I ain't takin' no drugs. I ain't getting on no plane...
The Red Wine Pill is in the news again. A study has shown that the resveratrol capsule provides more health benefits than drinking hundreds of glasses of the “sweet nectar of the gods.”
About Seventeen years ago, the CBS program 60 Minutes first examined the so-called “French paradox”, which suggested that the French – despite a high fat diet and high consumption of wine – had a remarkably low incidence of heart disease, compared with North Americans.
It was decided that there must be something in the wine that offered protection and eventually clever eggheads (are there any other kind?) attributed this to resveratrol, a substance found in red wine.
So how did they set about proving this? On mice of course!
Middle-aged mice were fed a diet in which 60 percent of calories came from fat. They developed signs of diabetes and died much sooner than mice fed on a regular diet.
Another group of middle-aged mice were fed the same diet along with resveratrol. This prevented the onset of diabetes, and even though obese, they lived as long as those fed a regular diet. It showed mice could be gluttons at mealtime without paying the price later on.
But the fun didn’t stop there for Mickey and Mini.
A Dr. Johan Auwerx at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Illkirch, France, showed that an ordinary mouse could run one kilometer on a treadmill. But mice given resveratrol ran twice as far, had a slower heart rate, and developed muscle fibres similar to those of trained human athletes .
Surely conclusive proof that if we want to run as fast as Usain Bolt then we just need to sink a bottle of Cabernet?
Actually no. You’d have to drink 1,500 bottles of red wine daily to get the same amount of resveratrol that was given to the mice. And that’s where the red wine pill comes in.
Doctors have been reluctant to promote the health benefits of red wine due to the social problems associated with the over-consumption of alcohol (you lookin’ at my bird?). But if these new studies are well-founded then the red wine pill may indeed help combat the ageing process.
So, how effective are the current crop of Resvaratrol pills on the market? Let’s leave the last word to an expert, Dr. W Gifford-Jones
Several red wine pills are available, but studies show some brands provide only small amounts of resveratrol. I’ve relied on the work of seven international nutritionists and their book “The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements.” They analyzed and rated 500 vitamin products. No company hit the perfect score 100. One company, Vitamin Research Products, reached 93.1. Its “Extension Resveratrol” product also contains red wine polyphenols, which act synergistically with resveratrol and quercetin to prolong the action of resveratrol in the body.
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Enjoying reading your blog. Hard work always pays off.