Resveratrol for health and beauty or red wine is not just for the heart

“Red wine is good for the heart” – a fact that has delighted everyone who has enjoyed this drink for decades. The colouring agent resveratrol, to which the wine owes its effects, has many other positive effects, according to modern research.

The first theory about the benefits of drinking red wine is almost two hundred years old. As early as 1819, Samuel Black, an Irish physician, first suggested that the low incidence of cardiovascular disease in the French population might be due to the heavy drinking of red wine.

Then, during the 20th century, scientists named one of the components responsible for the beneficial effects of red wine: the dye resveratrol, which is found throughout the grape vine, but mostly in the skins. However, for a long time it was thought that its extraordinary antioxidant properties were the main reason for its positive effect on the heart. In fact, it is able to neutralise free radicals that damage the walls of blood vessels and thus promote the development of atherosclerosis.

In the last two decades, however, scientists have come up with a much more surprising finding: resveratrol is one of the natural substances with extremely high epigenetic activity. This means that it is able to influence the activity of some important genes – including those that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as many other serious health problems.

Inflammation everywhere you look

For example, resveratrol helps to significantly reduce LDL cholesterol oxidation or platelet clumping, which are important risk factors for atherosclerosis. The antioxidant effect is primarily responsible for these effects.

However, inflammatory processes, which occur in blood vessels from the moment their walls are first damaged, also play a very important role in the development of heart and blood vessel diseases. This is where the epigenetic effects of resveratrol come into play. It is capable of suppressing the activity of genes responsible for the development of inflammatory processes – especially those that control the production of enzymes that promote inflammation.

Thanks to its combination of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, resveratrol is not only a powerful weapon in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, but also in its treatment. One study has even shown that when given to patients within 24 hours of a heart attack, the extent of damage to heart tissue is reduced by 36%.

In addition, the anti-inflammatory effects of resveratrol are also used in the prevention and treatment of many other conditions, whether it is obesity, which always results in a mild form of whole-body inflammation, or diabetes, which in turn is accompanied by inflammatory changes in the pancreas. Research has even shown that it can be very useful in inflammatory bowel diseases such as various types of colitis (e.g. ulcerative colitis) or asthma.

Hope against cancer

The epigenetic effects of reveratrol are also applied in the prevention and treatment of cancer. There are genes in our body that are responsible for preventing processes that can lead to cancer – for example, the so-called proliferation, or the ability of cells to multiply rapidly. However, due to poor nutrition, lifestyle and other factors, chemical reactions take place in the body that reduce the activity of these genes, essentially “switching them off”. This reduces the body’s natural defences against cancer and increases the risk of disease.

Fortunately, these chemical reactions are reversible and resveratrol is one of the natural substances that can do this. Thanks to its antioxidant action, it also prevents free radicals from damaging cell walls and DNA itself, another risk factor for cancer.

Brain fit, wrinkle-free skin

Numerous scientific studies have also shown that resveratrol is a very effective weapon against premature aging, which is also due to its epigenetic action. For example, it improves the ability of cells to respond to stressors from the external environment and, with long-term use, has even been shown to significantly reduce wrinkles and improve skin quality.

More importantly, however, is the ability of resveratrol to support the maintenance of mental fitness into old age. It improves blood supply to the brain, protects nerve cells from damage and improves the function of the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for the functioning of our memory. Some research has even confirmed the effectiveness of resveratrol in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease – for example, it affects the formation of so-called amyloid plaques, which appear in the brains of patients suffering from the disease, and helps slow the decline of brain function.

How to take resveratrol?

The richest natural source of resveratrol is grapes and the beverage made from them – i.e. red wine (there is much less in white and rosé). However, it is also found in blueberries and blackcurrants.

The problem is, however, the quantity, which is not high and also fluctuates significantly. Usually, however, it is no more than a few milligrams per glass. However, to achieve significant epigenetic effects, much higher doses are needed – 20-100 mg per day for preventive use, and even 1000 mg or more for therapeutic use. It is not possible to achieve this by simply drinking wine; if one could drink such doses, the negative effects of the alcohol contained would far outweigh the positive ones.

So for red wine lovers, this is not good news, but fortunately there is a safe and much more effective option: taking resveratrol as a dietary supplement.

On the dietary supplement market, resveratrol is available from grape skins or Japanese knotweed. The difference between their effects has not yet been sufficiently scientifically investigated, but practical experience so far shows that resveratrol from grapes, or a combination of both, is more effective.

Blanka Gololobova