Comprehensive Library Of Resveratrol News

REPLICATION OF WINE’S MAGICAL PROPERTIES WITH THE SYNERGISTIC POWER OF COMBINED NATURAL MOLECULES

It has often been said there is magic in wine.  Biologists confirmed that in recent times with the discovery resveratrol, a miracle molecule in wine, which has been called the “elixir of eternal youth.” Is resveratrol wine’s revealed secret?  Only in part.

It is said that resveratrol is theoretically a molecular mimic of a calorie restricted or fasting diet, a practice known to double the lifespan and health span of animals in experimental studies.  But a recent human study failed to show that resveratrol fully mirrored the beneficial effects of food deprivation.  Calorie restriction (30-50% fewer calories) was found to be superior to resveratrol in another earlier study.  Resveratrol does activate a key survival gene, Sirtuin1, that is also activated by limited calorie diets.  But resveratrol doesn’t fully do what a limited calorie diet accomplishes.

It is said that resveratrol is rapidly excreted and is insoluble and attaches to detoxification molecules as it passes through the liver, making it too large a molecule as a resveratrol metabolite to pass through cell walls and influence genetic machinery.

But now researchers concede these liver metabolites of resveratrol (resveratrol glucuronate/sulfate) may be responsible for the overall beneficial health effects attributed to resveratrol itself.  So much for the claim resveratrol is non-bioavailable.

Resveratrol-glucuronate/sulfate remains in the blood circulation for 9 hours, to be released at the site of inflammation, infection or malignancy, as a targeted therapeutic, whereas if not bound to detox molecules in the liver, resveratrol has a short half-life of ~14 minutes.  So, the bioavailability issue has been foisted on the public to give the false impression that resveratrol is useless (but wait for Big Pharma’s synthetic resveratrol-like analogs!).

Furthermore, even though ~75% of resveratrol is orally absorbed, resveratrol does not need to be absorbed to activate its healthy properties.  Resveratrol is a pre-biotic, influencing the growth of multiple strains of gut bacteria (as compared to a pre-biotic like Acidophilus that is only one strain of bacteria).  Resveratrol-activated gut bacteria can limit atherosclerosis in arteries.

The following graphic shows how resveratrol favorably alters gut bacteria to produce anti-obesity effects (increase brown fat and calorie burning). Source: Frontiers in Endocrinology 2019.

Of course, food deprivation is not expected to be widely practiced in modern well-fed populations.  Yet, research continues to explore if molecules that mimic calorie restriction are beneficial.  Yet, fasting was widely practiced by populations for religious and purification reasons in ages past.  The Renaissance doctor Paracelsus called it the “physician within.”  Therapeutic fasting became popular in the 19^th century.  Intermittent fasting is now the rage in segments of modern society.

I have instructed longevity seekers to simply wake up in the morning after 8 hours of sleep and wait till noon to eat, essentially extending their fast, and thus fully activating the Sirtuin1 survival gene.  Then take a resveratrol pill with the mid-day meal to extend the signal for fasting in the body.

Yet resveratrol continues to shine in animal studies (unlike humans, these lab animals internally produce vitamin C, which skews the test results), but disappoints in human studies.  There may be good reason for this.

FROM WINE TO RESVERATROL AND BACK

Researchers started with wine and moved to resveratrol, discounting the important role of other polyphenolic molecules that enhance resveratrol’s biological activity.  This multi-molecule approach is called MOLECULAR SYNERGISM (three small molecules activate 9-fold more genes; 1+1+1 = 9).  Add another polyphenol like quercetin or catechin, two other prevalent polyphenols provided in wine, and there is more than an additive effect (1+1+1 = 3).

Examine the chart below.  Resveratrol, quercetin and catechin are individually instilled into a lab dish with breast cancer cells.  At high concentrations resveratrol stymies the growth of these malignant cells.  But when resveratrol is combined with quercetin and catechin, cancer cells are nearly abolished even at modest doses.

Modern science (and the FDA) commonly study and approve single-molecule drugs.  A poly-pill has been proposed (aspirin, folic acid, statin cholesterol-lowering drug, blood pressure lowering ACE inhibitor), but would be fraught with side effects and drug-induced nutrient deficiencies.

The best way to mimic the “magical” properties of wine is to nix the liver-destructive alcohol and to combine the key molecules (resveratrol, quercetin, catechin, fisetin) to replicate wine’s magic.