Sunday, March 17, 2013

Study Shows How Red Wine Helps the Heart

This is from Jim Tresize of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation:


Resveratrol has long been cited as the key component in red wine that benefits cardiovascular health by dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies from around the world.

But a new study conducted by Harvard Medical School and published in Science provides major breakthroughs in understanding how resveratrol works to keep cells healthy, which in turn is a big step toward developing effective drugs to treat diabetes, cancer, and other diseases.

Senior study author David Sinclair called it "the killer experiment"  because it verified that resveratrol was the sole source of the benefits; identified the exact location of a protein (SIRT1) which helps fuel the power-producing parts of cells that fight age-related illnesses like cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes; and will allow the development of new treatments.  In effect, resveratrol helps to slow aging.

Resveratrol is a naturally occurring fungicide on the skins of grapes to help ward off plant disease, and is also the most potent naturally occuring chemical for combatting heart disease.  It is found predominantely in red wine because of the prolonged skin contact in producing it, whereas white wines with virtually no skin contact contain very little.

Years ago, former Cornell researcher Dr. Le Creasy showed that red wines from humid winegrowing regions like the Finger Lakes generally contain more resveratoral than those from dry regions because more resveratrol is needed to protect the grapes during the growing season.

Read more about the Harvard study by going to http://hms.harvard.edu/news/new-study-validates-longevity-pathway-3-7-13  this link.

Oh, and by the way, chocolate also contains resveratrol.  Who says there's no good news?

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