Comprehensive Library Of Resveratrol News

(And Resveratrol)

Arsenic and Old Lace is a 1944 American comedy film whose title refers to the murderous modus operandi of two elderly sisters who slowly kill elderly men by lacing elderberry wine with arsenic.

What does that old movie have to do with resveratrol?

Bear with me.  This report is short but the plot of this report is slow to develop.

Recently a man in South Carolina disclosed how his ex-wife secretly poisoned him by adding arsenic to his protein powder drink.  Perplexed why he had lost nearly 70 pounds, he visited the doctor.  A blood test would not reveal arsenic poisoning because arsenic is rapidly excreted.  Hair and nail tests confirmed the poisoning.

There is no safe intake level for arsenic.  Usually contaminated food or drinking water are the vectors for arsenic.  Organic arsenic compounds,  abundant in seafood, are less harmful to health and are rapidly eliminated by the body.  Everyone is exposed to and consumes some arsenic, usually on a daily basis.

The last assessment of dietary arsenic intake was in 2007; about 40 micrograms per day is consumed by US adults.  The federal EPA set a safe intake level of 10 parts per billion for arsenic in drinking water, with a goal of zero, meaning there is no safe amount of arsenic.  And herein lies its hidden evil.

According to the World Health Organization, water soluble inorganic arsenic is acutely toxic. Intake of inorganic arsenic over a lifetime can lead to chronic arsenic poisoning that emanates as skin lesions, peripheral neuropathy, gastrointestinal symptoms, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even cancer.

So, what about resveratrol?  I’m getting to that.

Arsenic can’t be accurately detected by blood levels.   Fortunately, this heavy metal is rapidly eliminated from the body, usually in urinary flow.

But arsenic does accumulate in kidneys, hair, fingers, toe nails and skin.  This latter tissue is the primary subject of this report.

Arsenic beauty treatment and green women

Historically arsenic was irrationally used by women as an intuitive beauty aid despite its history as an extremely noxious poison.  In the late 19^th Century women in Austria ate arsenic to produce blemish-free skin.  It was truly beauty to die for.

By 1890, Dr. James P. Campbell sold arsenic complexion wafers, which he “guaranteed absolutely safe and harmless to anybody.” The skin of women who used the arsenic-laden wafers would slowly become tinted with a green pallor. Ironically, using arsenic as a soap would not only cause hyperpigmentation to worsen over time but also cause skin to break out in keratosis, characterized by growing sores and rashes.

We may be slowly poisoned over a lifetime as arsenic accumulates in the distant corners of the body.  Kidneys, hands, legs, skin.  We would look prematurely old.  A daily antidote would be of value.

Enter resveratrol, that red wine molecule that would foil any attempt by spinsters to bump you off for your money.

Researchers recently report liver and kidney arsenic toxicity is “remarkably” reduced by resveratrol.

Resveratrol protects brain tissue from heavy metal (iron, copper, arsenic, aluminum) toxicity and prevents brain damage when oxygen delivery is interrupted, preserving memory and learning capacity.

When female mice are given toxic levels of arsenic, they exhibit anxiety, reduced movement and impaired learning and memory.  This was due to arsenic’s interference with estrogen.  Resveratrol given prior to arsenic poisoning remarkably reversed and restored these mice to normal.

Of the two classes of arsenic, organically-bound and inorganic, it is inorganic arsenic that is toxic.  Pre-treatment of laboratory animals with resveratrol prior to intentional inorganic arsenic poisoning (arsenic trioxide) protected the liver and retained glutathione, the major endogenous antioxidant in living cells.

Researchers recognize the total aggregate exposure to toxic metals such as arsenic, fluoride, selenium, plus mold and herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup) and paraquat, pose risks to humans, particularly for kidney toxicity, an organ where all these toxicants are shuttled for excretion.  Glyphosate causes insidious harm as it contains a glycine-like imposter molecule that interferes with defenses against toxins.  Resveratrol rises to the occasion and raises internal antioxidant defenses when lab animals are exposed to an arsenic-based herbicide like glyphosate.

Now about that elderberry wine the murderous old ladies used to lure the poison to the old men.  Elderberry contains molecules similar to resveratrol, such as quercetin and catechin.  Maybe the men who died of arsenic poisoning in the stage play and movie, would not have died in real life. The report of a man who was poisoned by his wife added it to a protein drink, not wine.  The elderberry molecules would have likely negated the toxic effect of added arsenic.

The point of this report is you might look prematurely old and not know why.  It could be insidious arsenic exposure in foods and drinking water.  Wine has its own poison, alcohol.  Red wine pills providing resveratrol are the healthy option to avoid…. arsenic and old face.