Gaining An Appreciation Of The Valuable Properties Of The Resveratrol Antioxidant

Red Wine And Resveratrol Benefits

In common with other antioxidants resveratrol helps defend body tissue against the damage from the free radical compounds created as a consequence of the oxidation process and as a result of environmental pollution or harmful lifestyle habits such as smoking.

Outside the circles of dedicated natural and oriental medicine enthusiasts the resveratrol compound may not be so well known, but in the light of the findings of recent scientific research on how it can help fight off life-threatening human diseases it seems likely that it is going to rise in profile.

Admittedly laboratory tests have only been made using animals, and only the short-term effects of resveratrol have been observed, but these results have given strong indication of a potentially valuable role in fighting serious diseases, in particular heart disease.

Attention has focused on the fact that French people have an unusually low level of heart disease despite eating a relatively high-fat diet. The French are well-known for regularly drinking wine with their meals.

Since the best known source of resveratrol is the skin of red grapes the common way of absorbing it is by eating these grapes or drinking red wine and therefore it is postulated that the French have higher levels of resveratrol in their bodies than other nationalities and hence their greater resistance to heart disease.

Even many conventional general medical practitioners who would in other respects not sympathize with the taking of natural medicines now advocate drinking red wine as a way to reduce high cholesterol rates and associated risks of heart disease. 

In addition to its presence in red grapes and wine resveratrol is also found in other foods and plants, for example, peanuts and mulberries and the eucalyptus tree. Within these plants it operates in an antibiotic capacity and defends the plant against disease. This fact provides additional motivation for further investigation of the extent to which resveratrol can fulfill a comparable function within the human body.

There remains a great deal to be discovered about how it is absorbed and what affect it might have on the liver. While drinking red wine to increase resveratrol levels will seem to many a particularly pleasant way to improve their bodily immunity, obviously this needs to be done in moderation to avoid neutralizing its positive effects with the less desirable results of excess alcohol consumption.