Welcome to my blog which is dedicated to medical research on resveratrol, an extract from certain fruits which has positive medical effects.  It was discovered over forty years ago but most of the research on it has been done in the past five years.  As of this month, over 4100 articles on resveratrol have been published in medical journals.  Each month I highlight recent research and all of my information comes from pubmed.com, a branch of the National Library of Medicine which is free and open to anyone.

Heart Health:  The University of Manitoba in Canada published a paper on heart cels in rats with high blood pressure.  Half were given resveratrol and the other half not.  When heart cells are exposed to noradrenaline, a hormone produced during stress, they enlarge to produce a stronger contraction.  In the short term that is a good thing but in the long term it can ultimately lead to heart disease.  Hypertension accelerates these changes.  All of the rats were sacrificed and their heart muscle studied under a microscope.  Resveratrol prevented the noradrenaline induced enlargement of the heart muscle cells in the rats with high blood pressure.  Eur J Pharmacol July 2011

Diabetes:  In diabetics, hardening of the arteries or arteriosclerosis occurs earlier and faster than in nondiabetics.  From the University of Texas San Antonio comes a paper reporting on diabetic mice.  Half had resveratrol added to their diet and the other half did not.  They were then all fed a high fat diet and given a drug to speed up the artery-hardening process.  After 11 weeks  all the mice were killed and the arteries were examined for hard areas caled plaques.  The  resveratrol supplemented mice had 31% fewer plaques than those not supplemented.  Yet another reason to add  resveratrol to our diet.  Atherosclerosis June 2011

Heart Health:  "Calorie restriction is one of the most effective nutritional interventions that reproducibly protects protects agaist obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease."  It is safe and effective. Resveratrol is the most widely studied molecule that appears to mimic calorie restriction.  The two appear to work in a similar fashion to prevent arteriosclerosis, reduce blood pressure, prevent dangerous increases in heart cell size (see the first article) and heart failure prevention.  So far all of the research has been on animals.  Because it is safe and effective, the authors suggest that it is time for human studies.  Biochim Biophys Act.  July 2011

Human Research:  From the University of Pennsylvania comes a paper explaining why most of the research on natural products like  resveratrol is done on lab animals and cell cultures.  First there is no monetary incentive to do human research using a product that other companies have access to.  There is no patent protection, and therefore extremely risking profit potential. Secondly, because  resveratrol is not patentable , nutriceutical companies make a product blended with other natural products to make their own proprietary blend making it extremely difficult to compare their data with that from other labs and othe companies using different blends or even pure  resveratrol.  Thirdly, natural supplements commonly have multiple targets with different dose response profiles, tissue distributions, and modifiers.  The few human studies "combined with a growing list of animal studies provide a strong justification for further study."  Whether that includes human research is uncertain.  J Gerontol A Biol lSci Med Sci July 2011

Cancers:  There were two papers published on  resveratrol and two cancers that are difficult to treat.  From Southeast University Nanjing, China is a study of pancreatic cancer cells in cultures and how  resveratrol speeds up cell death.  There was no toxicity in normal pancreatic cells.  The more rapid cancer cell deaths hold promise as a new way to treat pancreatic cancer.  From the Fourth Military Hospital in China comes an article on glioblastoma cells.  This is a type of brain cancer that is also difficult to treat successfully.  In cultures of glioblastoma cells, when  resveratrol is added it not only speeds up cell deaths but also slows the growth in living cancer cells.  This all occurred without toxicity.  Chin Med J June 2011  Oncol Rep July 2011

Diabetes:  From Rhode Island Hospital, Providence comes a paper on Yorkshire miniswine.  The animals were divided into three groups.  One was given a regular diet, another a high fat diet, and the third a high fat with  resveratrol.  Blood sugars and insulin levels were measured.  The high fat group had increased insulin and blood sugar levels over the other two groups.  All the animals were then euthanized (killed) and muscle and liver tissues were studied.  The conclusion was that  resveratrol "positively influences sugar metabolism pathways in liver and muscle and leads to improved sugar control in swine"  Arch Surg May 2011 556-64

Diabetes:  A smilar study was done at the German Food Research Center for Food Chemistry in Freising.  Rats were studied. Half were supplemented with  resveratrol and all were fed a high carbohydrate diet.  The  resveratrol group had a 35% decrease in sugar and a 41% decrease in insulin over the non-treated group.  0ol Nutr Food Res July 2011

Prostate Cancer:  A paper from the University of Mississippi looked at how  resveratrol helps prevent the onset of  prostate cancer.  Prostate cells in culture dishes were exposed to a chemical that causes normal prostate cells to turn into cancer cells.  Half were pretreated with  resveratrol.  Through a compound called microRNA, the  resveratrol caused a decrease in the cancer causing effect of the carcinogen and increased tumor suppression by the normal cells.  Whether the microRNA is the actual pathway is unclear but my bottom line is that fewer normal cells turned into cancer cells. Mol Nutr Food Res June 2011

As you can see,  resveratrol can be used to prevent certain conditions like hardening of arteries, and can also be used to control diabetes, prevent or treat cancers and protect the heart.  Remember that Shaklee's  resveratrol, VIVIX, is ten times as potent as other products out there.  Food for thought for the health conscious perso.

Until next time,

Dr Bob