ResveratrolConsumer
avert online
consumer fraud
ResveratrolQuiz
test your knowledge
New E-Book
How the world got lost on
the road to an anti-aging pill
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive email notifications when new articles are posted.
June 2, 2011: by Bill Sardi
Researchers at the Ottawa Research Institute report that resveratrol still exerts anti-cancer action, sometimes in profound ways, but that the Sirtuin1 gene is not always required to produce such an effect. Mice bred without a functioning Sirtuin1 gene did not develop fewer intestinal polyps (see graphic below).
The assumption is that Sirtuin1 is a survival gene that is switch on in calorie restricted animals who have double the lifespan of animal fed a normal diet. Resveratrol is a molecule that is purported to activate the Sirtuin1 gene. But subsequent studies don’t always validate the idea that the Sirtuin1 gene is a strong anti-cancer gene. In fact, Sirtuin1 gene proteins are produced at a high level in lymph gland tumors (B-cell lymphomas) and are accompanied by a poor prognosis in B-cell lymphomaand breast cancer.
Posted in Resveratrol ; No Comments »
May 31, 2011: by Bill Sardi
Resveratrol continues to edge closer to becoming the safest and most effective alternative to estrogen replacement during menopause.
The idea behind using resveratrol or any phyto (plant) estrogen is for this molecule’s ability to seat itself on estrogen cell receptors (doorways of entry into cells), thus blunting the effect of natural estrogen.
A recent animal study conducted at Michigan State University revealed that slow-release/low-dose estrogen given to laboratory rats generated the superoxide radical, a form of oxygen free radical that can harm tissues and produce mutations in DNA. Estrogen supplementation also produced unfavorable changes such as elevated blood pressure and faster heart rate. The phytoestrogen resveratrol completely reversed all of these adverse effects. Science Daily published a report about resveratrol’s counteraction against estrogen, found here.
Posted in Resveratrol ; No Comments »
: by Bill Sardi
Researchers report that resveratrol (rez/vair-ah-trol), known as a red wine molecule, helps to reverse what are called somatic cells (cells that have already been converted into muscle, heart, brain, etc. cells) back into being stem cells better than five other molecules tested for such capability. These converted stem cells can then be harvested for insertion into living tissues to replace damaged or aged cells. This discovery is published in an early online edition of the journal Aging Cell.
Such a maneuver, to reverse already developed cells, had already been demonstrated by researchers in Japan about five years ago. But this approach is fraught with drawbacks, namely that viruses used to insert reprogramming factors into cells can induce gene mutations and activate genes that promote cancer. So-called reverse induced pluripotent stem cells have remained a research tool rather than a therapeutic technology. Researchers have been searching for the next big milestone in making stem cells without viruses, which set the stage for resveratrol.
Posted in Resveratrol ; No Comments »
May 13, 2011: by Bill Sardi
Gone are the jaw-dropping days when a Harvard scientist captivated audiences on CBS’s 60-Minutes program and on the front pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, talking about the promise of a bona fide anti-aging pill and how his laboratory had found the holy grail of aging, a survival gene known as Sirtuin1, and its molecular activator, resveratrol.
Initial testing showed mega-dose resveratrol prolonged the life of rodents fed a fat-laden diet, but failed to do so for animals on a standard-fat calorie diet. More disconcerting was the widely acclaimed discovery that resveratrol activated the Sirtuin1 survival gene when in fact it was a fluorescent compound used in this assay that was the actual agent that stimulated Sirtuin1, not resveratrol. This only meant that the gene target was off base, not that resveratrol is less promising. But the science was correctly called into question.
Subsequent studies provide mixed results for resveratrol as an activator of the Sirtuin1 gene. [Free Radical Medicine & Biology, The controversial links among calorie restriction, SIRT1, and resveratrol, in press 2011] In mammals neither the over-expression of Sirtuin1 protein nor administration of Sirtuin1 activators could extend the lifespan of mice on a standard-calorie diet.
Posted in Resveratrol ; No Comments »
May 7, 2011: by Bill Sardi
Researchers in Sweden report that a single dose of resveratrol combined with a platinum-based anti-cancer drug prevented resurgence of ovarian cancer in a laboratory dish. This finding is quite extraordinary given that relapse of ovarian cancer following platinum-based drug therapy (cisplatin, carboplatin) is common and 5-year survival for this type of cancer is only 40-45%.
Resveratrol allowed investigators to use low-dose chemotherapy.
A picture of tumor cell growth after 3 days is shown here (below).
The platinum + resveratrol treated tumor cells could not resume growth. Tumor cells treated with platinum drugs alone or resveratrol alone resumed growth.
Posted in Resveratrol ; 1 Comment »
April 7, 2011: by Bill Sardi
At this point in time, April 2011, going on seven years since resveratrol was first heralded on the front page of The New York Times, progress in resveratrol research has been slow and there has been virtually no adoption of this molecule into the armamentarium of modern medicine, despite it being one of the most powerful molecules uncovered in nature.
So far, according to a report published in Wine Spectator entitled “Resveratrol Science Hits A Wall,” resveratrol has not been shown to be a fountain of youth in animal studies. Of course, human longevity studies would provide conclusive evidence but are impractical due to the many decades they would take to complete.
After reviewing over 100 studies, leading resveratrol researcher Dipak Das PhD, of the University of Connecticut, says there is no scientific basis to date to call resveratrol a fountain of youth. In fact, the most convincing evidence for resveratrol is provided within the context of the Mediterranean diet, taken with a meal and red wine, which is a concentrated but low-dose source of resveratrol.
Posted in Resveratrol ; No Comments »
March 22, 2011: by Bill Sardi
The life of Joyce H. Brown has been chronicled on her website, www.griefrelief.org.
Interested parties can read her whole life story there, which tells of her life-long health challenges, which include inexplicable maladies that even perplexed her doctors, chronic injuries emanating for many auto accidents, and even a near-death experience. And then her house burned to the ground. The sum of these experiences resulted in Dr. Joyce writing a popular book entitled Heavenly Answers For Earthly Challenges (initially self-published in 1997 and demand for copies continue.)
With the writing of that book, Dr. Joyce began to receive phone calls from many desperate people around the world, some who were contemplating the idea of intentionally ending their lives. Since then Dr. Joyce has counseled many people to hold onto life rather than end it.
Posted in Resveratrol ; No Comments »
March 20, 2011: by Bill Sardi
GlaxoSmithKline (Sirtris Pharmaceuticals) may have abandoned further research on its SRT501 resveratrol pill, but that hasn’t dampened ongoing research of this red wine molecule.
Researchers in Australia now say there are a “plethora of laboratory investigations which provide evidence for the multi‐faceted properties of resveratrol and suggest that resveratrol may target ageing and obesity-related chronic disease by regulating inflammation and oxidative stress.”
Researchers at the University of Queensland (Australia) say the first in vitro (lab dish) and in vivo (living organisms) scientific evidence has certainly confirmed a role for nutra-pharmacology in health.
Posted in Resveratrol ; 1 Comment »
March 19, 2011: by Bill Sardi
Knowledge of Health, Inc. (March 18, 2011) – Researchers at the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases, University of Nebraska Medical Center, now explain how an imbalance in estrogen metabolism leads to improper repair of broken DNA which in turn produces gene mutations that promote breast, prostate and other cancers.
These researchers then go on to identify two natural molecular antidotes, a sulfur compound (N-acetyl cysteine) and a molecule found in red wine (resveratrol), which can completely block the initiation of these cancers. Both of these molecules are widely available as dietary supplements. When used together these antioxidants completely abolished the formation of DNA-adducts (cancer-causing chemicals that are coupled with DNA), which is the initiating step in these cancers.
Posted in Resveratrol ; No Comments »
March 8, 2011: by Bill Sardi
First-Person Accounts Of Longevinex® Users Parallel Survival Mechanisms First Described By Biologist Felix Z. Meerson MD
The human organism must be endowed with
efficient specialized mechanisms that limit
the reaction to stress and prevent stress damage.
— Felix Z. Meerson MD, 1991
Longevinex® users have begun to provide evidence for an exceptional biological phenomenon first described by Felix Z. Meerson MD. Their accounts of super-human health are provided within the following text of this report.
A great difficulty here is in crafting words that sound believable in describing this extraordinary biological phenomenon over plain advertising hype.
Posted in Resveratrol ; No Comments »