World Report

News from Around the World of Resveratrol

From Wikipedia, "The French Paradox"

According to FAO data, the average French person consumed 108 grams per day of fat from animal sources in 2002 while the average American consumed only 72. The French eat four times as much butter, 60 percent more cheese and nearly three times as much pork. Although the French consume only slightly more total fat (171 g/d vs 157), they consume much more saturated fat because Americans consume a much larger proportion of fat in the form of vegetable oil and most of that as soybean oil. However, according to data from the British Heart foundation , in 1999, rates of death from coronary heart disease among males aged 35-74 years was 230 per 100,000 people in the US but only 83 per 100,000 in France.

It has been suggested that France's high red wine consumption is a primary factor in the trend. This theory was expounded in a 60 Minutes broadcast in 1991. The program catalysed a large increase in North American demand for red wines from around the world. It is believed that one of the active ingredients potentially related to this effect in red wine is resveratrol.

Resveratrol and other grape compounds have been positively linked to fighting cancer, heart disease, degenerative nerve disease, and other ailments. Red wine typically has health benefits not found in white wine (with some exceptions) because many of these compounds are found in the skins of the grapes and only red wine is fermented with the skins.

The first scientific study of the relationship between alcohol consumption and atherosclerosis was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1904. The first epidemiological study to report that moderate drinkers exhibit greater longevity than abstainers or heavy drinkers was published in 1926 by Raymond Pearl. Hundreds of studies have followed in recent decades.

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From TheAge.com, Australia, "Red wine may contain elixir of youth"

A substance in wine could prove to be an elixir of youth that holds back many of the effects of ageing, new research suggests. Obese mice on high-calorie diets lived longer and had healthier hearts and livers when given the compound, resveratrol. The molecule reversed gene activity patterns associated with diabetes, heart disease, and other obesity-related conditions.

Dr David Sinclair, one of the US researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, said: "The 'healthspan' benefits we saw in the obese mice treated with resveratrol, such as increased insulin sensitivity, decreased glucose levels, healthier heart and liver tissues, are positive clinical indicators and may mean we can stave off in humans age-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, but only time and more research will tell."

Resveratrol is a powerful antioxidant produced by certain plants as a defence against the effects of injury and fungal infection.It is commonly found in grape skins, peanuts and mulberries, and is especially plentiful in red wine.


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From Taiwan, Department of Life Science, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, "Resveratrol Improves insulin resistance in High Cholesterol-Fructose Diet Induced Metabolic Syndrome"

Epidemiological studies have shown that red wine consumption is associated with less cardiovascular mortality in the general population and diabetic patients. It has been reported that moderate red wine consumption also markedly attenuates insulin-resistance in type 2 diabetic patients. Furthermore, our previously studies showed that resveratrol possesses antihyperglycemic effects in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, the purpose of this experiment was to determine whether or not resveratrol (a natural antioxidant derived from grapes and red wine) improves metabolic syndrome and to explore its underling mechanisms.

To induce metabolic syndrome, male SD rats were given high cholesterol-fructose diet (HCF) for 15 weeks. Compared with the age-matched controlled group, the HCF animals exhibited hyperinsulinemia and hypercholesterolemia as well as impaired glucose tolerance and insulin responses during glucose tolerance test (GTT). Oral gavage fed resveratrol (1 mg/kg/day, 15 weeks) significantly reduced plasma insulin and cholesterol levels. Resveratrol also attenuated plasma glucose elevation and improved insulin responses during GTT. Furthermore, in insulin tolerance test (ITT), the insulin sensitivities were impaired in HCF animals. In contrast, insulin-stimulated plasma glucose lowering effects were significantly improved by resveratrol during ITT.

Finally, the hepatic glycogen synthesis as well as glucose uptake activities of soleus muscles, epididymal adipose tissues, and hepatic tissues were dramatically impaired in HCF animals. The results show that administration of resveratrol significantly improved HCF tissue glucose uptake activities and hepatic glycogen synthesis. Thus, we conclude that the metabolic syndrome prevention effect in conjunction with its aforementioned health benefits, suggests the use of resveratrol as a health food supplement and as a therapeutic drug to treat patients with metabolic syndrome.