Comprehensive Library Of Resveratrol News

Well, it took 14 years for the research community to conduct a simple human study to determine if resveratrol raises Sirtuin1 gene protein blood levels as well as a calorie restricted diet.  The study was conducted among healthy or slightly overweight subjects.  Since blood measures of cholesterol, insulin and blood sugar were already within the healthy range in these subjects, neither a limited calorie diet nor resveratrol had any significant effects upon these measures, nor upon heart rate, weight, waist circumference or blood pressure.

Here are the results of a recently published study:

30-Day Study Of Healthy Adults Source: Nutrients, Volume 10, Page 937, 2018
	Calorie restricted diet 1000 calories per day = 50% reduction in caloric intake		Resveratrol (87% purity) 500 milligrams
	Start	30-days	Start	30-days
Sirtuin1 gene protein Nanograms per milliliter blood sample	1.65	5.80	1.06	5.75

As background information, late in 2003 Harvard researcher David Sinclair and Konrad Howitz and colleagues reported that the red wine molecule resveratrol was the best small molecule to activate the Sirtuin1 survival gene, the same gene that is involved in lifespan/healthspan-doubling effect achieved by a calorie restricted diet in laboratory animals.  Their report made front-page news headlines.

As background information, resveratrol is posed as a molecular mimic of a calorie-restricted diet.  That is to say, without food deprivation the same genetic effect could be achieved.  This discovery meant humans don’t necessarily need to deprive themselves of food to live longer and healthier.  That statement comes with a caveat, that resveratrol doesn’t give license to overeat and consume sweets with abandon.  The subjects who took a resveratrol supplement in the aforementioned study ate normal diets.

Controversy

A great controversy erupted in the aftermath of the 2003 Sinclair/Howitz published report as it was subsequently shown a fluorescent substrate used to demonstrate activation of the Sirtuin1 gene, not resveratrol, was found to activate the Sirtuin1 gene, which confounded the initial study results.

Was it all a scientific dream that didn’t come true?  All the scientific community had to do was conduct a human blood test.  Fourteen years later the results are in: resveratrol activates the same primary gene (Sirtuin1) as well as a calorie-restricted diet that produces a healthspan/lifespan doubling effect in laboratory animals.  I hope no one was holding their breath over the answer to that scientific question.

Early confirmation

By 2006 researchers reported that resveratrol increased the survival of over-fed/obese laboratory mice by 30%, further fueling the scientific interest in resveratrol.  The report, published in the scientific journal Nature, buoyed interest in resveratrol as a long-awaited anti-aging pill.  By 2011 researchers reported that 30-days of resveratrol supplementation (150 mg/day) improved measurable health parameters among healthy obese males.  So the results in lab animals translated to humans.

Thumbs down on resveratrol by 2008

But in 2008 researchers reported in the journal Cell Metabolism that while resveratrol did improve measures of health (improved bone density, enhanced balance and motor nerve coordination, reduced incidence of blinding cataracts) it did not extend the life of laboratory animals on a standard calorie diet.

The scientific community gave a premature “thumbs down” on resveratrol even though its effects upon obese animals and humans were confirmed.

Certainly no one has missed the fact that obesity is on the rise in modern societies eating high calorie nutrition-deficient processed foods.  So resveratrol would at least have great application among metabolically challenged individuals.  But no, resveratrol was pushed back into the laboratory closet.

Synthetic resveratrol is a dud

By 2017 researchers were reporting that neither metabolic-rate altering anti-diabetic drugs nor synthetic resveratrol exhibit ability to boost or diminish the activity of various key genes characteristically altered by a calorie restricted diet.  Nor did these drugs or natural molecules influence key markers of inflammation, blood sugar, obesity or cellular energy.  Synthetic resveratrol was found to be a dud.

The same researchers who reported synthetic resveratrol is a “dud,” reported in 2008 that a resveratrol-based nutraceutical (Longevinex®) within a matrix of other natural molecules in 12-weeks switched 83% of 813 longevity genes in the same direction (activation or inactivation) as a life-long calorie restricted diet.  Plain resveratrol worked no better genetically than plain resveratrol.

In other words, what would take a lifetime to accomplish (switch 831 genes) could be accomplished in just a few weeks taking Longevinex®.  Or said another way, most people taking plain resveratrol pills would only experience a longevity benefit if taken over a lifetime.

Longevinex® is still the closest thing to a calorie restriction mimic to date and produces profound and demonstrable health benefits in humans rapidly.  ####