Health and Wellness: Resveratrol -- Setting the Record Straight

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March 8, 2011

In This Issue...

Drug-Free Treatment Reverses Even Bone-on-Bone Arthritis...
Resveratrol -- Setting the Record Straight -- Why All the Controversy About the Red-Wine Supplement?
Shocking #2 Cause of Cancer
Now We Know Why Religious People Are Happier
It Only Takes a Spark to Get a Fire Going

Drug-Free Treatment Reverses Even Bone-on-Bone Arthritis...

"Bone-on-bone" is the term doctors use for the last agonizing stage of arthritis. Your cartilage is totally ground away. Steroids and supplements are pointless. Alice was told her only hope was total knee replacement. Yet thanks to a brilliant physician, she skipped the surgery and feels like new. That's right. Alice licked "bone-on-bone" arthritis without surgery or drugs. And she did so with astonishing speed. In fact, not long after seeing this doctor, she left on a three-week shopping vacation -- then returned to the doctor's office with gifts for the entire staff and pronounced herself pain-free! What's the secret?

Learn more...

Resveratrol -- Setting the Record Straight

The red-wine supplement resveratrol has been very much in the news in recent years, but reports vary -- while some cast doubt, many are very promising about its numerous health benefits. With sales soaring and more than 100 resveratrol supplements available, it’s clear that lots of people want to believe that these products work miracles. Do they? How? And which work best?

To learn more, I turned to Joseph C. Maroon, MD, a professor of neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and author of The Longevity Factor: How Resveratrol and Red Wine Activate Genes for a Longer and Healthier Life. Regarding resveratrol, we talked about what scientists are sure of and what has yet to be proven. Dr. Maroon also shared his insights on how to safely and effectively use this supplement today.

Helpful or Not?

Resveratrol is a beneficial polyphenol (a type of plant chemical) that is particularly abundant in red wine and the skins of red grapes. Many scientists believe it works -- potentially extending lifespan and offering protection against heart disease, certain cancers and diabetes -- by "switching on" a class of proteins called sirtuins. These help prevent gene mutations and repair DNA damage, slowing the aging process and the development of age-related diseases.

So does it work or not? Let’s take a look at how the controversy got started.

Because there was a load of exciting research supporting resveratrol’s benefits, in 2008, the giant pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) paid $720 million to purchase a small biotech firm that owned the patent for a synthetic form of resveratrol. In an attempt to win FDA approval of this formulation of resveratrol, GSK launched clinical trials -- but had to shut them down in April 2010 when some of the participants developed kidney complications. This is the event that led some critics to charge that resveratrol’s benefits were overstated.

But it wasn’t the right stuff: Dr. Maroon explained that it’s important to recognize that the problems stemmed from an artificial form of resveratrol that chemists had concocted in a laboratory. The clinical trial did not use the kind of natural resveratrol that humans have safely consumed in wine and grapes for thousands of years... that has been used in Chinese medicine for centuries... and that has been available as a neutraceutical supplement for about a decade.

EVIDENCE OF MULTIPLE HEALTH BENEFITS

The cancellation of the clinical trial resulted in a rush of negative press, said Dr. Maroon, but meanwhile there is plenty of other research on resveratrol that is yielding extremely positive results. Where earlier studies demonstrated that resveratrol brought health benefits to animals, now new ones are examining what resveratrol does for humans (or human cells). The findings suggest that resveratrol can be beneficial in areas such as...

Inflammation control. A University of Buffalo study published in the September 2010 issue of Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism verified for the first time that resveratrol controls oxidative stress and inflammation in people. Twenty healthy volunteers took a 40-milligram (mg) resveratrol extract or a placebo for six weeks, and subsequent blood tests revealed lower levels of inflammatory cytokines in the resveratrol group. Inflammation lies at the root of devastating age-related illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and Alzheimer’s, Dr. Maroon notes.

Cancer prevention and treatment. In a 2010 laboratory trial at the University of Rochester Medical Center, investigators discovered that resveratrol may help combat pancreatic cancer. They added 50 mg of the supplement to one group of human pancreatic cancer cells and nothing to the other and found that the cancer cells treated with resveratrol responded more positively to chemotherapy. Other research suggests that resveratrol guards against cancers of the skin, breast, liver, lung and colon.

Protection against diabetes. Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report that resveratrol improves glucose metabolism in adults with prediabetes.

Improved heart and brain health. A March 2010 review in Genes & Nutrition summarized existing reports on the cardioprotective and longevity aspects of resveratrol, which protects the linings of blood vessels in the heart to prevent blood clots and other damage. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 22 healthy adults reported in the June 2010 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, British investigators at Northumbria University found that resveratrol increases oxygen uptake and blood flow to the frontal lobes of the brain (the site of cognition and problem solving).

Want to Try It?

To supplement your diet with resveratrol, Dr. Maroon says to look for products made with trans-resveratrol -- the active form of resveratrol polyphenols made from the skins of red grapes. An average dose consists of 250 mg to 500 mg a day, and scientists have detected no significant side effects at these doses. Expect to pay on average $40 for a 30-day supply. Dr. Maroon recommends the following brands...

Vindure 900. A mixed polyphenol supplement based on Harvard University’s resveratrol research. It can be purchased directly from Vinomis Laboratories (www.Vinomis.com, 877-484-6664).

ResVitále Resveratrol. A resveratrol supplement from French red wine vineyards. www.Resvitale.com, 877-787-5454).

GNC Longevity Factors Cellular Antioxidant Defense. A combination of resveratrol, vitamin D (cholecalciferol D-3), grape seed extract and quercetin. Note that this product was developed by Dr. Maroon together with GNC, and that he does have a financial interest in it. Available at GNC stores or on their Web site (www.gnc.com, 877-462-4700).

Whether you choose to take supplements or not, it certainly makes sense to eat plenty of resveratrol- and polyphenol-rich foods. Go for variety in your diet, because different plant compounds interact synergistically with one another to provide more powerful health benefits. Choose items such as red grapes... red wines including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir (in moderation, of course)... pure red grape juice (high-quality organic, not from concentrate)... unroasted peanuts... dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)... green tea... and blueberries, cranberries and pomegranates.

Source(s):

Joseph C. Maroon, MD, clinical professor of neurological surgery and Heindl Scholar in Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh. Dr. Maroon is the team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers and author of The Longevity Factor: How Resveratrol and Red Wine Activate Genes for a Longer and Healthier Life (Atria).

Shocking #2 Cause of Cancer

An official at the American Cancer Society said that it's easy to avoid half of all cancers.

However, an adviser to the American Institute for Cancer Research was even more optimistic when he said that nine out of 10 cancers are related to factors we control.

Of course, their #1 piece of advice is "stop smoking." We all know that. But I bet you don't know the #2 cause of cancer. It's something totally under your control -- it's much easier than quitting cigarettes -- and it's the last thing you'd ever expect. I'll tell you about it in a moment.

Read on...

Now We Know Why Religious People Are Happier

It’s long been known that people with religious faith tend to be more satisfied with their lives -- the question has been why. Now University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) and Harvard University researchers believe they have come up with the answer, and the "secret ingredient" is... friendship.

"Our study offers compelling evidence that it is the social aspects of religion rather than theology or spirituality that lead to life satisfaction," wrote study author Chaeyoon Lim, PhD, an assistant professor of sociology at UW. I gave Dr. Lim a call to find out more.

Happiness Is Praying Together

To examine religion’s impact on our sense of well-being, Dr. Lim and his colleagues analyzed data from the 2006 and 2007 Faith Matters Study. To collect this data, a commercial research company randomly phoned thousands of Americans twice in a one-year period and asked about their religious practices and life satisfaction and happiness. The survey included a representative sample of Americans, with most being of Christian faith, and smaller numbers of Jews and Muslims.

In a close examination of the results, Dr. Lim and his team found that...

One-third of people (33%) who attended religious services once a week and had three to five friends in the congregation were extremely satisfied with their lives (meaning that they ranked their satisfaction as "10" on a scale of one to 10).

In contrast, only 19% of those who attended weekly services but had no friends in the congregation reported extreme satisfaction.

Nearly one-quarter of those who attended services sporadically (several times a year) but still had three to five friends in the congregation were extremely satisfied with their lives.

Just 19% of people who never attended religious services -- and thus had no congregational friends -- were extremely satisfied with their lives.

After factoring in church attendance and congregational friendship, the authors also discovered that private religious practices -- such as feeling God’s presence in daily life and praying -- did not have a measurable impact on life satisfaction.

Dr. Lim told me that he found this last finding a bit surprising, since earlier research had suggested otherwise, but he said that this study demonstrates that the social dimension of religion -- specifically, the closeness of the community where you attend services -- is what’s important. "For life satisfaction," he says, "praying together seems better than either praying alone or, say, bowling together."

Results were published in the December 2010 issue of American Sociological Review.

Why Friends Matter

This provides yet more evidence of how and why our social connections help our health, but what is it about deriving social support from shared spiritual pursuits that is so special? Dr. Lim gets this question all the time and doesn’t know the answer yet... although he noted that we do know that people with more friends in general tend to be happier. He doesn’t rule out the possibility that one could get the same benefits from a group of close friends who meet on a regular basis, engage in meaningful activities and have a shared sense of social identity.

Then again, it could be that there is something unique about friendship based on religious faith -- what Dr. Lim calls "morally infused" social support -- that cannot be found in the secular community. He and his colleagues are currently gathering more data to address this question.

Source(s):

Chaeyoon Lim, PhD, assistant professor of sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin.

It Only Takes a Spark to Get a Fire Going

This morning, I arose to a series of alarms -- three fire trucks, two ambulances,three police cars. The commotion, it turns out, was right next door where a small fire was wreaking big havoc. The first evidence of the fire was smoke coming out of the light fixtures in the kitchen so my neighbor, thinking it was an electrical fire, turned off the lights and checked her oven, although she knew nothing was cooking at the time. "Donna and Sam" finally figured out the source of the fire when they opened the bathroom door and saw their towels aflame.

Health and Wellness

March 7, 2011

Resveratrol -- Setting the Record Straight

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