Comprehensive Library Of Resveratrol News

Abolishes chemobrain

Resveratrol continues to astound.  Now if modern medicine would only take it out of the research closet and make it applied medicine.

Chemobrain is a symptom reported by many cancer patients with difficulty processing information.  Symptoms of chemobrain include fatigue, confusion, mental fogginess, short attention span, short-term memory problems, recall and memory, difficulty concentrating.  In an animal model of chemobrain, laboratory mice received injections of three cancer drugs, taxotere (docetaxel), doxorubicin (Adriamycin), cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), preceded by one week of resveratrol treatment.  Resveratrol resulted in far less brain inflammation and other interference of brain activity.  According to the Mayo Clinic, no cure for chemobrain is at hand.

Extends the life of stored blood

There is limited availability of whole blood infused following traumatic injury because blood platelets (clotting factors) are dysfunctional within 5 days of donation and storage.  Researchers forged ahead to pre-supply whole blood cells with resveratrol in an effort to prolong their storage.  Platelet function was maintained up to 15 days before a significant decrease was observed that extended to 25 days in some instances.  The obvious application of resveratrol to extend the storage and availability of whole blood in a battlefield setting would be a major advance in life saving trauma care.

Enhances growth of beneficial gut bacteria

With the knowledge that gut bacteria composition maintains health, many FDA approved drugs need to undergo re-testing to examine how they affect the microbiome (library of trillions of bacteria that reside in the intestines).  Researchers recently screened more than 1000 marketed drugs for their ability to maintain 40 different strains of gut bacteria and found 24% of the drugs inhibited the growth of at least one bacterial strain.  These non-antibiotic drugs produce some of the same symptoms that antibiotics produce as they sterilize the gut of all bacteria.  These drugs may also increase the potential risk for antibiotic resistance.  Antibiotics alter gut bacteria for months after they are prescribed.  Even a single antibiotic treatment in healthy individuals contributes to the risk of germ resistance, say researchers.

With this in mind, resveratrol has now been shown to selectively preserve a dominant strain of gut bacteria, Lactobacillus plantarum, a strain of bacteria that persists in the digestive tract better than other Lactobacillus (acid forming) strains.  Resveratrol selectively fostered growth of this beneficial bacterium by virtue of its ability to bind to excess unbound copper.  By neutralizing cell-toxic copper it preserves beneficial bacteria.  Resveratrol protected DNA.  Resveratrol was found to “provide a battery of protective mechanisms to Lactobacillus plantarum and conferred advantages to this microorganism to compete against other bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.”  This discovery “can open up new paths for probiotic production and can be used for better management of the gut microbial ecosystem to achieve health benefits”, said researchers.  ©2018 Bill Sardi, ResveratrolNews.com