Resveratrol Supplements and the Fountain of Youth

The ability of some people to eat what they want whenever they want and suffer no ill effects might have led doctors to discover the next miracle drug. For some time doctors and scientists have known that adopting a healthy diet and staying in shape will keep us strong longer and even prevent some illnesses associated with aging. But some people seem to have the ability to eat high fat diets and still stay trim and seem younger. Researchers had long known that the French suffered lower instances of heart disease despite eating a relatively high fat diet, and the term "French Paradox" was coined in 1992 to describe this phenomenon. Soon thereafter scientists attributed the cause of the occurrence to the French's higher per capita consumption of red wine. Once doctors suspected red wine as being the source of greater health, they then began earnest efforts to pinpoint the exact substance in wine that seemed to slow the aging process and prevent heart disease. They found resveratrol, and many scientists think that one day we could be taking a pill that can add ten years, ten healthy years, to our lives.

Resveratrol is a phytoalexin (a type of antibiotic) found in many plants, most notably the skin of red wine grapes. Researchers believe that resveratrol may be able to activate normally inactive human genes that delay the onset of aging and all the complications that come with growing old, such as diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimers, and even cancer. The hope is that resveratrol can unlock the human body's natural defenses against age-related illnesses. Tests in mice were incredibly promising. Among mice that were fed a high fat diet those that were also fed doses of resveratrol remained trimmer and in good shape. Later testing in humans also yielded positive results. The first human trials in people with untreated diabetes showed that those who took resveratrol had lower glucose and insulin levels.

The first question that comes to mind after seeing the results of all these recent studies is, if resveratrol is present in red wine, why not just drink red wine? Why go to all the effort to develop a resveratrol pill? The answer is simple. To receive the same levels of resveratrol as the mice and human test subjects a person would have to drink a thousand bottles of wine every day. Obviously that is not a practical option, so a few pharmaceutical companies are in a race to develop an approved prescription resveratrol pill.

Resveratrol Anti Aging Supplement Review

According to Dr. Christoph Westphal at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, an FDA approved prescription resveratrol pill may be as little as five years away. But a non-prescription variety of resveratrol supplement derived from Japanese knotweed is sold by dozens of health food and vitamin stores online. Sales of the supplements are hot, especially since resveratrol has been featured on major televised networks like ABC and CBS. The supplements have not been available for a long enough time to compile comprehensive studies, but existing anecdotal accounts reveal a striking lack of negative effects in those regularly taking resveratrol supplements. We can't know for sure yet, but we may already have a fountain of youth, a miracle pill that adds ten or more healthy years to our lives.