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by W. H. Lindgren

Created on: August 05, 2010   Last Updated: January 18, 2011

Resveratrol may well be a wonderful supplement and has the potential to soon be proven a "wonder" compound in several different areas of human health. In an odd public relations reversal, studies proving that resveratrol has remarkable affects on animals, insects and in vitro cells have been dismissed and belittled because they do not involve human research. Actually, such is the normal, usual course of research and it makes literal scientific sense. Recent studies, however, have begun to test resveratrol on humans.

The Institute of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Portugal, recently established that dosages of the compound called "trans-resveratrol" are safe at several levels up to 150 mg per day. This also side-steps the issue of people drinking red wine as the standard source of resveratrol and risking the side-effects of alcohol consumption. People who choose not to drink wine can ingest safe doses of the supplement. Other common natural sources are grapes, peanuts, blueberries and cranberries, which are clearly unmeasurable amounts, although it is possible that the protective and positive effects may be available in the natural state. A previous study at Leicester University demonstrated that high dosages of resveratrol up to 5,000 mg per day are acceptable for humans.

Well controlled human studies are now underway. The Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research Centre at Northumbria University demonstrated that high doses of resveratrol increased blood flow in the brain, which can have important effects on brain health and various therapies. The State Univ. of New York at Buffalo reported that resveratrol "appears to suppress inflammation in humans, based on results from the first prospective human trial of the extract conducted by UB endocrinologists." It is also clear that other beneficial effects that were not part of the initial hypotheses for the studies have suggested further lines of research. The Albert Einstein College of Medicine investigated the effects of resveratrol on Type 2 Diabetes, and the positive results indicate that further studies with many more participants are necessary and warranted.

The initial interest in resveratrol was based on anecdotal claims and inferences from the perceived effects of red wine on the overall heart healthy contradiction known as the "French paradox." French people who eat rich, fatty foods, and also smoke, seem not to have the heart and lung disease(s) common to other populations. It appears as if one important factor is that they drink red wine.

The inferences led to actual research which substantiated many of the opinions about resveratrol as a phytoalexin prevalent in red wines. As the research became more and more positive, human clinical trials developed from the cellular, insect and small mammal studies that tended, generally, to be very positive. The initial human studies also appear to indicate that resveratrol does provide some of the healthy benefits attributed to the compound, whether as a nutritional supplement or from one of the natural sources.

It seems reasonably clear that resveratrol is a very useful dietary supplement. And it may become increasingly clear that the compound has the potential to be a "wonder" supplement that contributes substantially to human health.

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