Wine. No other beverage has attracted the attention of modern medicine like this drink. Although it is most widely known for its health benefits for the heart, wine has health benefits against cancer, dementia, and other age-related diseases. Researchers in Denmark recently looked at 25,000 people to find out what drinking alcohol does to mortality and discovered that wine drinkers slash their overall risk of dying from any cause by about 40%.
Chemists took wine apart years ago to find out what makes it tick. Basically, Wine contains an ultra host of plant compounds resveratrol being one. Unfortunately, resveratrol and some of the other beneficial components to health got shelved as “toxicants,” and nobody paid much attention to them until a scientist tried to figure out why the French can eat so much fat and not get heart disease. It turns out that part of the answer to the “French paradox” are the health benefits of rezveratrol found in red wine.
Resveratrol is naturally created by certain vines, pine trees, peanuts, grapes, and other plants. One of these plants (Polygonnum cuspidatum) is an ingredient in traditional Asian medicines that are prescribed for liver and heart conditions. Resveratrol is classified as a polyphenol because of its chemical structure. Polyphenols make up a huge group of plant compounds that are further broken down into other classifications such as flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, and the like.
Alzheimer's and Resveratrol
It was shown recently that resveratrol possesses a natural “novel mechanism” for scavenging radicals. Might this novel mechanism protect the brain from free radical-driven diseases like Alzheimer's?
Although the research is very preliminary, resveratrol studies indicate that it may be particularly important for those at risk for Alzheimer’s, or those who have it. It is theorized that free radicals might initiate the process that leads to the disease. The brain is composed mostly of fatty acids, and just as the heart needs to be protected against oxidized fat, so does the brain.
Alzheimer's patients produce an abnormal peptide (a piece of a protein) known as “beta-amyloid” in their brains. Beta-amyloid provokes oxidative stress, and eventually cells are killed because of the abnormally high levels of free radicals. The killing of brain cells causes the gradual decline in Alzheimer's patients. It has been proven that resveratrol can protect the brain against oxidative stress, and keep cells alive. Research shows that adding antioxidant vitamins C and/or E to resveratrol provides a greater degree of brain protection than any of these antioxidants alone.
Resveratrol Dosage
“Even a leading resveratrol researcher, Dr. David Sinclair at Harvard Medical School, is noted as taking a lower dosesage: 5 mg per kilogram — about 150 mg per day for the average adult”.
Proper Resveratrol dosage- currently most experts seem to agree that an effective resveratrol dosage for an average adult is anywhere from 150 to 300 mg of pure resveratrol.
Some Resveratrol supplement pill products list the total amount of resveratrol, which can be 500 mg or more, but an actual amount of pure resveratrol could be a lot lower, maybe only 50 mg. Make sure you read the label carefully so that you are getting at least 150 mg of pure resveratrol.
