Patriot Health Digest
Resveratrol is well known for its heart health affects. But what is not well known is that the compound is a “calorie restriction mimetic.” Which means that it leads your body to react just as it would if you greatly restricted your calorie consumption. Specifically, both calorie restriction and resveratrol lead to the activation of some proteins that can prolong your lifespan through a variety of mechanisms. But resveratrol does much more than that. A lot more.
1 — Antioxidant Effects
The most often supported benefit of resveratrol is that it acts as a potent antioxidant. Just as it safeguards plants from greater UV radiation, it also guards animal cells against UV-irradiation causing cell death.
2 — Effects on Sex Hormones
When given resveratrol, male rats showed signs of increased testosterone, probably through greater activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal-axis.
In other studies, resveratrol actually stops the enzyme (aromatase) that creates estrogen. It also latches onto estrogen receptors, but much less closely than estrogen does. Curiously, that could be a good thing. Because of this power, it might increase estrogen-like activity when estrogen is low and lower it when it is too high.
Beyond that, this ability means it can actually increase your testosterone levels by stopping testosterone from being converted into estrogen.
3 — Muscle Growth
It seems that resveratrol might also enhance some muscle-building pathways. At least this was seen in fish that got bigger when they got resveratrol.
It has also been shown to boost aerobic performance and muscle strength in rats.
4 — Anticancer Effects
Resveratrol also combats cancer. It has been proven, at least in some experiments, to inhibit all its three stages.
Research shows that it does more than simply act as a “chemoprotective” agent, but also shows chemotherapeutic properties linked with its anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, antioxidant, and pro-apoptosis (it leads to cancer cells killing themselves) properties.
Specifically, resveratrol has proven great promise in fighting prostate, colon, breast, cervical, and lung cancers.
5 — Neuroprotective Effects
Neurodegenerative illnesses like Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS can be devastating, but resveratrol has been revealed to play numerous neuroprotective roles to fight them.
This is probably due to resveratrol’s anti-inflammatory properties along with its anti-oxidant abilities, but also because of its power to help your mitochondrial function.
Author: Scott Dowdy
