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Healthy Aging

Putting resveratrol to rest?

There have been many advances in science around aging – and ideas on how to slow it. While anti-aging used to be an area limited to anti-wrinkle creams, some of the smartest researchers at the most prestigious institutions are pursuing the fountain of youth. Well, at least a drinking fountain that will keep us healthier longer.

This series of Science Says, inspired by a feature in GEN Biotechnology, is dedicated to the most promising advances in longevity research – and popular concepts that have recently fallen. This week, let’s talk about one of the most popular anti-aging candidates: resveratrol from wine.

What is resveratrol?

Glad you asked. Resveratrol, which was discovered in 1939, is a polyphenol primarily found in wine – especially red wine. In smaller amounts, resveratrol can also be found in blueberries, raspberries, and peanuts. As a polyphenol, it had long been believed that resveratrol had health benefits due its role as an antioxidant that decreased one’s risk of heart disease.

Once resveratrol gained popularity, due no doubt to its presence in wine (please give us a reason for that glass of cab), it gained even more notoriety as part of the French Paradox. Namely, how do the French eat so much saturated fat and have less heart disease than Americans? It must be resveratrol in red wine…

So, how is the science on resveratrol holding up?

Haunschild and Marx published a thorough review on the health effects of resveratrol in wine, which highlighted some of the following conclusions:

1. Resveratrol is great at doing all sorts of good things – but it’s mostly in the lab. From antioxidant effects, especially on LDL cholesterol, to anti-clotting and anti-cancer effects, resveratrol appears to be a miracle compound. While studies on receptors and cells in the lab have repeatedly demonstrated encouraging results, there are a couple of key problems once we get to drinking wine at the table.
2. Resveratrol has poor absorption and bioavailability. Of the studies done to date, it appears that we are not great at absorbing resveratrol. And another thing…
3. In general, polyphenols are metabolized too rapidly to exert their antioxidant effects. Once absorbed, our bodies quickly metabolize and change polyphenols, including resveratrol, which prevents these molecules from doing all the great things they were doing in the lab. Our son showed us a video clip this week of an excited raccoon given cotton candy. When the raccoon went to wash it in the water before eating his treat, it mysteriously disappeared. Kind of like what happens to polyphenols once they are in our bodies.
4. Resveratrol did not prolong lifespan. In the mentioned GEN Biotechnology article on the fountain of youth, there was a rather blistering review of resveratrol, which did not prolong lifespan in mice and has had mixed results among the limited human studies conducted to date.

To drink, or not to drink

The topic of the health benefits versus health risks of red wine consumption is too big of a topic for this week. What we can share, is that resveratrol is most promising in the glass and less so, once down the hatch. Stay tuned for next week, when we’ll cover a compound that is showing more promise on the longevity front – rapamycin.