Jul 25 2010
Red Wine May Truly Be a Wondrous Drug!
Living a longer life interests a lot of people who are not quite ready to give up their lives, just yet, and who look to sound alternatives to culturally conceived eating patterns and “health care.”
The upsides of imbibing wine have been touted for a while and are thought, by some, to be the reason why the French can get away with eating a high fat diet while enjoying a low rate of heart disease.
A few years ago, a study by French research team also discovered that men who regularly drank at least two glasses of wine every day were 50 percent less probable than non-drinkers to suffer a second heart attack.
Previous studies with yeast, a small species of worm, and fruit flies have proven that resveratrol — a polyphenol antioxidant found in grapes, particularly red grapes, and particularly pinot noir grapes which are grown in northern latitudes and used in wines coming from New York, Washington, and Oregon — is a compound which is life-extending.
In a recent study from Italy, resveratrol has been used to increase the life span of a short-lived breed of tropical fish by more than 50%. Not only did fish given resveratrol in their food live longer than the control group, they stayed livelier as they aged and displayed better memory in stimulus/response tests. And the neurons in their brains didn’t decay as quickly when they died and were dissected.
Resveratrol, an organic compound contained in the skins of grapes that protects them from disease, is extracted from grapes by the process in making wine. The wine becomes a preservative for the resveratrol and prevents its oxidation.
That’s why eating raisins or drinking grape juice doesn’t have the exactfinal result; the resveratrol has neither been preserved or extracted. There is also proof that resveratrol in food supplements oxidizes upon exposure to air and loses its effectuality.
Red wine may genuinely be a “wondrous drug!”
Other studies have proven that wine, especially red wine, can help prevent colds, increase the levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, lower the risk of Alzheimer’s, lower the number and size of fat cells in the body, lower the risk of prostate cancer, and has anti-inflammatory properties to boot.
Drug companies are trying to copy Red Wine that it may truly be a “wondrous drug!”, but might not be able to preserve it’s health-preserving benefits. Besides, resveratrol is freely available in red wine and can not be patented.
In Summation Red wine may truly be a “wondrous drug!” Not only has the resveratrol wine contains so far been proven to extend the life of yeast, worms, flies, and fish, other studies have shown that wine, and in particular red wine, can help prevent colds, increase the levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, lower the risk of Alzheimer’s, reduce the size and number of fat cells in the body, reduce the risk of prostate cancer, and has anti-inflammatory properties to boot.
