Grapes Kick Out the Nasties

From Sharecare.com, July 2009

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If you need another reason to pull some grapes off the bunch, you just might have one.

Grapes contain chemical cousins -- pterostilbene and resveratrol -- that work as a cleanup crew, mopping up nasty free radicals in your body so they're less likely to cause problems such as heart disease and cancer.

Protective Phenols
In a study of mice, pterostilbene and resveratrol -- phenolic compounds found mainly in grape skins -- had an antioxidant-like knack for knocking out breast cancer cell processes. It's early news though; researchers still need to examine how the grape compounds affect human cancer cells.

Great Grape Nutrients
But we already know that the resveratrol in grapes has heart-protective properties, regardless of its effect on cancer. And grapes have lots of other good things going for them -- like anthocyanins, which attack disease-fostering inflammation, and vitamin C. So don't wait for further evidence before improving your health with a juicy bunch.

Red wine is one of the most potent sources of resveratrol. Find out more about resveratrol.

Prostate Benefits From Red Wine

Attention men: the benefits of red wine, from the Harvard Men’s Health Watch

June 2007

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Researchers have found that men who drink an average of four to seven glasses of red wine per week are only 52% as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who do not drink red wine, reports the June 2007 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch. In addition, red wine appears particularly protective against advanced or aggressive cancers.

Researchers in Seattle collected information about many factors that might influence the risk of prostate cancer in men between ages 40 and 64, including alcohol consumption. At first the results for alcohol consumption seemed similar to the findings of many earlier studies: There was no relationship between overall consumption and risk. But the scientists went one step further by evaluating each type of alcoholic beverage independently. Here the news was surprising—wine drinking was linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer. And when white wine was compared with red, red had the most benefit. Even low amounts seemed to help, and for every additional glass of red wine per week, the relative risk declined by 6%.

Why red wine? Doctors don’t know. But much of the speculation focuses on chemicals—including various flavonoids and resveratrol—missing from other alcoholic beverages. These components have antioxidant properties, and some appear to counterbalance androgens, the male hormones that stimulate the prostate.

Many doctors are reluctant to recommend drinking alcohol for health, fearing that their patients might assume that if a little alcohol is good, a lot might be better. The Harvard Men’s Health Watch notes that men who enjoy alcohol and can drink in moderation and responsibly may benefit from a lower risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and cardiac death.

Fountain of Youth? Red Wine Gives Up Secrets

By Will Dunham From Reuters.com - Thu Jul 3, 2008 12:51pm EDT
 
A compound in red wine may ward off a variety of medical conditions related to aging, providing heart benefits, stronger bones and preventing eye cataracts, researchers said on Thursday.

The study, involving mice fed a diet supplemented with resveratrol starting in their equivalent of middle age, is the latest to raise hope that the compound or drugs based on it may improve the health of people.

Most of mice given resveratrol did not live longer than other mice but were far more healthy in several important measures, according to the study published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

"The good news is we can increase health. I think that's more important than increasing life span," David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School, who led the study along with Rafael de Cabo of the U.S. government's National Institute on Aging, said in a telephone interview.
The mice in the study that were fed a high-calorie diet supplemented with resveratrol outlived those getting a high-calorie diet without the compound, the researchers said.
"Resveratrol wiped out the negative effect of the high fat," de Cabo said in a telephone interview.

Resveratrol, found in abundance in grapes and in red wine, has drawn a lot of interest from scientists and some companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, which this year paid $720 million to buy Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc, a company developing drugs that mimic the effects of resveratrol.

Sirtris scientists were involved in the study. Sinclair helped found Sirtris and is co-chairman of its scientific advisory board.

HEALTH BENEFITS
In the study, some mice were fed a standard diet, some a high-calorie diet and some got food only every other day.

The researchers then began giving some of the mice resveratrol in either low or high doses when they were 12 months old, roughly the same as 35 years old in a person. The mice given resveratrol experienced broad health benefits compared to mice not given the compound, they said.

The mice given resveratrol tended to have less age-related or obesity-related cardiovascular functional decline. Their total cholesterol was reduced, their aortas functioned better and resveratrol seemed to moderate inflammation in the heart, the researchers said.

These mice also had better bone health than those not given the compound as determined by thickness, volume, mineral content and density, as well as reduced cataract formation in the eyes and better balance and motor coordination, the researchers said.

The genes of the mice given resveratrol were active in a way similar to mice on a very low-calorie diet previously shown to slow the aging process and extend life span in some animals.

The study was a follow-up to one published in 2006 showing resveratrol improved health and longevity of overweight mice.

De Cabo said while the new findings are promising, it would be premature for people to start taking resveratrol supplements to improve health, saying a potent compound like this might interact in uncertain ways with other drugs.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Beech)