Healthy Benefits of Resveratrol

If you want any of the healthy benefits of resveratrol found in grapes, don't lay there on the couch and allow your spouse to feed you peeled grapes. The resveratrol is in the skin of the grapes. Let them bruise the grapes for you instead, before they delicately drop them into your mouth. Okay, the practice isn't probably one seen in America, but it is a way to point out the fact that resveratrol is abundant mostly in the skin of grapes.

Resveratrol is found heavily in red wine, which is the best source of this phytoalexin. The longer the skin remains on the grapes while it's fermenting, the more resveratrol you have in the final product. This explains why white wine doesn't contain as much and grape juice, with no fermentation contains very little.

You may wonder why the attention to resveratrol, besides another good excuse for a glass of red wine. It's simple. It is one additional protection against heart disease, clogged arteries and cancer. It does occur in other natural products like eucalyptus, lilies and spruce, their consumption is dubious at best. It also is in edible products such as mulberries and peanuts but they don't contain as much.

The scientific community discovered resveratrol when it looked at the "French Paradox". The French, noted for their consumption of rich fatty foods, don't have a high incidence of heart disease. Scientists wondered why and discovered it was their habit of including red wine with the meals.

Resveratrol is produced by some plants as a way to protect itself from fungi or other pathogenic organisms or after an injury. It produces a chemical substance called phtoalexinsare to ward off damage. This substance is a powerful antioxidant that scavenges artery-damaging free radicals.

When it was put to the test against a synthetic antioxidant and vitamin E, resveratrol lead the scavenging pack as the best defense for your arteries. It not only stopped the cycle of the formation of plaque and scar tissue on the artery, it increased the nitric oxide, which relaxes the vessel walls and increases the blood flow. Scientists discovered that when you eat a high-cholesterol diet, your nitric oxide is reduced by a third.

People taking resveratrol supplements reversed the decrease in their main arteries. It also keeps the blood cells from getting sticky. It inhibits thrombin and another polyphenol in wine, quercetin inhibited 12-HETE a different chemical that makes blood cells stick together. When blood cells stick together, it creates another potential factor for heart attacks.

But the heart is not the only organ that gets protection. Many different studies find increasingly optimistic information on the potential of resveratrol for the fight against cancer. It has the ability to differentiate between a cancer cell and a normal cell and protect the normal cells while it fights the cancer cell. Unlike the chemotherapy offered today, it doesn't damage healthy cells. It also plays a role in activating certain hormones, enzymes and genes while turning off those that are not beneficial. In fact, studies done with yeast shows that it activates the yeast's longevity gene.

When it was discovered that Resveratrol activated the longevity gene a number of anti-aging products came on the market to take advantage of this fact.

Other studies show that it might be beneficial to the control and prevention of Alzheimer's by controlling the abnormally high level of beta-amyloid, an abnormal peptide produced in abundance by Alzheimer's patients, which causes oxidative stress and eventually kills brain cells. It also might protect stroke and spinal cord injury victims from more damage from the complications of their injury or stroke.

While there are other questions about the potential for liver damage, breast cancer and long-term effects, a glass of wine with a meal isn't as damaging as once thought and the healthy benefits of resveratrol may even make you a little healthier.