Comprehensive Library Of Resveratrol News

Resveratrol is Weak Medicine, and It’s Well Past Time to Move On

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/02/resveratrol-is-weak-medicine-and-its-well-past-time-to-move-on.php

There is a very simple measure for any new potential therapy for enhanced longevity: is it either (a) doing at least as well as calorie restriction in mice when it comes to health and longevity, or (b) achieving important results that calorie restriction cannot show in mice – such as outright rejuvenation. The popular supplement resveratrol fails miserably to achieve significant results in either of these goals after more than five years of experimentation and hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding. This means that it is a dead end, or so close to one as makes no real difference. The only value gained lies in incremental improvements in the understanding of metabolism – which could have been achieved while studying more effective paths to the same end goal.

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The Hope Of The Ages Is Dashed. Will Humans Ever Achieve Super-Longevity?

ResveratrolNews.com – Health news headlines today question whether human growth hormone replacement, used by many Americans to overcome the ravages of aging, is just a misdirection.

It is true that the secretion of human growth hormone diminishes with advancing age.  But the just-released results of a 22-year study involving a population of genetically-abnormal individuals in Ecuador who produce low amounts of human growth hormone (GHG) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) reveals this group exhibit no diabetes, almost no cancer and a very low rate of stroke.  Strikingly, the blood serum of these people exhibits a double-protective effect: it protects against oxidative damage and gene mutations and also promotes cellular suicide among highly damaged cells.

Laboratory animals, bred to produce low amounts of these hormones, live on average about 30-40% longer.  In human terms, that would thrust human populations toward 100-plus-year life spans.  Theoretically, humans who produce an insufficient amount of growth hormones should have what is called a square survival curve where most of life is lived without major illness and then you drop dead, said one of the primary researchers involved in the study.

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Erectile dysfunction is a sign of poor circulation and/or high blood sugar which many men depressingly face.  Selling at prices up to $18 a pill online, Viagra is the best known pill that induces blood vessels in the penis to widen (dilate) and harden the male organ.  Cialis and Levitra are other widely-promoted brands of male potency pills.  In the animal laboratory, elevated blood sugar was chemically induced to produce erectile dysfunction and then vardenafil (Levitra) was compared against resveratrol, a widely available herbal supplement that is known to dilate blood vessels in the same manner.  Resveratrol was comparable to vardenafil and when both were used there was greater effect.  The biggest advantage for resveratrol is that it has many other health benefits. Source: Jan 26, 2011 release at the Journal of Sexual Medicine -  ResveratrolNews.com

It was Felix Z. Meerson MD, of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences, who in the 1980s began to suggest that the heart could be protected from damage caused from a heart attack by mild amounts of biological stress prior to the event.  Dr. Meerson even went so far as to subject animals after a heart attack to low-oxygen (high-altitude) environments which led to complete recovery from heart muscle spasms and a two-fold reduction in scarred tissue.

The most obvious application of cardiac pre-conditioning would be in surgery.  The surgical table or immediate post-surgical mortality rate for coronary artery bypass surgery and heart valve surgery is roughly ~3% and 5% respectively.

An effort to pre-condition the heart to withstand temporary mild restriction of oxygenated blood is facilitated by application of tourniquets (blood pressure cuff) to extremities (the thighs) prior to the operating table.  This is called remote ischemic preconditioning.  It is used successfully prior to bypass and heart valve surgery.   So it is not like cardiology is totally ignoring preconditioning.

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