Comprehensive Library Of Resveratrol News

Re: Resveratrol not ready for humans yet.

While it is true that supplemental resveratrol lacks human studies regarding heart health, it appears modern medicine is dragging its feet here.  Human studies should have ensued by now.   A review at the NIH Clinical Trials website reveals none appear to be even in the planning stages.

The big problem is that the primary end point is cardiac death and there is no ethical way to rapidly test a high-risk group against plain placebo.  Almost every adult with heart disease is taking vitamins or medications that may interfere with the results, particularly because resveratrol influences cytochrome P450 liver enzymes and may require dosage adjustment of cardiac drugs in use.⁽¹⁾ Also results are years away and thousands of subjects would have to be tested for a period of up to 5-years to obtain conclusive coronary artery disease mortality data.

It may be easier for modern medicine to retrospectively analyze mortality data among resveratrol pills users like aspirin was first studied than to launch a prospective study.  To do that, cardiologists would have to start identifying patients already taking resveratrol pills.  But unlike aspirin which generally is provided in two standard doses (81 mg and 325 mg), resveratrol pills come in a wide dosage range (20-1000 mg), making analysis difficult.

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A large question looms for longevity seekers. Is there anything short of a calorie-restricted diet that has conclusively been shown to produce longevity? That question can’t be practically answered in humans because a decades-long study would have to be conducted.

For background, a limited-calorie diet, in human terms about one meal a day, has been shown to nearly double the lifespan of most living organisms ranging from fruit flies, roundworms and mice, and there is promising data on monkeys now. But obviously, the Calorie Restriction Society has only a few hundred gaunt-looking members. Food deprivation is not going to be a popular way of living longer.

The pursuit of a molecular mimic of calorie restriction has been fervent. Three molecules have risen to the drawing board stage: rapamycin, an anti-fungal/antibiotic drug; metformin, an anti-diabetic drug; and resveratrol, a red wine molecule.

The idea is to find a small molecule that would enter cellular machinery and tickle the same genes as a calorie-restricted diet.

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Chennai, India (January 9, 2011) –  While age-related vision loss of catastrophic proportions is predicted in coming decades, rising from 17 million patients today to 55 million by the year 2050, it’s possible this catastrophe could be averted and lost  vision even restored using molecular medicine.

These are the words of Stuart Richer, OD, PhD, speaking at the 10^th annual meeting and International Conference on Recent Trends in Therapeutic Advancement of Free Radical Science, in Chennai, India today.

Dr. Richer says modern medicine is just beginning to evaluate data from the first cases where conventional medical and surgical efforts to restore lost vision had been exhausted and a molecular medicine approach was employed under  compassionate use.  Even other nutritional therapies including antioxidants were ineffective.  Molecular medicine, where small molecules are utilized that can pass through the blood-retinal barrier and which can influence the genetic machinery inside living cells,  appears to be very promising, says Dr. Richer.

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