So You want to Live Longer
Various studies have shown that resveratrol, an ingredient found in red wine and also in the medicinal plant, Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese Knotweed), can prolong the life of brewer’s yeast by 60%, worms by 15%, fruit flies by 29% and rodents by 31%.
Resveratrol studies have shown that it has multiple health benefits that help reduce the risk of many age-related degenerative diseases. Taking resveratrol may help you live longer and healthier.
Live Longer?
In early 2006, Italian researchers discovered that resveratrol can extend the life span of turquoise killifish by 50%. Killifish lives only three months when in captivity.
The results showed that adding resveratrol to the daily diet prolonged their expected life span. The fish study is interesting because fish, a vertebrate, is far above yeast, worms and fruit flies in the evolutionary tree. The study also showed resveratrol slowed the progression of fish muscular problems as they grew older.
Resveratrol Research shows it’s ability to activate the longevity gene helps to prolong life. Resveratrol activates the same longevity gene expressed during caloric restriction, the only proven way of extending life span.
So far, resveratrol studies showing the ability to extend life span are confined to lower organisms and fish.
Unfortunately resveratrol studies on humans will take more than 100 years to complete. Since we share many genes in common with even the simplest organisms such as bacteria and worms, it is likely that the studies in animals may have similar results in us.
Healthier life
What is also interesting about resveratrol is that it has many other beneficial health properties, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and other activities. These properties represent many of the known risks for developing different age-related degenerative diseases.
Resveratrol studies have shown that it has many other beneficial health properties such as:
- Antioxidant – acts against damaging free radicals
- Anti-inflammatory agent
- Reduces blood pressure – promotes relaxation of blood vessels
- Reduces menopausal symptoms – mood swings, hot flushes etc on
- Reduces risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease
- Reduces risk of developing blood clot
- Reduces risk of developing diabetes
Resveratrol and cancer
Cancer is, perhaps, the most dynamic area of resveratrol research. Resveratrol is the first natural medicinal to have solid evidence behind it – showing that it blocks or stops many stages of cancer.
Resveratrol has been proven to fight cancer in vitro at all three stages: initiation, promotion, and progression. Resveratrol not only prevents cancer, it’s being proposed as an additional treatment.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH, US) has sponsored a clinical trial investigating resveratrol’s ability to fight colon cancer.
Benefits for heart and blood vessel health
Resveratrol is thought to underlie the “French Paradox”, which refers to the low levels of heart disease found in France despite a population renowned of its love of wine and fatty food.
Resveratrol has been found to exert a number of potentially cardio protective effects including:
- Increases levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterol, which protects against heart disease.
- Prevents low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol from being oxidised by free radicals and it is the oxidised LDL that forms plaque that can lead to atherosclerosis, or hardening and thickening of the arteries.
- Inhibits platelet aggregation as it prevents blood cells from sticking to each other and forming clots. These clots can become lodged in a small vessel of the heart, causing heart attack, or lodged in the vessel of the brain, causing a stroke.
- Promotes vasodilatation by enhancing the production of NO (nitric oxide), which allows the blood vessels to relax, resulting in enhanced blood flow.
Alzheimer’s prevention
Resveratrol studies suggest that it might help prevent or ease (ameliorate) Alzheimer’s disease.
One of the characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease is the deposition of plaques in the brain. These plaques are caused by amyloid-beta peptides.
One laboratory study showed that administering resveratrol to cells decreased their secretion and cell’s levels of amyloid-beta peptides. Resveratrol did not inhibit the production of amyloid-beta, but instead promoted its breakdown in the cells.
Although preliminary, these findings suggest a potential role for the compound in fighting the accumulation of amyloid-beta plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers.
Brain damage in stroke victims
“For years, scientists have advocated drinking a glass of red wine once or twice a day to help with cardiovascular health,” said Grace Sun, a professor of biochemistry and part of a husband-wife research team at University of Missouri-Columbia’s School of Medicine.
“Our research has shown that a compound in red wine or grapes – resveratrol can have a similar impact on brain health, and in some cases, may help minimise the damage to the brain when a stroke occurs.”
Other benefits
Other resveratrol benefits include doubling exercise endurance and also protecting mice from ill effects of obesity.
Resveratrol enabled mice that were fed with a high-calorie, high-fat diet to live normal, active lives despite being obese – the first time any compound has been shown to do that.
Resveratrol may also offer benefits in preventing or managing conditions associated with high blood sugar, such as metabolic syndrome or diabetes.
Dr David Sinclair, leader of the Harvard resveratrol study, conducted a clinical trial to evaluate resveratrol’s effects in controlling blood sugar in patients with diabetes.
All the above mentioned properties are very exciting because they represent many of the known risks for developing different age-related degenerative diseases.
It is important to understand that there are many other risk factors associated with diseases and that taking resveratrol may be one of the many important steps in risk reduction.
