized by the medical community that the health benefits of red wine: the “French Paradox” are largely due to a natural polyphenol compound called resveratrol (rez-VER-a-trawl). Resveratrol was first discovered in Polygonum cuspidatum, a noxious weed whose roots contain high amounts. This plant, called the Japanese knotweed or fo-ti, has a long history of medicinal use in China. Resveratrol (3,4’-trihydroxystilbene) is chemically similar to synthetic estrogen and is now known to occur in over 70 species of plants.

Resveratrol is highly concentrated in grape skins and extracted into wine during the fermentation process. Classified as a phytoantitoxin,  resveratrol is part of the vine’s defense against stress produced by infection (antibiotic and fungicide), chemicals, changes in temperature, and injury from light. The amount of resveratrol in red wine is influenced by viticultural methods, like canopy management and cordon type, and the winemaking process. Carbon fining and filtration do not affect levels but phenol binding resins used in large wineries do reduce levels. Skin contact time does not affect resveratrol content significantly, and grapes exposed to ultraviolet light prior to processing have significantly increased levels.

Environmental factors are also important. In a study at Cornell University, New York state wines had higher levels than any other region in the world. This is explainable by the humid climate in New York wine-growing regions. Since resveratrol is a fungicide, more of it is produced by the grape to fight mildew. Wines made from Pinot Noir have the largest amount of resveratrol and some New York Pinot Noirs have very
high levels. White wines contain negligible amounts. Many of the health benefits of resveratrol are just being explored, but what is known can be summarized as follows:

• Cardioprotective Agent Resveratrol through its phytoestrogenic effect protects vascular endothelium, inhibits LDL (bad cholesterol) oxidation, and is antiatherosclerotic. It inhibits platelet aggregation (thinning the blood and preventing blood clots) and increases HDL (good cholesterol).
• Cancer Chemopreventive Agent Resveratrol inhibits growth of a wide variety of human-derived tumor cell model systems and appears to be a promising chemoprotective agent.
• Life-Extending Agent Resveratrol boosts levels of the enzyme Sir2 which increases lifespan by stabilizing DNA (so far only demonstrated in yeast cell model).
• Cigarette Damage Reversal Harmful arterial damage caused by cigarettes can be counteracted.