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Ther following article on Resveratrol is from the Life Extension Foundation.

An article published on June 4, 2008 in the online journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE supports earlier findings of a beneficial effect for resveratrol on the genetic changes that occur with aging. Previous research utilizing resveratrol, which is found in grapes, pomegranates and other foods, demonstrated that the compound prevented early mortality when administered in large doses to mice given high fat diets. The current study’s results provide evidence of a cardioprotective benefit for resveratrol at a relatively low dose.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Florida fed middle-aged (14 month old) rats a control diet, a diet containing a small amount of resveratrol, or a calorie restricted diet until the animals were 30 months of age. The team found similarities between the genetic effects of calorie restriction and those of resveratrol in the heart, skeletal muscle and brain. While the expression of 1,029 heart genes changed with age in the control animals, calorie restriction was found to reduce 90 percent, and resveratrol reduced 92 percent, of these age-related alterations in expression.

“Thus, resveratrol at doses that can be readily achieved through dietary supplementation in humans is as effective as calorie restriction in opposing the majority of age-related transcriptional alterations in the aging heart,” the authors write. “Because the collection of such alterations in gene expression is a biomarker of aging, our results imply that similar to calorie restriction, middle-age onset resveratrol supplementation at low doses is likely a robust intervention in the retardation of cardiac aging.”

“Resveratrol is active in much lower doses than previously thought and mimics a significant fraction of the profile of caloric restriction at the gene expression level,” explained senior author and UW professor of genetics Tomas Prolla. “There must be a few master biochemical pathways activated in response to caloric restriction, which in turn activate many other pathways. And resveratrol seems to activate some of these master pathways as well.”

“This brings down the dose of resveratrol toward the consumption reality mode,” added senior author Richard Weindruch, who is a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “At the same time, it plugs into the biology of caloric restriction.”

A clinical trial is scheduled to take place at the University of Florida to test resveratrol’s benefits in older individuals. The study will evaluate the compound’s effects on inflammation, physical performance, memory and oxidative damage.

Can wine really be that good for you?