Resveratrol benefits
Health benefits of resveratrol
What is resveratrol?
The starring role in the story of the French Paradox, resveratrol is a natural compound found in a variety of plants that has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. As a supplement it can be an exceptional addition to your diet if you’re looking to pay more attention to your health as you’re ageing. The French Paradox refers to the phenomenon of certain French regions eating a lot of fat-heavy foods like croissants and a variety of cheeses, but remaining in excellent health despite that seemingly unhealthy diet1. While we now know that part of the reason is that the diet certainly also included plenty of fish, nuts, legumes, and olive oil, that doesn’t negate the truth in other drawn conclusions, either.
One guess among researchers was that the wine aided people’s health in this regard. As miraculous as it might sound, they weren’t technically wrong about that. The real star was a polyphenol called resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes and in chocolate. Resveratrol increases your blood flow and boosts your heart health, has antioxidant properties, lowers your risk of developing cancer or neurodegenerative illnesses, and even works to prevent diabetes. Of course the suggestion is not to drink a bottle of wine a day and hope for resveratrol to work its miracles that way, but the French were onto something.
Fortunately for us, resveratrol is also found in other plants: cocoa beans (including raw cocoa powder), peanuts, white grapes (though red grapes contain more), peanuts, and different types of berries including mulberries, strawberries, and cranberries, are all known to be sources of resveratrol. In addition to this though, resveratrol is offered as a supplement too, a much more convenient way of increasing your daily intake of the compound.
Resveratrol’s antioxidant effects on the cardiovascular system
Resveratrol benefits your cardiovascular health in many different ways, including through regulating your blood pressure, your cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of blood clots and oxidative stress, and improving blood flow. A lot of these mechanisms are connected to each other, which allows resveratrol to function exceptionally effectively in combating various cardiovascular issues at once.
For example, resveratrol functions as an antioxidant2, which plays an important role in combating oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is caused by an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in your body. What happens is that there are too many free radicals to be reigned in by the antioxidants, and they are left to roam free and damage your body’s tissue and cells. This can lead to various and chronic illnesses such as cancer, but also diabetes, heart disease, and neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s. Resveratrol provides your body with more antioxidants, which prevents this from happening.
At the same time, resveratrol’s role as an antioxidant helps it promote general heart health too. The balancing of antioxidants and free radicals also helps to dilate your blood vessels more, allowing improved blood flow from and towards your heart and preventing clotting and build-up in your veins3. It very effectively gives different aspects of your cardiovascular system a well-deserved boost because the same mechanism that helps one part of your system, also helps others.
Resveratrol’s effect on cholesterol
There are two types of cholesterol in your body: LDL, which transports cholesterol from the liver, can stick to the inside of your veins and clog them up. It’s generally referred to as the “bad” type of cholesterol. There is also HDL, the “good” cholesterol, carrying cholesterol from other tissue back to the liver where it’s then broken down and disposed of. Resveratrol helps to lower your LDL levels and increase your HDL levels4, leaving your body with more of the good cholesterol and lowering your risk for heart disease, strokes, and heart attacks associated with high cholesterol levels.
Resveratrol’s prevention of blood clotting
Resveratrol prevents your body from developing blood clots in two ways. The first is through its previously mentioned effect on your cholesterol levels: an excess of LDL, the bad cholesterol, can create plaque on the inside of your veins that, if the growing accumulation of plaque breaks, can release a bunch of fatty acids into your bloodstream and cause a blood clot. By lowering your cholesterol levels, resveratrol also lowers the chances of this happening. The second way resveratrol lowers your chances of developing blood clots is through its effect on platelet apoptosis5, which increases the speed in which platelets are disposed of in your body. This prevents platelets from building up in your veins and forming blood clots.
Resveratrol protecting your brain
Resveratrol most notably aids your neuroprotection, helping to protect your brain from developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s6. Resveratrol also helps to generally improve your cognitive function and mood levels. This again relates back to resveratrol’s exceptional antioxidant properties: oxidative stress can do a lot of damage, and when it damages your brain cells it can cause cognitive decline and the development of neurodegenerative illness. Resveratrol helps to stabilise the free radicals and antioxidants in your body, protecting your brain from the cognitive damage caused by oxidative stress7.
Similarly, this is where resveratrol’s anti-inflammatory properties are vital: chronic inflammation can do serious damage to your brain and cognitive functions. Through preventing inflammation, resveratrol not only protects your brain from lowered cognitive function and Alzheimer’s8, but it also helps to stabilise your mood. Through modulating your neurotransmitters and with help of its anti-inflammatory qualities, some studies have shown that resveratrol acts as an antidepressant and even helps you combat regular stress in your daily life.
Resveratrol as cancer-prevention
Research has shown that resveratrol’s anti-inflammatory properties, its ability to induce apoptosis, and its effect on the cell cycle make it a potentially effective weapon against cancerous cells. Chronic inflammation is one of the risk factors for developing cancer cells in your body; as established, resveratrol protects your body against inflammation, which in turn protects you against developing cancer cells. Resveratrol also induces something called apoptosis, similar to the platelet apoptosis that helps resveratrol prevent blood-clotting, it induces apoptosis, or the death of cells, which encourages the destruction of harmful cells like cancer9. In addition to these two methods of combating cancer, resveratrol also has an effect on the cell cycle, allowing it to control the way developing cells grow and preventing uncontrolled growth from happening in cell development. While it would be great to have more research on this, the studies done so far are extremely promising for the way resveratrol can help you in preventing and fighting cancer.
Managing diabetes with resveratrol
Resveratrol can be useful in helping diabetes type 2 patients manage their disease because it boosts cells’ mitochondrias (which provide cells with their energy), increases insulin sensitivity, and reduces your glucose levels10. Resveratrol lowers your body’s glucose levels by controlling glucose metabolism and by boosting your cells’ insulin sensitivity, allowing them to more quickly react to signals from insulin and fight glucose more effectively than before. The boost resveratrol gives to the mitochondria of your cells helps with this: the boost in energy strengthens the muscle of your cells, allowing them to retain their insulin sensitivity better.
Resveratrol’s effect on joints
If your joints are starting to protest doing things you’ve always been able to do with no issue, resveratrol might be a solution to that! Its benefits for your cartilage and its anti-inflammatory properties make it an effective way of combating joint issues and preventing the development of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, or help to manage those conditions in patients11. Resveratrol protects your cartilage by inhibiting enzymes like matrix metalloproteinases and aggrecanases, which break down cartilage components; it also encourages the synthesis of cartilage components, working to strengthen your cartilage and prevent it from wearing down with time. In patients with existing forms of arthritis, studies have shown that resveratrol supplements can ease patients’ pain and relieve their symptoms, including improving their joint function and making the disease more manageable.
Dosing resveratrol and potential side effects
Because resveratrol is found so commonly in regular foods like grapes and chocolate, it’s generally considered a perfectly safe supplement to take. Still, it’s always important to consult with your gp, pharmacist, or other health care provider, and to make sure you’re taking an appropriate dose. 500mg or less per day is considered a healthy dose of resveratrol supplement; while higher doses than that have been used in studies, this is not the recommended amount.
Potential side effects of resveratrol include nausea, stomach pain, and other mild abdominal issues, but since it’s a natural supplement these symptoms shouldn’t be severe and aren’t likely to occur. Always be mindful of monitoring your side effects when you start taking a new supplement so you know how your body is responding. It’s recommended you take the supplement with a meal to reduce the chance for gastrointestinal side effects. Additionally, combine resveratrol supplements with a healthy diet and lifestyle; don’t expect the supplement to replace those things for you.
Conclusion: resveratrol for your health
While taking a daily supplement of resveratrol won’t let you eat all the croissants and high-fat cheeses you want without any consequences the way the French Paradox might suggest, there’s no denying that there are a lot of great health benefits to adding a daily dose of resveratrol to your diet. Resveratrol has excellent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that allow it to positively affect many different parts and processes in your body. It helps you balance your cholesterol and your glucose, helps you combat oxidative stress and helps to prevent the immense damage that can cause, including helping your body fight off cancerous cells and the development of neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson’s disease. It’s an easy and convenient way to set you on a path towards a healthier lifestyle.
If you have any more questions about resveratrol supplements, contact your healthcare provider about them or reach out to boinca to ask us directly.
References
1: Renaud, Serge, and Michel de Lorgeril. “Wine, Alcohol, Platelets, and the French Paradox for Coronary Heart Disease.” The Lancet, vol. 339, no. 8808, 1992, pp. 1523-1526. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(92)91277-F.
2, 3: Jones, Peter, et al. “The French Paradox: A Cultural Comparison of Health Outcomes.” Journal of Nutrition and Health, vol. 12, no. 3, 2023, pp. 45-58, https://doaj.org/article/c991745dc1494381b64800da45e6cce4.
4: Zeratsky, Katherine. “Red Wine and Resveratrol: Good for Your Heart?” Mayo Clinic, 24 June 2023, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-disease/in-depth/red-wine/art-20048281.
5: “Mitochondrial calcium and the regulation of metabolism in the heart.” Cardiovascular Research, vol. 83, no. 3, 2009, pp. 575-580. Oxford University Press, https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article/83/3/575/333330.
6: “Resveratrol Helps to Stabilize Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarker.” CASI, https://www.casi.org/si-42214/resveratrol-helps-to-stabilize-alzheimers-disease-biomarker-0.
7: Houldsworth, Annwyne. “Role of oxidative stress in neurodegenerative disorders: a review of reactive oxygen species and prevention by antioxidants.” Brain Communications, Volume 6, Issue 1, 2024, fcad356, https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad356.
8: “Chronic inflammation may put your brain at risk.” Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School, https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/chronic-inflammation-may-put-your-brain-at-risk.
9: Yang, R., Dong, H., Jia, S. et al. Resveratrol as a modulatory of apoptosis and autophagy in cancer therapy. Clin Transl Oncol 24, 1219–1230 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-021-02770-y
10: “Resveratrol: Beneficial for Diabetes?” Healthline, Healthline Media, https://www.healthline.com/health-news/resveratrol-beneficial-for-diabetes.
11: Nguyen, Christelle, Jean-François Savouret, Magdalena Widerak, Marie-Thérèse Corvol, and François Rannou. “Resveratrol, Potential Therapeutic Interest in Joint Disorders: A Critical Narrative Review” Nutrients 9, 2017. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9010045.