Resveratrol - Is it Really Anti-Aging?
By Joe Cannon

No doubt about it, Resveratrol, a chemical found in red grapes, other foods and red wine, is a hot topic because of claims that it might help not only ward off heart disease, cancer and diabetes but also help us live longer as well!

Just for fun, I Goggled the word "resveratrol" today and discovered that it returned over 4 million hits! Many of these are from websites and "experts" stating that Resveratrol helps you live longer. I hear "Dr. Oz talking about it on Oprah and even the venerated TV news show, 60 Minutes did a segment on pharmaceutical companies that are working to develop a drug to mimic the effects of Resveratrol. In theory, I do admit that Resveratrol appears to hold promise - if the test tube and lab animal studies can be extrapolated to humans.

However, as an investigator of supplements for over a decade, I've always been skeptical of the fantastic claims being made by makers of some Resveratrol supplements. I've always felt that people were jumping the gun, trying to market products to the public before all the facts were in. If you have been thinking about taking Resveratrol supplements, keep reading as I tell you about a study that you are unlikely to see mentioned on websites and infomercials that extol the virtues of their Resveratrol supplements.

The study was published in the June 2009 issue of the peer reviewed journal, Cell Cycle. Basically the researchers wanted to see if Resveratrol could inhibit a protein called "mTOR" that helps regulate cell growth and cell survival. In a nutshell, the researchers found that resveratrol was able to "partially" prevent the age-related loss of the cell's ability to reproduce itself. Partially or not, that's pretty good news because it means resveratrol may have some anti-aging properties, however, here is what you may not hear:

The amount of resveratrol needed to help the cells along was, in the words of the researchers, "near toxic" levels! Putting it another way, if this study is corroborated, it means that even if resveratrol can help some aspects of aging, to reap the benefits, one would have to consume resveratrol at levels that would almost be harmful to humans! Even in the 60 Minutes interview, researchers make it a point to say that people would have to drink about 1000 glasses of red wine a day to get the resveratrol used in laboratory studies.

If you are supplementing with resveratrol or thinking about it, I suggest you save your money for now. Yes, the research is very interesting and yes, a lot of pharmaceutical companies are salivating at the idea of marketing a drug that we would take regularly (like a vitamin) that would help us stay healthy and live longer. For the moment, however there is still no magic bullet to staying healthy and living longer. You have to work at it. That involves eating a fewer less calories, not smoking, and yes, getting a little exercise each day. On that point, I'm sure Dr. Oz and all the other experts out there would agree with me.

Reference: Demidenko ZN, Blagosklonny MV - At concentrations that inhibit mTOR, resveratrol suppresses cellular senescence.Cell Cycle. 2009 Jun 21;8(12).

Joe Cannon, MS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT is an author, speaker and consumer educator as well as a self employed personal trainer. He has an MS degree in exercise science and a BS in biology and chemistry. He educates and certifies personal trainers and has authored books the topics of personal training, dietary supplements and sports nutrition. He has written for Today's Dietitian, weightwatchers.com and Strength and Conditioning Journal. He has appeared on TV and has been a contributor to Dateline NBC. His website is http://www.Joe-Cannon.com.

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