Resveratrol Link to Health Benefits of Red Wine

Bioflavonoids in Wine Protect CV System, Brain and other Organs

Aug 11, 2009

Drinking red wine provides a range of health benefits. Research is proving that it's the resveratrol that does most of the work at cell level, but only in moderation.

Drinking red wine has been credited for 200 years with a wide range of health benefits. But alcohol has also been criticised for causing or exacerbating many health problems.

This led to people wondering about the ‘French paradox’. French people drink wine every day with their meals, yet, although their diet is comparatively rich in saturated fats (cream, butter), they have a lower rate of cardiovascular disease than Americans and Australians.

Red wine is apparently protecting their CV system from damage from the saturated fats.

The paradox is that it’s the amount of alcohol – especially red wine – that is regularly consumed, which causes either good or bad effects. The ideal is to drink in moderation: no more than two glasses a day.

Now Australian scientists have unlocked the key to the alcohol and health paradox: the red wine ingredient, a polyphenol called resveratrol.

Resveratrol Improves or Damages Health Depending on the Dose

Resveratrol is one of the non-alcoholic chemicals in red wine, and also occurs in fruits - red grapes, white grapes, blueberries, bilberries, and, surprisingly, peanuts.

It has been recognised for about a decade as providing protection against some cancers and In the past few years, other benefits have been identified. Resveratrol’s health contributions include:

However, too much of the same chemical can cause damage to the same organs that lower doses protect.

Resveratrol’s Dual Action Explained

Australian researchers have explained resveratrol’s dual action. It is one of a complex mixture of bioactive compounds in red wine, including flavonols, monomeric and polymeric flavan-3-ols, highly colored anthocyanins and phenolic acids.

Associate Professor Lindsay Brown, of the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland, studied resveratrol and other polyphenols from red wine. She found the action happened at the cellular level in the body, and was linked to sirtuins, enzymes regulating the production of cellular components by the nucleus.

"It sounds contradictory that a single compound can benefit the heart by preventing damage to cells, yet prevent cancer by causing cell death, Dr Brown said.

"The most likely explanation for this, still to be rigorously proved in many organs, is that low concentrations activate survival mechanisms of cells while high concentrations turn on the in-built death signals in these cells.

"Resveratrol turns on the cell's own survival pathways, preventing damage to individual cells,” she said. "Further mechanisms help, including removing very reactive oxidants in the body and improving blood supply to cells."

Dosage is crucial in deciding the action of resveratrol at cell level. “Low doses of resveratrol improve cell survival as a mechanism of cardio- and neuro-protection, while high doses increase cell death.”

Enjoy Red Wine Slowly For Maximum Benefit

UQ Professor of Pharmacology, Dr Steven Taylor said the secret to the benefits of red wine was to drink in moderation and to enjoy the experience.

While some fruits contain good levels of resveratrol, “not many of us can or will eat a couple of cups of blueberries a day for years on end,” he said, and red wine “has both some mystique and some historical symbolism in the west."

He explained that the resveratrol in wine or fruit is largely inactivated by the gut or liver before it reaches the blood stream, and suggested another reason for enjoying wine slowly and savoring it by smell and taste as wine connoisseurs do.

"Interestingly, absorption via the mucous membranes in the mouth can result in up to around 100 times the blood levels, if done slowly rather than simply gulping it down.”

The copyright of the article Resveratrol Link to Health Benefits of Red Wine in Food Facts is owned by Sue Cartledge. Permission to republish Resveratrol Link to Health Benefits of Red Wine in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.