Resveratrol Safety Net for the Heart: American Journal of Cardiology
Written by Jerry Hickey, R. Ph. Follow on Google+
Resveratrol is found in the skin of the red grape, in mulberries and peanuts and the plant Japanese knotweed. This plant is especially rich in the active form of Resveratrol known as Trans-Resveratrol. Resveratrol helps shield plants from temperature extremes, solar radiation, and from bacteria, viruses and fungi - in many ways it shields us also.
Recent human clinical trails show that Resveratrol helps reverse many of the negative health effects of obesity including effects on reducing blood sugar and blood fats, improving heart health, and restoring youthful repair activities to muscle and bone. Many of the issues Resveratrol improves are also seen in the elderly.
Adding Resveratrol to Statin Drug therapy further protects the patient
In a recent study reported in The American Journal of Cardiology researchers in Spain found that Resveratrol had obvious ability to shield the cardiovascular system in patients at high risk of developing heart disease. In fact these patients were already taking statin drugs; drugs known to reduce inflammation in the heart.
Over the one-year course of the study Resveratrol reduced CRP by twenty-six percent in these at risk patients. CRP is a protein in the blood and if elevated works as a proxy for inflammation. This alerts your doctor to the existence of inflammation occurring to the inner lining of the arteries in the heart. When CRP is elevated it tells your doctor that you have a greater risk of stroke or heart attack.
Resveratrol also lowered PAI-1 by 17%. PAI-1 promotes atherogenesis or clogging of the arteries inside the heart through a buildup of cholesterol and PAI-1 also triggers blood clots like those of strokes and heart attacks.
Resveratrol may help reduce arterial inflammation and stabilize cholesterol plaque deposits
There were further heart friendly mechanisms discovered in this study. Resveratrol also improved the interleukin 6 to interleukin 10 ratio and increased interleukin 10 levels by10%. This is great news; interleukin 6 triggers a dramatic build up of plaque in the walls of arteries that blocks the flow of blood and it also makes this plaque inflamed and unstable triggering its rupture; this is a major cause of stroke or heart attack. On the other hand interleukin 10 is a small protein in the blood that regulates the immune system and has known anti-inflammatory activity and improving this is a very good thing.
These patients were already on statin drug therapy to protect them from heart disease. Statin drugs have powerful effects and the ability of Resveratrol, a very safe supplement, to further improve the level of protection on top of that provided by Statins demonstrates how powerfully protective Resveratrol truly is.
In Future articles we will write about other activities of Resveratrol including many additional benefits for the heart, Resveratrol’s effects on blood sugar, bone health and brain repair, and its ability to improve respiratory health.
Resveratrol may also help trim your waistline
Interestingly and not for the first time in a study, Resveratrol stimulated the activity of a very important hormone known as adiponectin. Adiponectin causes fat cells to shrink and eventually disappear improving your waistline and adiponectin also shields us from elevations in blood sugar that increase the risk of diabetes; in this way Resveratrol acts like exercise in a bottle.
______________________
Assisting Jerry Hickey, R.Ph is a team of nutritional professionals - a group of hand chosen, dedicated experts, available at each and every InVite® Health retail location - there to provide you with a FREE, personalized, and professional nutritional consultation. Visit an InVite® Health retail location near you for assistance in selecting the correct nutrients to address your health concerns.
You can also e-mail an InVite® Nutritionist or call us directly with any of your nutritional questions. The InVite® Health team is always available to assist you.