A glass a day keeps the doctor away

For a while now, we've known that a compound found in red wine called resveratrol has anti-inflammatory effects that could be beneficial in conditions such as heart disease and arthritis. It came to my attention originally as it is known to inhibit the cyclooxygenase (COX) enzyme family—which is how I pay my bills when I'm not writing for NI. In addition to blocking COX, resveratrol also blocks a pathway called NF-kB, a major component in the activation of many inflammatory genes. So far so good, and probably a reason why the French suffer from lower rates of cardiovascular disease than most other industrialized nations, despite eating lots of saturated fats.

But it seems that's not all that resveratrol does. It has also been known for quite some time that a low-calorie diet can extend lifespan, at least in rodents. This is achieved through the induction of a group of genes that encode the Sir2 family of NAD-dependent deacetylases. These enzymes help control and regulate the body's response to a low-calorie diet and influence fat metabolism, cell survival, insulin- and glucose production . All very interesting, but by now you're wondering what this has to do with red wine.

Quite a bit, as it turns out. An international team of scientists have discovered that resveratrol, in addition to its anti-inflammatory properties, is also a potent activator of SIRT1, one of the aforementioned genes involved in prolonging lifespan.

In vitro screening is one thing, actually working in vivo quite another, as many a chemist will tell you. In order to test whether resveratrol could walk the walk, a group of middle-aged mice were fed a high-calorie, high-fat diet containing resveratrol (HCR). Alongside were two control groups; one on a standard diet (SD), and another on the high-calorie diet but without the resveratrol (HC).

Normally, a mouse on a long-term high calorie diet will develop insulin resistance, much like the ballooning number of type II diabetics across the US. They also get fat, have problems with mobility, and develop fatty livers. All in all, they're not the healthiest mice in the world. As you would expect, the mice on the high-calorie diets gained weight, regardless of whether or not resveratrol was present.

Interestingly though, the mice on the resveratrol diet did not develop the same pathology normally associated with high-caloric intake. The HC mice started to die around 75 weeks of age, but the HCR mice remained as healthy as their SD controls, with around a 20 percent increase in lifespan compared to the HC mice. This extended lifespan was also accompanied by a general maintenance of fitness too. The HCR mice performed better on tests of motor coordination and balance than would be expected.

Although there aren't any clinical studies using resveratrol supplements in humans, already groups are working on developing synthetic compounds that might be even more efficacious than resveratrol. In the meantime, consider switching that nightly beer (or three) for an equivalent measure of red wine. You may well live to thank me.