New Report on Resveratrol

Red wine ingredient demonstrates significant health benefits: research review
The benefits of alcohol are all about moderation. Low to moderate drinking – especially of red wine – appears to reduce causes of mortality, while too much drinking causes multiple organ damage.

A mini-review of recent findings on red wine's polyphenols, particularly one called resveratrol, will be published in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research; the review is also available at Early View.

"Reports on the benefits of red wine are almost two centuries old,” said Associate Professor Lindsay Brown, of the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Queensland and corresponding author for the study.

"The media developed the more recent story of the French paradox in the early 1990s.

"However, studies on the actions of resveratrol, one of the active non-alcoholic ingredients, were uncommon until research around 1997 showed prevention of cancers. This led to a dramatic interest in this compound."

Red wine contains a complex mixture of bioactive compounds, including flavonols, monomeric and polymeric flavan-3-ols, highly colored anthocyanins, as well as phenolic acids and the stilbene polyphenol, resveratrol. Brown said that some of these compounds, particularly resveratrol, appear to have health benefits.

“The breadth of benefits is remarkable – cancer prevention, protection of the heart and brain from damage, reducing age-related diseases such as inflammation, reversing diabetes and obesity, and many more,” Dr Brown said.

"It has long been a question as to how such a simple compound could have these effects but now the puzzle is becoming clearer with the discovery of the pathways, especially the sirtuins, a family of enzymes that regulate the production of cellular components by the nucleus.

"Is resveratrol the only compound with these properties? This would seem unlikely, with similar effects reported for other components of wine and for other natural products such as curcumin. However, we know much more about resveratrol relative to these other compounds."

UQ Professor pharmacology Stephen Taylor, said that resveratrol was the "compound du jour."

"I think that red wine has both some mystique and some historical symbolism in the west," Professor Taylor said.

"And of course, there are some various pleasures attached to its ingestion, all of which give it a psychological advantage edge, food-wise. Not many of us can or will eat a couple of cups of blueberries a day for years on end, but if we could do a population study for a decade or so on such a group, you might actually see similar results."

Key points of the review include:

- Resveratrol exhibits therapeutic potential for cancer chemoprevention as well as cardioprotection.

"It sounds contradictory that a single compound can benefit the heart by preventing damage to cells, yet prevent cancer by causing cell death, Dr Brown said. "The most likely explanation for this, still to be rigorously proved in many organs, is that low concentrations activate survival mechanisms of cells while high concentrations turn on the in-built death signals in these cells.”"

- Resveratrol may aid in the prevention of age-related disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

"The simplest explanation is that resveratrol turns on the cell's own survival pathways, preventing damage to individual cells,” Dr Brown said. "Further mechanisms help, including removing very reactive oxidants in the body and improving blood supply to cells."

- Low doses of resveratrol improve cell survival as a mechanism of cardio- and neuro-protection, while high doses increase cell death.

"The key difference is probably the result of activation of the sirtuins in the nucleus," Dr Brown said. "Low activation reverses age-associated changes, while high activation increases the process of apoptosis or programmed cell dUQ eath to remove cellular debris. Similar changes are seen with low-dose versus high-dose resveratrol: low-dose resveratrol produces cellular protection and reduces damage, while high-dose resveratrol prevents cancers."

In summary, Dr Brown said, current scientific research was starting to explain reports from the last 200 years that drinking red wine improves health.

"It is a cliché that ‘nature is a treasure trove of compounds,' but studies with resveratrol show that this is correct.

" We need to understand better the vast array of compounds that exist in nature, and determine their potential benefits to health.

"There is one particular point that deserves fleshing out.

"Resveratrol is largely inactivated by the gut or liver before it reaches the blood stream, where it exerts its effects – whatever they may be – good, bad, or indifferent.

"Thus, most of the reseveratrol in imbibed red wine does not reach the circulation. Interestingly, absorption via the mucous membanes in the mouth can result in up to around 100 times the blood levels, if done slowly rather than simply gulping it down. Of course, we don't know if these things matter yet, but issues like this are real and generally ignored by all."

Media: Contact: Dr Lindsay Brown, PhD, l.brown@uq.edu.au 07 3365.3098 (Australia) or Professor Stephen Taylor, s.taylor@uq.edu.au, 07 3365.3124

Background:

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism.

Co-authors of the ACER paper, “The Biological Responses to Resveratrol and Other Polyphenols from Alcoholic Beverages,” were: Lindsay Brown and Vincent Chan of the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Paul A. Kroon of the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK; Dipak K. Das and Samarjit Das of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine; Arpad Tosaki of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Debrecen, Hungary; and Peter Feick of the Department of Medicine II at the University Hospital of Heidelberg at Mannheim, Germany.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, and the Dietmar Hopp Foundation. This release is supported by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network at http://www.ATTCnetwork.org.

Journalists: A full copy of the manuscript may be obtained by contacting Mary Newcomb with the ACER Editorial Office at mnewcomb-acer@earthlink.net.

RESVERATROL TESTS

Sipping And Savoring Red Wine Health Benefits
While drinking alcohol to excess leads to health problems in multiple organ systems, you’ve probably also heard of red wine health benefits when drunk in moderation.
Long standing research backs up the benefits, but until now researchers couldn’t explain precisely how this might work.
“Reports on the benefits of red wine are almost two centuries old,” points out Lindsay Brown, associate professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Queensland.
“The media developed the more recent story of the French paradox in the early 1990s. However, studies on the actions of resveratrol, one of the active non-alcoholic ingredients, were uncommon until research around 1997 showed prevention of cancers. This led to a dramatic interest in this compound.”
Not surprisingly, red wine brings together a complicated mix of antioxidants and other compounds, one of which is a polyphenol known as resveratrol that is showing itself to have some amazing disease prevention abilities.
The health benefits of this substance are certainly impressive, everything from preventing cancer to protecting the brain and heart from damage and age-related diseases, reversing diabetes, reducing “bad” cholesterol, preventing blood clots, obesity and more.
But by far the most fascinating tidbit is the way the body gets the beneficial compounds.
It appears that absorption of resveratrol through the mucous membranes in the mouth results in around 100 times the blood levels of the compound than a drinker would get via the digestive system and liver.
These body systems inactivate this helpful substance, so those gulped down glasses don’t deliver the resveratrol to the bloodstream.
Sips that are slow and savoring work far better allowing the absorption of this oh-so-beneficial compound.
Though it sounds complex and convoluted, experts have found that high doses of resveratrol increase a process called apoptosis (programmed cell death); while lower doses are thought to improve cardiac health by preventing cell damage.
A likely explanation for this level dependent effect is that smaller concentrations of the compound activate cell survival mechanisms, while high concentrations turn on built in death signals in those same cells.
The compound might also help maintain health by removing very reactive oxidants in the body while aiding the supply of blood to cells.
“The simplest explanation is that resveratrol turns on the cell’s own survival pathways, preventing damage to individual cells,” explains study author Brown. “Further mechanisms help, including removing very reactive oxidants in the body and improving blood supply to cells.”

Why Sipping And Savoring Red Wine Is Good For You

If red wine isn’t your thing, experts suggest that by eating a couple of servings of blueberries (or red grapes, purple grape juice, peanuts or some berries) a day from now on you may well get the same benefit.

You might also have heard about resveratrol in the news or on recent 60 Minutes reports, but be wary of supplement claims that use footage from the report, or cite an endorsement of Oprah Winfrey’s medical expert, Mehmel Oz, M.D. Dr. Oz hasn’t endorsed any product.

The work on resveratrol and red wine health benefits is set to appear in the September 2009 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research and was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Dietmar Hopp Foundation.

To your good health,

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