Comprehensive Library Of Resveratrol News

Is The Human Body’s Middle Age Reset Switch

While the masses wait for a sign from heaven they should take resveratrol pills it is becoming increasingly clear resveratrol is the human body’s middle-age reset switch.

• Just when our body doesn’t make as much insulin as it used to and our blood sugar levels begin to rise.
• Just when blood pressure begins to creep upwards.
• Just when our mid-section begins to widen as we become resistant to leptin, a satiety hormone.
• When low-grade inflammation begins to accelerate aging, particularly in the brain and gut (called inflammaging).
• Just when the thyroid gland, the body’s thermostat for calorie burning, begins to malfunction—
• Resveratrol comes to the rescue.

Resveratrol and cell metabolism

Biological anti-aging pathways in the body are nutrient-sensing pathways.  The key measure is AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase), an enzyme that senses cellular energy and sends signals to burn or store energy.  Elevated AMPK levels are characteristic of youth.  Resveratrol is one molecule that demonstrably elevates AMPK.  It has been said that all biological roads that have anti-cancer activity lead to AMPK. [Mini Review Medicinal Chemistry 2014]  Resveratrol elevates AMPK 50-200 times better than metformin, the commonly used anti-diabetic drug. [Diabetes 2006]

Cells that burn oxygen to produce energy are healthy cells.  Cells that must revert to using sugar for energy are metabolically abnormal.  Cancer cells are characterized as cells that utilize sugar rather than oxygen for energy.  Therefore, anti-aging agents like resveratrol that improve cellular metabolism are also anti-cancer agents. [Current Pharmacological Reports 2015]

Energy-producing organelles inside living cells called mitochondria progressively malfunction with advancing age.  Only about 4% of mitochondria are firing off and producing adenotriphosphate (ATP), the cellular energy currency by age 80.  Resveratrol renews mitochondria.  Furthermore, resveratrol encourages lean bodies by virtue of its ability to control fat cells.  And resveratrol controls inflammation.  Low-grade inflammation is a hallmark characteristic of aging (called inflammaging).  [Cellular Molecular Life Science 2015; Biochimica Biophysica Acta 2015]

While the high-fructose corn syrup-fed world wallows in a diabesity epidemic, resveratrol has been extensively studied for its ability to allay diabetes via activation of the Sirtuin1 survival gene.  [Biochimica Biophysica Acta 2015]

Resveratrol protects heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) against sugar-induced die off. [Molecular Cell Endocrinology 2015]

Resveratrol induces the formation of brown fat cells that are characteristic of lean individuals. [International Journal Obesity 2015]

Resveratrol works equally as well or superiorly to quell inflammation as non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen. [Veterinary Immunology Immunopathology 2016]

People living in advanced countries have been subjected to an unexplained increase in auto-immune disorders that is only now being explained by unhealthy gut bacteria and the lack of dietary fiber.  Resveratrol calms an overactive immune system and therefore normalizes the immune response.  [Age 2011]

Resveratrol and thyroid hormones

Only recently has it become clear that resveratrol helps to overcome low-thyroid conditions that are closely associated with mental depression and memory problems. [Frontiers Endocrinology 2016; Endocrinology Journal 2015]

In recent years evidence has accumulated to show resveratrol enhances thyroid function. [Journal Endocrinological Investigation 2011]

Finally, resveratrol may tackle a medically challenging metabolic problem – that of subclinical low thyroid (hypothyroidism).  Subjects with this condition don’t exhibit full-blown thyroid collapse with accompany weight gain and coldness but do experience anxiety and mental depression.  Mental decline and learning problems are other manifestations of this thyroid disorder.  Approximately 4-20% of adult populations have this hypothyroid condition, which is treated by prescription for T4 (thyroid 4) hormone.

However, proper dosing of T4 is difficult to determine and patients may experience side effects from overdosing such as racing heart, angina (chest pain) and nervousness. The need for better medicines to treat subclinical hypothyroid is large.

Subclinical hypothyroid is confirmed by elevated levels of thyrotropic-stimulating hormone (TSH) with other thyroid hormones in the normal range.

Here is what happened when laboratory mice were given T4 or resveratrol for their intentionally-induced hypothyroid condition (see chart below). [Frontiers Endocrinology 2016; Endocrinology Journal 2015]

Effect of Resveratrol Compared With T4 Therapy For Laboratory Mice with Subclinical Low Thyroid Condition Note: This condition is confirmed by elevated thyrotropic stimulating hormone (TSH) levels.  Resveratrol compares favorably with T4 therapy without inducing potential side effects.
	T3		T4		TSH
	Before	After	Before	After	Before	After
Resveratrol	0.73	0.56	8.88	6.71	2.49	0.65
T4	0.74	0.91	835	13.97	1.43	0.14

Whether endocrinologists are ready to prescribe resveratrol for this common condition is unknown.

More remarkably, in a 26-week study involving laboratory mice, two polyphenols, resveratrol and quercetin, and lipoic acid, an antioxidant naturally produced in the body and available as a dietary supplement, overcame high-fat diet- induced thyroid hormone abnormalities that usually lead to weight gain, elevated blood pressure and reduced antioxidant defense.

Resveratrol by virtue of its ability to enhance iodine (iodide) maintained high metabolism and averted weight gain typical experienced among animals whose thyroid hormones are disturbed by a high-fat diet.  While mice on a high-fat diet developed resistance to a satiety hormone (leptin) and therefore eat more food, resveratrol, quercetin and lipoic acid inhibited this.  [Journal Nutritional Biochemistry 2016]

Effect Of Diet and Resveratrol, Quercetin, Lipoic Acid Antioxidants On Thyroid Hormone Levels & Internal Antioxidant Activity In Laboratory Mice (26 weeks)
	Regular Diet	High-fat diet	High-fat diet + resveratrol	High-fat diet + quercetin
TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone)	526.1	604.6	677.5	633.6
T4 (thyroid hormone)	181.6	208.5	198.0	186.3
T3 (thyroid hormone)	20.5	13.7	18.6	17.1
Antioxidant capacity	0.401	0.487	0.555	1.057
Glutathione (antioxidant)	0.598	0.482	0.553	0.524
Catalase (antioxidant)	36.02	15.96	40.18	44.95
Source: Journal Nutritional Biochemistry 2016

©2016 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health Inc.