Red Wine and Green tea Polyphenols Protect Us from Coronary Heart Disease and Tumors

Studies indicate that regular consumption of red wine and green tea reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer. The advancement of the disease from hardening of the arteries to advanced stages of artery clogging plaque that is prone to rupturing is accelerated by the formation of new blood vessels. The development of cancerous tumors is also accelerated by the formation of new blood vessels. Research shows that both Green Tea Polyphenols and Red Wine Polyphenols inhibit key events in the formation of these blood vessels and inhibit growth factors that promote the construction of these disease associated blood vessels. Studies in chick embryos also show an ability to decrease the formation of abnormal blood vessels. In the eye, both Green Tea and Red Wine Polyphenols have been shown to decrease the formation of abnormal-disease associated blood vessels. At least part of the ability of both Red Wine and Green Tea Polyphenols to decrease coronary artery disease and cancer risk is ion this ability to regulate new blood vessel development. His review was conducted at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg and is published in the January 2005 issue of The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

Wine protects Women with Heart Disease

Many studies show that drinking red wine in moderation decreases the risk of heart disease. Now, new research shows that moderate consumption of wine helps decrease the risk of heart disease in women by maintaining a healthy rhythm in their heart beat by improving heart rate variability.

Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the normal difference in heart rate before and after a beat. Certain things decrease the normal HRV - acute stress, accumulative wear and tear on the heart muscle, and aging are some of the things that reduce HRV. Regular physical activity improves the tone of the heart and improves HRV. In short, improving the HRV is protective and a decreased HRV is associated with increased risk of heart disease and death.

In this study 102 women under the age of 75 who had survived a heart attack or heart surgery to clear blocked arteries were tested one year later for heart function. They wore a heart monitor to measure heart activity during the course of a days' normal activity. Improved HRV was strongly seen with wine with little effect from beer or spirits. The HRV was highest among women who drank at least half a glass of wine daily whereas the lowest HRV was among teetotalers. The beneficial effect of wine was independent of current age, weight and adiposity, menopausal status, history of diabetes, and smoking. The study was performed at the Karolinska Institute and is published in the February 15th, 2005 issue of the journal Heart.

Resveratrol Short Circuits a Variety of Cancers in a Number of Ways

Besides the various ways in which Resveratrol protects the cardiovascular system, Resveratrol also has anticancer effects. Resveratrol's anticancer effects include the following:

• Suppresses a wide variety of tumor cells including - lymphoid cancers, myeloid cancers, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, ovarian carcinoma, cervical carcinoma, multiple myeloma, melanoma, and cancers of the breast, prostate, stomach, colon, pancreas, and thyroid
• Resveratrol inhibits the growth cycle of cancer
• It increases the level of specific anticancer pathways
• Resveratrol inhibits pathways that protect cancerous cells
• It stimulates cellular substances that cause cancer cell death
• It inhibits genes that allow cancer to flourish
• It suppresses inflammatory mediators that trigger the cancer process
• It inhibits enzymes that cause the growth of tumors, the change from a normal cell towards abnormality, and also inhibits enzymes that feed these tumors
• It Inhibits genes involved with increasing PSA, COX-2, and other damaging cellular chemicals
• It inhibits the ability of tumors to invade and metastasize
• Resveratrol improves the ability of the immune system to identify and kill cancer cells
• Resveratrol has been shown to improve the activity of chemotherapy and gamma-radiation used against cancerous tumors
• Resveratrol inhibits every step of the cancer process including the activation of carcinogens (the turning on of cancer causing substances), the initiation of cancer by these substances, the promotion towards cancer, and the progression to cancer.
• Studies show that Resveratrol is very safe and also possesses therapeutic effects against an existing cancer.